Police help round up runaway miniature horse

By Ginny Privitar
Pat Rose looked out her window at 7 a.m. one day recently and saw that her miniature horse, Misty, was not in her paddock.
Rose had left the gate open. But she says her miniature horses, a mare and a stallion, would never leave. All their food is there, and her stallion, Clyde, was in his pen, along with a goat. After 35 years of operating an educational program, Pat’s Pals in Chester, that teaches children about animals, she knows a thing or two about their ways.
"The mare would not leave his protection," Rose said.
She ran to a neighbor's house to ask if they'd seen Misty. She called around to other neighbors. Perhaps strangers had taken her, she started to worry, but that was unlikely.
She called the humane society, but they weren't open yet. She called her veterinarian's office and asked them to call the humane shelter, as they had access to another phone number. She called the Town of Chester Police.
In the meantime, got in her truck and went looking. She saw the officers at her neighbor's house and pulled up. They thought the horse might have gone into the woods. Rose thought it was unlikely. They spread out looking in the woods and couldn't find her. Another officer arrived, and they walked almost to the Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center. Still no horse.
A dandelion stop
Rose went home to take care of a few things and made some more calls. One was to town hall. Nicole Griffin called her back.
"Your horse is at John Vero's house," Griffin told her.
As Vero was leaving for work, Misty was standing on his lawn, eating dandelions. He stopped by town hall to tell someone about it, and they knew to call Rose.
The police were at Vero's and had the horse in custody (no, not cuffs). Rose got in her pickup truck and went "flying down there."
"I had to leave the truck and walk the horse home," she said.
The mare was thrilled to see Rose.
"The whole way home I'm looking at the ground and seeing big footprints and thinking there's coyotes around," she said.
Rose put her mare in the front paddock and got her mom to drive her back to get the truck.
Mystery solved
Back home, she heard her dogs going crazy in their runs. Then saw a coyote, not moving, with its tongue hanging out. She stamped her foot, and it ran away.
Her black-and-white stallion was charging about.
"The stallion was throwing a hissy fit," she said. "Although the stallion is only 30 inches tall, he was not going to let a coyote get near his mare and his goat companion."
Rose finally figured out why Misty, who never wandered away, got spooked and ran into the woods.
"It was the darn coyote, probably a female that has pups," Rose said. "Those three policemen were so kind and so serious about helping me find the animal. Officer Robert Bird, Detective Lee Slaughter, and Officer Robert Stack, they did not blow me off and call me a dizzy broad. They went out of their way and they were very nice. I want to thank them for their patience, courtesy, and determination to find this horse."
Rose believes the coyote was driven by hunger to harass her stock in broad daylight.
She has her animals locked up together now. She's sure the coyote will not attack them as a group.
After all, there's strength in numbers.