At about 2 a.m. last Thursday, while most of Hopewell Valley was asleep, a group of horses decided it was time for an adventure.
Eleven horses escaped from Kerr Ridge Farm on Bear Tavern Road and headed out into the night, eventually making their way up Bear Tavern Road toward Bear Tavern Elementary School.
Fortunately, the late-night excursion ended safely. No people were injured. No horses were injured. And thanks to the efforts of the Hopewell Township Police Department, neighboring farmers and the Kerr family, all of the horses were back home by sunrise.
But not before leaving behind a story that has quickly become local legend.
The Great Escape
Beth Kerr was asleep when the adventure began.
Around 2 a.m., she was awakened by her dog barking.
“I looked out my front window and my whole house was lit up,” Kerr recalled. “I opened up the window and said, ‘Can I help you?’ And I realized then it was the police.”
The officer had a simple question.
“Do you have horses?”
The answer, of course, was yes.
“And he said, ‘Well, they’re running down Bear Tavern Road,'” Kerr said. “And I thought, ‘Oh no.'”
The farm is home to 11 horses, and somehow, they had found a way out through an unlocked gate near the back of the property.
But not all the escapees shared the same appetite for adventure.
Three of the older horses apparently decided they had seen enough of the world and returned home on their own.
“The older, wiser ones,” Kerr said, were waiting back at the farm.
Led by “Ben” and “Waffles,” the younger horses had other plans.
A Visit to Bear Tavern School
Security cameras at Bear Tavern School captured eight horses trotting along the sidewalk in front of the school in the middle of the night.
They weren’t cutting across lawns. They weren’t wandering through the parking lot.
“They were great and stayed on the sidewalk,” Bear Tavern Principal Jay Billy said.
The video shows the horses moving in a neat line past the school entrance, followed shortly afterward by a Hopewell Township police vehicle.
A few minutes later, the horses returned, again traveling along the sidewalk.
When Billy later watched the footage, it reminded him of the children’s book Snowmen at Night, which imagines what snowmen do after everyone goes to sleep.
“Seeing them come through the camera and then not come back for a few minutes made me think about a great children’s book, Snowmen at Night,” Billy said. “It makes you wonder what fun they were having at the school when we couldn’t see them.”
Corralling the Crew
Meanwhile, officers and residents were trying to figure out how to safely round up the wandering herd.
The breakthrough came with help from neighboring horse owners at Hopewell Heritage Farm.
According to Kerr, police had been following the horses with their vehicles, but the flashing lights were making the animals nervous.
Neighbor Mary Jo Herbert stepped in and opened a nearby pasture.
“They ran right in,” Kerr said.
The horses spent the rest of the night safely inside the fenced field.
When morning arrived, the Kerr family gathered children, spouses and friends for what Kerr jokingly described as a “walk of shame” back to the farm.
“We got all of our kids out and their spouses, and we did the walk of shame home,” she said.
Motorists passing by were treated to an unusual sight: a line of horses being walked down Bear Tavern Road back toward Kerr Ridge Farm.
A Surprise Waiting at School
When school staff arrived Thursday morning, they initially had no idea they had hosted overnight visitors.
Billy arrived as usual to prepare for the school day. It wasn’t until more staff and families began arriving that people started noticing something unusual.
There was manure scattered around the property.
At first, people wondered whether a fox, deer or even a bear had paid a visit. Wildlife sightings are not uncommon around Bear Tavern.
The truth turned out to be much bigger.
When school staff reviewed the surveillance footage, they discovered eight horses had spent part of their night exploring the school grounds.
The reaction, Billy said, was one of complete surprise.
Small-Town Life
For Kerr, the whole experience was a reminder of life in Hopewell Valley.
“Thank God it happened at two o’clock in the morning,” she said.
She was also grateful for the help of neighbors and police officers who stayed with the situation until every horse was accounted for.
Hopewell Township Police Chief James Rosso said unusual calls come with the territory.
“You hit the nail on the head with the rural character of the Valley,” Rosso said. “One minute we’re responding to a significant event and the next we’re wrangling horses or cattle. That’s the job here in Hopewell Valley. Whatever the call, our officers will always be there to help.”
Superintendent Rosetta Treece perhaps summed up the horses’ late-night field trip best.
“Bear Tavern is a great place,” she said. “You can’t blame the horses for wanting to visit.”
By the early morning, all 11 horses were safely back home.
The only evidence of their overnight adventure was a few piles of manure, some memorable security footage and one more story added to the long list of things that can only happen in the Hopewell Valley.
