Goat Hunting

Yesterdays ride started out normal. I headed out for a ride with my partner and another friend. My partner and I took the girls (Pixie and Willow) and my friend was riding her Icelandic. We decided to take my friend around the barn on a trail that she hasn't been on. Its a nice little hack that borders the outside property line. One side is the barn property and the other side is the road. We made it just past the half way point when my partner who was a head of us says "There is a goat in the bushes...turn around and walk away slowly before the horses see him/her" Then there was me with my deafness, lol, I said "there is a what??" My friend heard right away and says "just go" "get out of here" It took me a minute to gather what they said then I caught on and realized yeah we needed to calmly get out of there since not one of our horses has ever seen a goat and having a scared loose one come out of the bushes could cause a problem. We made it back to the barn dropped my friend off and my partner and I headed back over to the goat. We got close enough to walk the rest of the way and I went over to inspect. Well good news the goat wasn't injured, but it took off down the pathway towards the road :( So on to plan B... We went back to the barn to get a rope and grain. Yep, we were gonna catch it! So I grabbed my "rope horse" Jess. Does it count when only the horse knows how to rope, lol.  My friend with the Icelandic had already dismounted and practicing with her rope. My trainer gave us a bucket of grain. So we were set. I was on Jess who apparently could tell we were going to do something new cause he was full of energy and my friend was hand walking her Icelandic carrying the bucket of grain and the rope. I bet we were a funny sight heading down the drive way. Jess and I trotted ahead to go search for the goat. We made it just short of where I had last spotted the goat when Jess saw the statue Bison that is in one of the pastures. Its been there forever, but I guess it has never bothered him before. Well this time it was a horse eating statue! He froze and then spun around so fast...I figured it was just best to let me get out of that area. So we headed back to find my friend and tell her the goat wasn't that way. Except I never saw my friend and I had made it all the way back to the barn. I just assumed she had turned around and went back when I didn't pass her. Well she hadn't turned around to go back so now I was out on a search for her. I followed our same path. No luck. It wasn't until I got back to the barn that I finally saw her coming from the other direction. We had passed in Jess's hurry to get away from the statue. We had ran past her on the way back because she had followed the lower path and I had followed the upper path. We never did see the goat again, hopefully it made it home or at least somewhere safe. It probably would have been quite the sight if we had found it! Who knows maybe we will find it today on our ride...