Picture this: It's night, with only a tiny sliver of the moon visible. The stable is all but empty except for my mother and I. It was a great night.
We'd ridden earlier and brought Artemis in to run around the arena with her mother and Jimmy. We brought Jimmy out first and then because it was so cold, we decided to bring Socks and Artemis out at the same time since their gates are next to each other.
I led Socks, since I'm still pretty nervous leading Artemis outside because of my arm. When we got to Socks' pen, I took Artemis, just to hold onto her, while my mom let Socks go. There was a bit of leftover hay in front of Socks' pen so we were standing there, talking, as we let Artemis munch on it.
Ebony was waiting at the pasture gate. It was cute, she tends to come up with us when we catch Artemis and then wait the whole time for Artemis to come back out.
We could hear Ebony messing with the gate but we didn't really think about it because that horse is always chewing on something. Well I just happened to turn and look in time to see Ebony back up and then run, right into the gate. The gates flew open and her front left leg went through the gate. She hesitated for a second and then jumped back, pulling her leg out. While this was happening my mom and I were both silent, but each having a heart attack.
Ebony stood still, staring out at us. The gates were wide open but I think she was a little freaked out by everything that was happening. It was lucky for us. Immediatly my mom came forward, still walking but as quickly as she dared, spreading out her arms so Ebony couldn't get past her. I, dragging Artemis with me, also walked towards Ebony because the lane is pretty wide and she could just gallop around my mom and into the barnyard.
Ebony started to come forward but I ran forward to cut her off, and then she hesitated and took a step towards my mom. We both started speaking to her and calming her down. Artemis filled in the middle space between my mom and I, and as soon as Ebony saw her, she began to calm down. We managed to back her up and close the gates.
We had a flashlight with us so I looked her over. She was fine, I don't think she actually hit her leg on the gate, she just put it through and quickly pulled it back out. She was pretty freaked out so I couldn't get too close. We let Artemis go and then triple checked the gate as she left. The second I got home I sent out BO's an email.
We think she managed to get the chain around the gate off or at least loose, and then when she rammed into it, it pulled the chain out.
My mom and I never actually spoke to each other while trying to keep Ebony from escaping but we both had the same two thoughts, "Oh crap!" and "There is no way I'm chasing a black horse at night!" Of course, if Ebony had gotten out, that's exactly what we would have done.
The next time I saw T afterwards, she just laughed and said she wished she could have seen our faces when it happened.
Ebony is fine. A huge troublemaker but fine.
