It’s never a good sign when you wake up to an email from your Barn Owner with “The Horses are Fine” as the message heading. It means your horses have survived, but that they did their best to tempt fate.

This morning, all the horses were involved in a grand adventure, but Zelda was the one who really pushed the envelope.

It started around 5:30 a.m. when the sound of hoof beats — galloping hoof beats — woke the Barn Owners. They came down to the field to find that the horses were playing musical pastures. The fence that separates Curly and Zelda from Freedom and Willow had come down. They had switched sides and Freedom was now rocketing at warp speed around the pasture. When he hits fifth gear, he really flies.

In the meantime, Zelda and Curly continued their pasture hopping and managed to infiltrate the BO’s pasture to play with their horses. Zelda was delighted to have a bigger group to herd and took delight in tormenting the two geldings (who had thought it would be fun to have the girls over but soon realized their mistake).

The BOs got Curly back on the right side of the fence and then turned to get Zelda. But Zelda didn’t want to wait. She wanted to be with Curly. Right now. Her thought process on how to fix this problem was amazing and a bit scary. I knew she was smart, but still . . . First she walked up to the fence and grabbed the top rail with her teeth. Apparently, she has figured out that she can slide the rail out of some of the sections of the fence. This one was nailed in. She pawed in frustration, backed up and ran at the fence, which is about 4′ tall.

The first time, she pulled up short. Yes, that was only the first time. Not satisfied with her approach, she turned and trotted down to the far end of the field to give herself more momentum. She then turned, galloped, and launched herself at the fence. She almost cleared it. But not quite. Luckily, the fence came down and the only thing broken were the rails.

By the time I got there, the horses were no longer lathered. They were still amped up (the wind was very strong today) and they were enjoying their “new” paddocks. After feeding them, I checked them all and, much to my relief, everyone was fine.

I put them back where they belonged and spent the next couple of hours adding electric tape to the fence in between the paddocks. If Zelda has figured out how to disassemble the fence, she needs a good deterrent — such as electrical current. I also had a long talk with her about not jumping the fences again. But I could tell that she wasn’t listening. She was much more interested in whether the fencing supplies I’d brought with me were edible.

I’d like to think she learned her lesson but I’m afraid that the only thing she learned was either to jump higher or that she’s big enough to destroy most fences.

Here’s to an uneventful Sunday.