The phone rang at Shirley and Roger Hoel’s home. It was the Sheriff from a neighboring county asking if they could come and get an abandoned horse. He had received a call about a horse running loose on a 100 acre farm with no apparent owner. This horse had been running loose for several years, surviving only because he was on large acreage with grass and a fast moving stream that didn’t freeze in the cold winter.
Shirley and Roger drove out to take a look. The woman who had called the Sheriff, Susan, met them at the farm. There was no gate that could be seen (perhaps it was buried under the deep drifts of snow like most of the fence) so they started calling the horse and coxing him with hay, hoping it would come to them instead of them having to wade through the snow to catch him. The horse finally appeared when he saw the hay and came towards them. Susan agreed to let Shirley feed the horse hay every day so he could get used to coming up to people.
After 4 days the Hoel’s returned with truck, trailer, and shovels. They started clearing a path in the deep Wisconsin snow where the horse was being fed so that they could catch the horse. Finally, after coxing the horse with food Shirley was able to get the halter on him and Roger got some panels out so they could both “channel” him into the trailer.
Once the Hoel’s trailered the horse home, they realized they had a stallion on their hands. So the next day the vet arrived, checked the horse over and gelded him. 6 months later the horse found a home where he still lives today.
