OMG

There are certain things you never want to hear over a telephone line.


 "Hmm, well, this is Dr. Shapiro from the Emergency Room."



"Yes, Police Officer Castro here - do you own an (exact description of the vehicle you thought was parked in front of your place)?"


"Er, Mom? Yeah, well, there's been a little accident...."



But one I hadn't considered before today is, "Okay, honey, I'm home, but the horses are loose."

For those of you who don't know me, I normally hesitate before mentioning my horses. Because it sounds, well, arrogant. Snotty. Upper-brow. High society. Even to me, when people mention having, in particular, horses, the picture is of a snug stable, cross-ties and white-fenced arenas.

My horses? Out in the open, with one small (and inadequate) roofed shelter. Grungy winter coats, muddy pens. Fed loose hay outside. And only two are mine - I'm horse-sitting SIX for a friend who is overseas for another two years.

My husband, bless his heart, is NOT a horse person at all (he says he can't trust an animal that outweighs him).

So, still forty minutes away from home, tightly griping the cell phone while my mind is madly racing through all possibilities (which with six different horses on eight acres is a LOT)...

And thinking of solutions which a non-horse-savvy person can actually DO...

When I hear, "Oh, well, they just ran back in the pen by themselves."

This is NOT good for my 56 year old heart.