Sangria CAUSED the Chaos

At 2:00 am I woke up not knowing why as it was just 3 hours from the time I went to bed.  Then I heard a noise that made my heart start to pound. It was the sound of breaking boards and screaming stallions. Grabbing a flashlight and slipping shoes on as quickly as possible It was just seconds before I reached Evan's paddock and sure enough Valiant had crashed through not only the electric fence, he had shattered the boards and was out for the kill.

I grabbed the cane and chained lead rope, and ran to the break, Evan saw me and was desperately trying to come but when he got to the broken boards he was sure the electric fence was still on and slammed on the brakes falling, Valiant right behind him slammed into Evan but didn't fall, instead he had his teeth bared and was trying to take a hunk out of Evan's back. The chain was swung at him, he backed off, Evan jumped up took off for the back of the paddock. His electric gate and big gate were quickly opened and when he saw that he took off for me again this time darting behind me as I faced Valiant and conked him a good one on the nose with the cane. Valiant all of a sudden realized who was fighting him and was shocked that it was a person, he ran to the back of the paddock knowing he was in big trouble.  The gate was quickly shut and I ran to the break in the boards and tried to put up a barrier quickly before leaving to grab Evan who had run over to the middle paddock. That is when I saw how the entire episode happened. The gate going into the far shelter was WIDE open. I could see that Missy and her filly were still in the paddock but no other horses.  Evan was grabbed, the gate was shut then Evan put in a stall before heading over to Valiant's paddock to see what damage had been done there. That paddock was perfect it was the big red heavy gate going into the field that had been lifted off the hinges and dragged partly into the field still attached to the other post with the chain AND the rope. Sangria was as happy as could be grazing in Valiant's field. She is in season and I wasn't going to breed her this year. She took it upon herself to make sure that happened. I'm not sure HOW she got the chain off the gate in her paddock but somehow she did, then promptly ran over to bother her boyfriend Valiant.  If there is a mare in season right next to his pasture or paddock he will not respect even the strongest electric fence.  The back gate and electric fence were shut on Valiant's paddock, Sangria was led over to the breeding shed and locked in that paddock before Valiant was moved back into his own paddock. I still needed to find the missing mares and was hopeful that none of the rest had discovered the open gate. BUT that wasn't to be. These black horses are really hard to find at night when no moon is out.  While hiking down the field to check on Indy and Oksana, Jenis came up and right over as if to say, "let me in, I'm thirsty." Behind her I could see another horse, this time a gray so I knew Soul and her colt were also out.  Jenis was grabbed and put back in the middle paddock. Soul followed but her colt didn't get through the gate behind her so she needed to be taken back out of the middle paddock until her colt re-attached to his mama. I spent another 20 minutes looking for the other 3 mares and foals but gave up and came to bed around 3:00 am. This morning I can see Tatiana, her colt along with Zalena and her colt in Valiant's pasture, the one with the gate dragged into the field. Now I'm just missing Tory, who may or may not be still in the middle paddock/ pond pasture OR in Valiant's pasture. Thankfully none of these mares are in season.  It was REALLY hard to get out of bed this morning and Mark was greeted with, "you feel like fixing fences today?"