In which Leo decides to make his own pasture arrangements

I briefly mentioned in my last post that Leo has a new girlfriend - my neighbor's grey Arab mare. The property that I live on is actually a subset of a larger 12-acre farm, so the massive pasture "next door" is owned/maintained by my landlord, and the mare is his sister's horse.

The hussy herself

Last night, I went out to feed Leo before work, and quickly realized that although he had been in his pasture 2 hours before (when I had gotten home from CEC) he wasn't there now. That realization was followed almost immediately by the knowledge that my neighbor's fancy grey mare was ALSO no longer hanging out in her usual spot (aka right next to the fence, seducing Leo with her wiles). 

At least she's cute, dude.

I jumped into the car and drove up the rode to my neighbor's house, and spent a good 5 minutes banging on various doors before deciding that no one was home. Panicked, I called my landlord, hoping that he could get in touch with his dad (who lives in the house) or his sister (who, again, owns the mare). I was driving back to my house, thinking about taking a trek through the woods to try and find the two miscreants, when my landlord answered my call. He suggested that I go back up to my neighbor's house and check behind the barn (they have to have like 10 acres of adjoining pastures up there - it's very confusing, but also very awesome.

As I pulled back into my neighbor's driveway again, the two little shits came trotting around the corner of the barn, happy as clams. I was still on the phone with my landlord (J), and we decided that since I had to had to leave for work soon, the best plan for the night was probably to leave Leo where he was because neither of us particularly wanted him to jump any more 5' fences that day. 

B is home!!!

With a mixture of extreme annoyance and extreme relief, I headed back to my house - where B had literally just pulled into the driveway. Good timing, B. I filled him in on the situation while helping him unpack, then had to tragically leave for work while he went to walk the fence line to confirm whether or not Leo had jumped (spoiler alert - he did) and take him his evening grain. 

Leo has four OTHER new roommates - mini donkeys!

I was at work for about an hour when J's sister B gave me a call to talk about the situation. She thought it was a little hilarious - apparently the mare, whose name is Saja, has never really been obsessed with another horse like this before and typically does perfectly fine on her own. We agreed that the best plan was to keep them together; neither of us wants them to get hurt, and it's not a huge change to have Leo moved one pasture over. She gave me permission to come and go from their barn as I please in order to feed Leo, and eventually the two of them will probably rotate back into my back yard pasture. I also got permission (!!!!) to set up jumps and ride on the big flat plateau in one of their fields - the one that I drool over every time that I drive past. 

In summary, Leo is a giant asshole who gets away with whatever he wants happier with Saja than he was with the bonus ponies, and although I can no longer (for the moment) look out my back window to see him, he's still on the property and is basically still in my back yard. Also, he jumped a 5' fence (that is kind of set into the side of a hill) and is totally fine. Because that's how life works, right? Logically.

I have no idea what we're going to do when it's time to move Spring out here.