THUNDER BAY — The owner of a local equestrian centre was shocked to learn her herd had escaped on Friday morning.
A video of the seven escapees was posted to social media, but Ruth Wolsiffer, owner of Barnyard Friends, said she isn't on the computer.
Luckily, she received multiple phone calls that her herd of ponies and horses had escaped down Mapleward Road.
"So I got the phone call and we went out and they were on their way back already,” she said.
“We just lassoed the one, and my neighbour came and helped me and they just wandered back into the home.”
Without her neighbours' calls she said she may not have noticed the herd was gone until it was too late.
“They have got a 25-acre paddock, and they go to the very back during the day. I would not have even noticed them missing until maybe lunchtime.”
Last year, following a barn fire, the equestrian centre was forced to install temporary fencing that proved to be faulty in spots, she said.
“When the demolition of the barn came down, we put this fencing up and I forgot to go back and chain the other end,” she said.
“It was only with bailor twine, and the horses just literally pushed their way out and went for a walk.”
Thankfully, the herd of horses did not travel far, moving only slightly down Mapleward Road and avoiding fast-paced early morning traffic, she said.
“Especially early in the morning, people going to work, they fly down here. It's only 60 kilometres, but nobody does 60 except those of us that live here... So it was an accident waiting to happen.”
Wolsiffer said it was a race to find all seven members of the herd.
“There would have been really upset people if they were gone, but luckily nothing happened and everything was good,” she said.
Once the herd was back in their paddock, Wolsiffer said it was easy to reattach the fencing with a chain.
“You figure you are going to go back there, but then other things come up, and then you forget about it,” she said.
“I went back there today and it is all chained up and ain't going nowhere now.”
