Now she really did it...

Stinkerbell strikes again, but this time, she did it to herself!

Paul came home a bit ago with two fresh bales of haylage. After we got T-Bone, Natalie and Lana's bale in place, I opened the three-strand hotwire fence bewteen the main pasture and the north to let Paul through in the truck, and as I put the gates back up, I heard Annabel make her excited/demanding moo...a short, loud bleat.

I turned and walked along the truck as Paul drove toward the paddock gate. Just then there was a tremendous ruckus, and in the headlights we watched in horror as Sheila, then Bridgit, raced away from Annabel, who was running with the 12 foot round bale feeder around her waist, stuck fast! It seems the stinker must have been in the feeder when we entered the pasture, tried to hop out to join the mamas at the gate, and panicked when she realized she was stuck. The thing was cockeyed in the air, raking along the hogwire fence, until she finally got stuck trying to make a corner between the fence and an apple tree (seems a 12 foot diameter metal feeder doesn't turn on a dime, HA!). Meanwhile, we were RUNNING to the gate, ripping it open, trying to come to her aid. She finally made the corner and stopped in the middle of the paddock. She was truly stuck tight, right at about the last rib, flesh pooching out on the other side. She was not going to come out forward. By some huge miracle (thank you, God), we convinced her to back up and pull her legs back through, then Paul lifted the feeder and let her out. She didn't want much to be touched, but I did prod around and she seems uninjured (but not untraumatized).

I'm willing to bet she doesn't climb in there again. I just hope she's not spooked enough to avoid eating the haylage now inside.

And is this coincidental or what: Just before this happened, Paul and I were discussing the best way to get in there with the haylage, whether letting the girls out on pasture, hoping they'd come back in, or trying to get in and around with them milling about in the way like they do, making it difficult for Paul to navigate through the mud and muck. I had just reminded him we needed to move the ring feeder so we could put the haylage in that same spot.

Annie and the ring feeder, before the incident.