surely not more rain

I thought we'd had our fair share of flooding in the last 12months, apparently not. Heavy rain, and warnings of flash flood was today's forecast. Fantastic.

I'm not going to argue with the weatherman, as i stood in the gathering darkness, and pouring rain, with water trickling through ever seam of my now not waterproof raincoat, i did dearly wish the weatherman had been wrong.

Why is it the the way of the world that it seems to throw me challenges in fading light and wretched weather. Nothing ever goes wrong on beautiful sunny days, but throw in weather warnings and the chance of flash floods, life will always chuck in a couple more challenges just to make everything that much more exciting.

On the weekend we had some heavy rains, which managed to wash out and snap the fence along the back side of the farm, excellent. This happened to be the border of the stallions paddock, and although we moved him onto a new paddock, one fence connected to the fence that was down, and while still intact, didn't have full tension on the wires.

now Matai has been in that paddock all week no problems. There is still an electric wire around the top, which should of kept him in. But alas, the fencing unit broke, so the electric fencing was off. But Matai is an angel and usually very good with fencing. Of course though not today.

I went off to ride the horses, that i ride off-property for clients, and to pick up a new fencing unit. It was a bitter afternoon, riding in the cold rain on spooky horses, that weren't even mine.Needless to say i by the time i got home, i wasn't pleased to find a little brown stallion standing nonchalantly on the other side of the fence next to the rapidly rising stream.

Now this wouldn't be so bad but there is no gate to where the stallion was standing, he had i assumed climbed through the fence as no wire were broken, into an area where we never have stock, the fence is their for the sole purpose of keeping animals away from the stream.

So how to get him back?? there were two options, either walk him up the rapidly rising stream in the dark, or try and get him to go back through the fence... The stream is pretty high in places, and trying to negotiate my way with a horse through deep spots and submerged logs, didn't sound like fun, so i decided on the fence option.

Haltering matai, i then pointed him at the fence, and hoping for a miracle, gave him the single to go forward. He took one look at the fence directly in front of his face and turned gave me a look that obviously said 'no comprehendo'. I tried everything, holding the wires as high as i could against the tension and trying to guide him under with my other hand, he tried as hard as he could to figure out what i was asking, but we were at stalemate, he had no idea what on earth the crazy women in the rain was asking him to do...

Standing there soaked and gumboots slowly filling with water,I literally wanted to scream in frustration, not at the horse, but just at life and the weather gods in general. Why was i always, a 22yr old girl, stuck on the farm alone, in the rain, in the dark, with problems, broken fences and horses to take care of?? My next thought was to prop the fence up with boards high enough so Matai could easily walk under.

so i started off, ducking back under the fence, lumping along in my water filled gumboots. I hadn't gone 5metres, when i heard the wires stretch, and turned to see the wild stallion, push the wires up and walk right under the fence back to the safe side. Huh, well that was easy, why he couldn't figure that i before i will never know. Matai safely back where he needed to be i recaptured him and his paddock mate, taking them away from the stream and to the safely of the barn for the night. Problem solved, now as long as my house doesn't wash away in the night, i will just have to fix the fence in the morning..

I wish that was it, it was completely dark and pouring by the time i got inside, after putting covers on the other 10 horses, locking the sheep and the pony in the shed together, i had to rescue my mothers new former battery hens, who have about the same amount of common sense as Paris Hilton, and were to be found sitting in the middle of their coop on the ground in the rain. At least they are sweet girls and all i had to do was life them into the shed. Sometimes though days like today on the farm, feel like a very bad day at the office.