A Voice in the Darkness

A couple of evenings ago I was sitting in the living room working on proofing my blog post about Storm when my concentration was shattered by the call of a horse. Normally there would be no horse voices from that direction at this time of the night since my horses always go in before dark at this time of the year.

The  horses across the street do talk to our horses when they see them believing they are all part of the same herd and that is where this voice seemed to be. Yet, there shouldn't have been any reason for conversation if all my horses were in the barn where they belonged. This whinny set alarm bells off for me.

I asked Dave if he would check horses for me, worried that one of my escape artists had made a run for it. While  we live in the country, our farm is only about 500 feet off of the most dangerous highway in our state. Out by the barn, traffic can be heard at all hours. Even in the wee morning hours, the noise of vehicles whizzing by can be heard.

It is the most threatening aspect of where we are located. I didn't occur to me the jeopardy WA Highway 161 represented when we bought this farm but not a day goes by I don't think about it now so I was intent on being sure we had no loose horses.

Dave tends to think I worry too much so he was inclined to dismiss my concern but he has been in the doghouse lately for just such transgressions. His face read " oh dear God, give me a break. I'm trying to cook dinner." however, his self preservation instincts must have kicked in because he caught himself mid sentence and changed gears to "Do you want me to go out to check the horses?".  When I responded in the affirmative, he quickly added he would go out momentarily once his meal preparations were at a safe point to do so.

As he hurried to finish up, I heard another loud trumpet  from a horse. This one was more urgent than the first. I could tell from its tone there was definitely something unusual going on but I just couldn't imagine what that might be other than a horse out where it didn't belong.

I encouraged Dave to hurry telling him this second disruption of the night's silence had only fueled my concerns. I don't know if his own alarms were kicking in or if he was just trying to appease me but he did pick up the pace and headed out the back door leaving me tending dinner......something that doesn't happen often since I am unable to stand for more than a few minutes before doubling over with pain.

It was hard not to follow him. I hate not knowing what is happening with my horses but I knew if there was a problem, me being there would only add to the issue. I would have to trust Dave to fix whatever needed fixing.

To be continued..........

Complications