Jumper?

As it turns out not only is Farm Girl's horse, Chase, very extremely herd bound but also a remarkable jumper.  We moved our miniature horses into a new pasture this morning but out of sight of Chase.  Chase is kept in his own "pasture".  I quote this because he grazes in temporary fencing and though we had that one bad experience, generally he is very safe in there and doesn't attempt to leave.  We chalked that event up to being new to the farm and feeling very unsettled.  He spends his day grazing contently within his small pasture with it's lush and plentiful grass.  But every now and then, he is struck with a bad case of herd bound(ness).  Not sure why.  It is inconsistent and sporadic.  But at any given moment he decides he needs to find the other horses.  They, of course, can live quite fine without him, thank you very much, so will ignore his attempts at calling out.  If I'm outside, I'll go into the goat shed and shew them outside to appease him or lure them out from behind a bush if that is where they have disappeared.

Today I was mowing and heard The Boy calling to me over the engine, pointing an excited finger to Chase's pasture.  He was at it again.  Running around crazy-like, calling out for Pixie and Blossom.  Farm Girl was off from work today, so I told The Boy to fetch her as I was busy.  She came out and went down to this pasture and attempted to calm him.  When he did not, she put him into the holding pen in order for him to calm down.  Once he did, he was allowed out of the pen and back into his pasture once again.  As I mentioned, the miniatures moved to another pasture with the goats which at one corner can have them disappear around the side of the house.  It was this flaw that excited Chase so much.  And no amount of cooling down in the holding pen was helping.  We watched him running around in there but weren't really worried.  After all, the holding pen is made up of 4 to 5 feet fencing with t-posts separated every four feet in some spots.  This was thanks to the sheep who continually found ways of escaping.

But I digress.  Being the owner of horses, I have seen them run top speed toward a fence and at the last second, pull on the breaks or turn swiftly.  As Chase turned toward the far end of the holding pen and started running at top speed for the opposite side, I whole-heartedly expected to see him coming to a halt.  After all, the only the place to go was through.  Then as he got closer and closer within mere feet, I knew he wasn't stopping.  I had horrible visions of him getting badly mangled as he barged through the fence.  But to our shock, he jumped.  Went sailing right over that 4 to 5 feet fence.  This fence.

He did catch his hoof on the top rail and took out a staple, but otherwise made it safely over.  It took some consoling and soothing to calm him and finally catch him, but at last we did.  And put up his portable pasture closer to Pixie and Blossom's new pasture.