This morning, Cheryl went out to check on Princess Mairsiedotes, and found her in the gated stall, the stall she is not supposed to go into.  The stall that holds all the hay, grain in a closed barrel, tack, etc.  She looked up from munching on the open bale of hay as if to say, “Good Morning”.

Cheryl led her out of the stall and shut the latch.  The next time she looked over, Mairsiedotes had unlatched the stall and was inside eating the hay again.  Cheryl led her out again and shut the latch, this time putting a wire through the lock hole and twisting it so she couldn’t get in again.  Cheryl admitted to me that she couldn’t help being proud of how smart Mairsiedotes is.

Later, at dusk, I took Mairsiedotes out of the corral to let her graze on some nice grass in the yard.  She loved that!  When it started getting too dark, I put her back in her open stall with some hay, and turned to go out of the corral.  I had forgotten to shut the gate though, and Princess Mairsiedotes was out of her stall and around me before I knew what was happening.

I hurried after her, but the faster I hurried, the faster she went.  I had flashbacks of when my shetland pony got loose in the alfalfa field one day and didn’t want to be caught.  I had visions of my neighbors and what they would say if I couldn’t catch her, and her galavanting around the neighborhood, through their flowerbeds.  Fortunately, she allowed me to catch up to her when I walked slowly.  I put the lead rope around her neck and coaxed her back into the corral and Cheryl shut the gate.

This horse is no dummy!  One look at her and anyone can see her intelligence.