OK, so when I wrote the blog yesterday I thought the new steer was in the corral still with Lars. I was wrong. Looked out the window to see how Lars and the new steer were doing, saw Lars pacing the corral and then saw the herd running. Dang it that steer hadn't scaled the wall and had gotten loose. Jack, Robbies 17 year old mule, believes that the pasture is his domain and does not care for intruders. He'd chased the steer, who jumped out of the pasture and into our hayfield. So much for getting a new steer to help make things less complicated ( we got him in hopes that he would settle Lars down and stop Lars from going to visit the neighbors cows.) Robbie headed down to try to get the steer back up towards the barn while I called Terry ( he's an neighbor- he sold us the steer) to see if he could come and help. I'm at the house with Hunter, watching Robbie slowly maneuver the steer closer to the barn. Just as they got out of sight, I heard a horrible commotion, metal panels banging and clanging! I though, 'why would the steer jump into the panels?' then realized that it wasn't the steer, but two horses that were turned out in those panels and the steer must have spooked them. Yikes!! I left Julie in charge of Hunter and I went racing down to the barn. Fortunately the horses were fine. Long story short, both Terry and Rob had to come to get this guy caught. We tried for awhile, but he kept running back into the grove of hemlocks next to our outdoor riding arena. We opened up some panels on a corral nearby, and finally got him chased in there. Then Terry and I both got a lasso on him, made a headstall and frog marched him to the old barn, where he is now residing in a set of stanchions. Hopefully after a week or two we can turn him out with Lars again, and when they go to pasture Jack will have to wear hobbles for awhile.

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