Surprise, Surprise

OK, I would never expect to find what Mosey and I found yesterday while riding….a pony.  A brand spanking cute hairy white pony lose in a dirt red plowed field.  He was trotting around close to another horse that was across the fence from him.  He was in a bit of a tizzy you could tell by his behavior.  He was pretty frantically wanting inside that fence where the other horse was.  He was about 50 yards from us when he finally saw his riding up.  I stopped Mosey for a second so he could get a good grip of what he was seeing…but then again he has never seen a teeny tiny pony like that.  Well it looked like him, sort of white only about 1/4^th his size.  So in a hurry, in a lope, here came the little pony.  He stopped short about 6 feet from us.  I got off to see if he would come up to me…but he would not.  I got back on and let him come up to Mosey.  They greeted like old friends.  Mosey was amused.  He never pinned his ears back or looked nervous.  He just stode still and waited while the little pony tried to figure us out.  After a bit, we started walking again toward his friend across the fence.  There were some other horses across the fence too and I figured that is where he came from.  However, I could not see a way to get him back in there.  I suspected the little guy (by that time we figured out he was a guy) would stop by his horse friend and we would just keep on going.  Well, that didn't happen.  The little guy took off after us and kept coming.  I wasn't sure what to do.  There seemed to be no way to get to the road where the houses were across that fence.  We went up another fence as I could see his tracks had been up that way as well.  Again, another dead end, no way to get to that road.  Well, we had to head home.  Time was running short on where I needed to be later.  I hoped again he would go back to his "friend" across the fence when we rode back by there.  However, he did not.  He was going with us.  The little white pony was taking about 4 steps to our one, but come along he did.  He'd get behind and trot to catch up.  Then he'd get behind and canter to catch up and run in front of us.  He was determined to stay with us no matter what.  We traipsed along across roads and plowed fields, and back through the cotton field about 6-7 miles.  I tried hard to stay away from the paved roads so no cars could get close to him.  We were almost to the barn when we passed a colt in a pasture and the pony decided he had gone far enough. He just stopped.  He was however, right on the roadside.  Mosey and I rode on toward the barn.  Mosey however, did not want to go on without his new friend.  He kept trying to stop and kept looking back at every opportunity.  Finally we made it back to the barn.  I rinsed Mose off, fed him and put away my saddle.  I drove back up the road as I was going to call 911 and tell them about the pony and stay until someone arrived to get him.  Unfortunately he was no longer there.  I drove up the street back to the cotton field to look to see if I could see him heading home.  Nothing.  So I drove back toward the barn.  Looking off to my left I saw him…in the BACK of a PICK UP!!!   I pulled in to tell the men there what had happened.  Apparently someone had seen the pony on the side of the road, recognized him and called his owner.  His owner had come to pick him up.  I have no idea how they got him in the back of that pick up but I'm guessing the little guy was very glad he was not going to have to walk back home.  He looked quiet and calm.  Maybe Mosey and I travel back that way some time and hopefully see our friend inside his fence where he belongs.  We will give him a little wave.  I just love a happy ending.