Almost Neigh-Kid Hot Tubbing

Nova galloped straight towards me, eyes wide and frightened in the moonlight. I waved my arms and shouted at her to veer around the edge of the trampoline. I was shaking. It could have been from both fear and cold, as I stood barefoot, my bikini dripping a steady stream of water and sweat, as my horse closed the distance to the edge of the buried trampoline. Just minutes before, we'd all been in the hot tub, soaking up some much needed hot water therapy. It's our favorite time of the day. It's our version of “around the table.” We catch up on each other's day, and strategize for the next one. Earlier that morning, we had turned out a new horse that we are boarding to the others. There had been the usual spats getting their pecking order figured out. Nova, my new “mid-life achievement,” had been totally unbothered and uninterested in the the new horse. Meanwhile, Dakota, the queen of the pasture, was not nearly so happy with another subject to rule over. She'd fussed and stomped and expressed her displeasure most of the afternoon. Even now we could still hear her snorting in the darkness. “I can't believe she's still so mad!” my oldest exclaimed after an especially loud snort. The pasture borders our yard, but it isn't real close to the hot tub, so she was really making noise. The snorts and knickers continuously got louder. Then a dark shadow shifted in the dim moonlight. Nova was standing about 15 feet away from the hot tub—in the yard, near to our trampoline that was sunk to ground height. My heart thudded out of my chest as I imagined her spooking and stepping into that hole, breaking a leg. At that second, one of the dogs came around the corner of the house and started to bark. The next few seconds were a blur, as my husband sprinted from the hot tub to collect the dogs, and I tried to quickly get to trampoline before she did. I'd reached the edge of the mat the same time our second dog came bombing into the yard at full speed. Nova turned and headed straight towards me. “Oh please, oh please stay off the trampoline,” I prayed. What took a fraction of a second seems emblazoned on my memory in intense detail. Ten feet, I could see the whites of her eyes. Eight feet, the water running down my legs is making the trampoline slippery. Six feet, I'm barefoot in front of a thousand-pound animal. I closed my eyes and Nova skidded sideways at the last second. I let out a gasp of air I didn't know I was holding—only to suck it back in with a little scream seconds later. When we first purchased our home, it's secondary source of heat was a diesel furnace. There had been water in the tank, so we had never used it, and it has since been removed. However, the old tank is still buried in our yard. With a fairly large metal lid covering the fill spout. Nova had hit that lid smack-dab in the center with her back hoof and broke through. I didn't dare leave the trampoline, as by now I see the other horses are also in our yard, so I just stand horrified as Nova is stuck in the lid. My oldest has by now reached me, and like a runner in a relay race, I leave him on the trampoline as I head off into the dark to get a lead rope. By the time I'd gotten back, Nova had stepped out of the hole with the securely fastened around her leg, clanking every time she moved. Her eyes had been wide before, but now looked like frog eyes. I had dropped the halter somewhere in my run, so I just wrapped the lead rope around her neck and pressed my bikini-clad body into chest. She was trembling and starting to sweat. My husband couldn't get the lid off her hoof. Each time he pulled on it, I prayed “Please don't let her go through a fence... please don't let her step on my feet...” He finally called a friend, and together, they were able to cut the lid to extract her leg—which surprisingly wasn't injured. The second it was off, she stopped pushing so hard against me, her eyes became more gentle, and as I led her back to the pasture, she was already nuzzling me for treats she was sure I must have hidden in my bikini. Forty-five minutes later, we were back in the hot tub. “Well,” my husband said, sinking low into the hot swirling water, “ We don't have to worry about bad dreams tonight—we've already had our night-mare.”