In which Tim chases a horse through the jungle...

My horse is a pest. We've been working on getting warmed up to each other. It is a little hard given my lack of knowledge of the equine world, and the fact that he doesn't like anyone telling him what to do. I thought things were going alright, until I recently went to move him to a spot with fresh grass, and found him gone. The rope that I had used to tie him up was certainly still there, but there was no horse attached to it.

I was with a friend who knew about this kind of thing, and he informed me confidentally that we would find the beast in no times. He had been parked on the bank of the river, and there were relatively fresh tracks leading up stream, so we followed. The tracks kept going for a while, and then they cut into the woods. We bushwacked our way in, doing our best to keep the trail. I should also mention that it was raining decently hard. After about a quarter mile of following goat tracks through woods, we came to the highway. It became clear to my companion at this point that the horse was headed for a spot on top of one of the mountains where an entire herd of horses lives and is allowed to roam pretty freely within several square miles of orange groves. So do we turn tail, go home, and plan to find him when it is not raining? Of course not. We follow that sucker up the mountain. Had it not been for the rain, it actually might have been kinda fun. We were tracking a stray horse through the jungle! I felt like I was in a movie.

Two hours later after a lot of climbing, shivering, sneaking up on groups of horses to try to spot mine, and failing, we did eventually give up.

I had a friend visiting me in my community, and I had told her that I would be back from moving the horse in about ten minutes. Three hours later I showed up soaking and grumpy. Let this be a warning to anyone planning to visit me...

Three days later the horse was found and brought back. I am taking a firmer hand with him now.