So, yesterday did not go precisely as we planned it. The day went wonderfully. I was so motivated through all of my classes, in the morning with my homework/blog... everything. It was a perfect first day of October.
I got home and Clark quickly got ready, not realizing what time it was, and then we drove out to Cove Creek Farm. It's about a ten to fifteen minute drive, so we talked and I was even more excited and a little anxious and we were just ready to be there!
Well, we got there and the gentleman in charge had left to drive one of the guys to Charlotte. One of the oldest guys said we could still ride or at least be with the horses, and he then showed us where everything was. I suggested to Clark that we just let the horses get used to us, since they obviously aren't ridden that often at all.
We entered their pen/paddock/pasture (what have you) and slowly approached them. They kind of trotted around us to another spot when we got close, and I was about to touch the stallion when the mare started trotting off into the tree line and he then followed. I was getting kind of depressed, but I suppose I should have expected something like this and brought treats of some kind with me to bribe them with.
Clark decided we should follow them into the tree line. I said we wouldn't have anywhere to go if they got skittish, so let's not worry about it. Let's just try another day. He said we were there for the horses, so we're going to spend time with the horses. Fine. We followed them into the tree line.
We walked slowly not wanting to startle them or anything, and I started asking Clark if he could see them. I was walking one way and looked to my left to watch a dog that had been following us, and immediately stopped.
"Oh. Hello," I said.
Facing me was a cow.
"It's a cow," I said rather stupidly.
"That's not a cow," Clark sounded a bit worried. "That's a bull."
It was then that I noticed he had horns.
I decided I couldn't deal with a cow and pleaded to turn around.
"No. Let's keep going."
So we kept walking under Clark's command... but then the thing came near me. I was wearing a hoodie with red lettering on it, and not knowing if bulls actually dislike red or not, I decided to cover it with my arms just in case. I stood rather awkwardly and it came up to me and nudged me. Knowing the thing had horns, I started to back away. It preceded to follow me and began liking the side of my jeans/hoodie.
"Clark. We need to go. I can't handle this."
Getting a little frightened himself, Clark positioned himself between me and the bull as I started to walk away. As we started to walk.... the bull followed us.
"Emily. Emily, what is it doing? Emily, he keeps nudging me. EMILY."
Clark sounded incredibly worried. I didn't turn around... I was too afraid to see the thing following us. I kept reassuing Clark that he had to be calm. Animals can sense when you're nervous and it makes them nervous. He needed to be calm. Apparently, which I did not see, the thing kept nudging Clark and his horns got caught under Clark's jacket. I heard him kind of stumble and turned around for a split second to see Clark's hand go to his pocket where he had his knife.
"Clark. Get your hand off your knife! If you tried to do anything to it, it would just piss it off!"
He told me to walk faster. As I did, I heard the bull starting to run. I had to turn around, not knowing if it was coming straight at me or what. No. It was circling us. It ran around the side of us (we were now in open field, about 200 yards away from the barn) and stopped in front of us and literally did the stupid foot stomping thing and started to run our direction.
Then the dog that I had been watching previously when we met the bull was still with us. It ran at the bull and began barking and growling at it, leading it away from us and giving us time to get through the first gate of the barn.
The dog followed us as we were chaining up the fence, but apparently the hinges were put on wrong with the gate and that's why we had to tie it up. We came through the barn and closed the other gate, not worrying about tying it up to begin with. We shared our problem with the three guys that were now crowded around the gate, exclaiming our frustration at the fact that they didn't tell us they had a bull.
"He was friendly a week ago," one said.
"He's still friendly," another said.
"He's a stupid bull. No bull is friendly," I said.
"Well, Odie's sweet most of the time. He just likes to play. When he plays he doesn't know his own size," one said.
"He was not trying to play," Clark said. "If it wasn't for the dog we would've been in serious trouble."
"Yea," another said. "Skeeter's good at that kind of thing."
As we were all standing around talking, the bull (who we now knew was named "Odie"), decided he still wanted to "play" and began charging the gate we had initially went through and chained. He succeeded in pulling it off the hinges, briefly getting it caught on his horns. As he did, we started chaining the other one.
"What good is this going to do? That one was on wrong, this one is on wrong..." Clark sounded worried.
"He'll get tired. He won't come through this one," one said, but we could all hear the hesitation in his voice.
"I think it's time to go," Clark proclaimed.
Skeeter followed us all the way back to our car and watched us as we drove off, clearly concerned about us. That dog is my new best friend.
We drove home with our hearts pumping and the biggest adrenaline rushes you could possibly imagine. We kept talking about it, until Clark declared we needed to stop because he wasn't going to be able to sleep.
"I've never been afraid of anything for twenty-two years," he looked at me, "but I was afraid of that damn bull."
We went out to eat early as a reward for surviving the day. It was dreadful, but it's easy to laugh about now. I started giving Clark a guilt trip about two hours following, saying how we didn't get to ride and how I'm not going back there because of the stupid bull and how it's not fair because the horses were so beautiful and how mad I was that the gentleman didn't take better care of them....
Well, Clark's making plans for us to go riding at real riding stables on Monday after my classes. Hopefully that goes smoother, since there won't be a bull in the picture.
It truly is a crazy story. If I heard it from someone else, it probably wouldn't sound as dreadful as it does because I experienced it, and I might role my eyes and say, "Ummm...yea...ok." But, truthfully, this was one of those experiences. When it's happening, you're trying to think as quickly as possible about what you're going to do in the worst circumstance. I was so glad to have Clark there with me, but surprisingly enough-- I think I was a tiny bit calmer than he was. Don't tell him that, though. If anything he was just more concerned because he was afraid of something happening to me ;).
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