Escaping, Eating, and Earphones
Tuesday Hanson

When I first saw my horse, Tommy, I new I wanted him. He was the perfect size, color, and had the perfect personality! After my friend’s mom bought him she decided that Tommy was too much of a trouble maker for her, but I liked him…so I bought him. My mom agreed to let me buy him if I paid for him, which was going to be hard considering I was only 10 years old at the time but I knew it was worth it.

Anyway, we brought him home and put him in the stall closest to our house. Our smaller barn is extremely secure so we were almost 100% sure that he wouldn’t escape…but of course he did. It all started late that night when I heard a loud noise coming from the barn, I was scared because I thought that one of the other horses wouldn’t like him and that maybe they got in a fight.

I ran outside with my flashlight only to see Tommy standing in the yard! So I decided to put him in the field and investigate what went on in the barn. I walked in only to see the lock that secured his door broken on the ground, the clip snapped, the stall door open, and the barn door open. My jaw dropped, I couldn’t believe that he had done that…it looked like some super buff ultra man had come into our barn and broke our stuff and let my horse go! The stereo that was perched on top of my tack box was on the floor, my brush box spilled, and most of our grain missing. To this day I’m not sure if Tommy is responsible for the damage but I have a hunch that he is:-).

Just like Tommy’s first troublesome experience with eating over a half a sack of grain, this second one also made him sick. I had owned him for two years now so when I set up my picnic I knew we had to be careful or Tommy would crash it! So my friends and I had it ALL set out in the back of our field and Tommy was roaming around so we kept an eye on him. Anyway, all of a sudden my dogs started fighting! It was scary because when our dogs fight it’s usually not play fighting. I told my friends to stay there and keep an eye on Tommy while I broke up the fight. I ran over to the kennel and I tried breaking up the fight by throwing rocks at them but it didn’t work so I called Ashley over to help me. I thought that since Ashley and Paige were over that it would only take one of them to keep an eye on Tommy. Ashley ran over with a broom... and then Paige started screaming. I was like, “Oh great”.

 

Ashley said that she could take care of the dogs and that I should see what was wrong with Paige. I headed towards the field only to see that Tommy was eating our food! I ran out to the field and tried to shoo him away. I wasn’t trying to be mean but I was just upset about the dogs fighting and then having Tommy ruin our picnic made it worse! Once he jogged off I started screaming at Paige, “You’re so stupid! How could you!? Do you have any idea how long this took to set up!? Urgh!” Once I realized what I had done and saw Paige run off I felt horrible. My picnic was ruined, my friend was mad at me, and my dogs were hurt. I just decided to clean up the mess and go to my room for the rest of the day. I walked over to the mess to discover that Tommy had eaten three half eaten hamburgers, some of my potato salad, and my jelly beans! Ever since then I’ve kept a special eye out for where I leave my stuff and how I treat my friends :-(.

The third unusual thing that Tommy did was ate my earphones! I was brushing Tommy before a show and my mom told me to run up to the sign in stand and get my number. I should’ve thought before I acted but I set my CD player and earphones on the wheel guard of our horse trailer and ran off. When I got back my earphones were gone! I asked my mom where they went and she shrugged. I was mad because they were brand new and just the kind I’d been looking for; you know…those cool ones that fit right in your ear. Anyway, I thought that maybe I misplaced them and that they would show up in a few hours but I was wrong. I showed in my classes and went home disappointed. Not only had I lost my favorite pair of earphones but I got last place in my Western Pleasure class because I got the wrong lead…twice! A few days later I found my earphones in a pile of poop! Tommy had eaten them whole and pooped them out! I was so mad! I cleaned them off and stuff and you know what…they didn’t work, of course.