Valiant Scare

As we were leaving for church I noticed Valiant doing something weird. He was standing by the gate, stomping his back hoofs and slowly spinning around and around. I called to him but he ignored me. Mark suggested putting him in a stall and staying home from church. I took the first suggestion and in my Sunday clothes led him out of the field and into the stall barn giving him a flake of hay and checking to make sure his water bucket was filled. I watched him on the monitor all the way to church. He was pacing in the stall and stomping but seemed to settle down.  My first thought was he must be uncomfortable and was hoping he wasn't colicky. After the first service I turned the camera back on but couldn't see him in the stall. There is a blind spot on that camera so I thought maybe he was up against the wall and asked Karin to check on him. The second service was about to start to the phone was put away and I didn't even think about him at all until the end of the service when I noticed my phone going off. Karin left a message that she got to the farm and Valiant along with Ayanna, Indy and Rosalie were all loose. There were broken boards but none of the horses were hurt. She put Valiant back in with Galena and put the 3 mares in the indoor arena.  We arrived home and as soon as I changed ran out to check on Valiant. He seemed fine, no colic and there was no sign of any broken doors in the barn so we are not sure how he got out. One of the sliders was open about a foot so we are not sure how he got the latch undone.  Maybe he kicked the door and caused the latch to snap open.
We put the 3 mares in Raven's old paddock. Of course all of this happened as it was pouring down rain.  By the time everyone was situated Karin and I were pretty frozen. We both went to mom's house to work on a new puzzle. At 4:00 pm Mark and I left for Good Tequila's where we were meeting the kids for dinner.  After dinner we went to Sarah and Nolan's where she had gingerbread houses all ready for the kids to decorate. They had a ball. By the time Braelyn finished her house was so loaded with icing and candy we could hardly see the house.

IF you would like to see the rest of the pictures from tonight click HERE. We had a couple pictures come in from the lady that bought Sally's colt by Raven born Sept 4th, 2013. He turned out GORGEOUS! Thanks Tabitha for sending along the pictures. 

Raven was such an amazing sire throwing himself more than the mare that was bred to him. Phoenix looks all Friesian. This makes today worth keeping the boys, even when they get out and break down fences.