Ghosts of Horses Past in Salem Part 3

Part 1

I found the night watchman out behind the darkened show horse barns. When I flagged him down, he looked at me like I was some kind of nut. He had no idea what "savaging a mare" meant. I had to break my terminology down into layman terms to get him to understand.

Once I got it through to him what the Arabian horses were doing, I could see he was immediately overwhelmed. He wanted to call the show manage but I insisted I need his help now. I instructed him to come with me so we could access the situations. Then we'd decide what to do.

Running across the floor of the Pavilion, I could still hear the horses screaming. At this point the sound of those two voices gave me some reassurance. There were two voices telling me they were both still alive. I was grateful for that. I sure hope we could do something to keep them that way.

As we came up to the stalls, both horses crashed at the stall fronts. The portable barn shook like it might even collapse. The mare was coming for help and the stallion was lunging at the walls as if attacking us too. He didn't want anyone or anything to interfere with his plans for this mare.

As the portable barn shook, without thinking or talking to me, the security guard unlatched one of the stall doors. No sooner had he clicked that latch and both horses burst through the opening. The force threw the watchman backwards and the horses were free, galloping loose on the fairgrounds.

The guard recovered his balance and went in hot pursuit of the horses. I remembering looking at him running after them wondering what he thought he was going to do. There was no way he was going to catch them like that.

I also remember thinking what in the h*ll were we going to do. Before I followed him, I grabbed a couple of halters with lead ropes. There was no way we were going to get things under control without those.

At first the horses ran out of the Pavilion and away from the barns but something turned them and brought them racing back into the building. They raced down one aisle into a dead end only to turn and run back out again. I don't remember how many times they zig-zagged through that building before I even caught up with the guard who thought he could catch them chasing after them that way.

It was like a scene out of some horror movie.The whole time the horses were racing like the devil himself was after them with their flight instinct turned on full force. They were beyond thinking running totally off of their instincts. Herd dynamics kept them together to fend off this unseen foe.

The stallion would be in the lead with the mare following despite the fact that moments before he had been trying to kill her. If the mare did get in front of the stallion he was still trying to attack the mare but that didn't stop her from wanting to be with him.

Even with her life in jeopardy from that stallion, the mare's instincts still told her when she was that frightened to stay with her herd............and that stallion was her herd. He was her killer and her savior all rolled into one. Getting these two horses separated wasn't going to be easy.

As I heard the horses slipping and falling as they raced across the asphalt, my mind began to form a plan. I knew we had to get the horses contained somewhere. I caught up with the guard and told him what we needed to do.

To be continued.......

Part 4

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