Farm Life- But not on a Farm

I am used to my dogs barking at things in the middle of the night. I think they are upholding some kind of guard-dog rules or something, because anything that moves near my house after it's dark is fair game for chase. I like to tell my students that they bark AND bite strangers after dark, even though I know they don't, because I would rather not have student visitors after dark.
This morning, however, we were awoken at 3 AM by my dogs incessant, worried, barking. If they had been using words, I would have woken up to phrases such as, "Get away from my house! You don't belong here! Get away from my food! I'm gonna bite you! Listen to me, sucker, I'm only gonna warn you once!"

Needless to say, I woke up a little worried. My worry was compounded when I heard loud thuds in between barks. My husband woke up to the barking, too, and immediately went for his gun, while I went to the window to see what the fuss was all about. When I looked outside, I saw a huge shadow, and I had to look again.

It was our neighbor's horses. They had busted the fence next to our house and had come to eat our grass instead of their pasture grass. The biggest problem was that only three of the five horses had gotten out, so the two that were still behind the fence were feeling jipped. So, the two inside and the three outside the fence raced each other up and down the length of the fence on one side of our house, one taunting the other.

Knowing that these horses were very valuable to my neighbor, I had to call him and wake him up and tell him that his horses were in my front yard. Luckily, without any other major incident, all three horses were returned back home, and put away with the other two into the barn.

Now, my yard has been aerated in horseshoe patterns, and there is a little bit of extra fertilizer in my grass. I just hope that this isn't an occurence that happens very often. My neighbor and I are great neighbors. He stays at his house and we stay at ours. We like living out in the middle of nowhere. I just hope he forgives me for waking him up so early.