Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Monsters in the Woods


Horses are herd animals. They don’t like being alone. Even if they are the low horse in the pecking order they prefer being picked on rather than being alone. I recently had to take my horse somewhere alone. My wife’s horse called for him while he was gone. When we got to where we were going there were horses in a nearby pasture and he bonded with them even though he couldn’t get to them. When they walked out of sight he called for them. This condition is called being “Herd Bound.”

While horse camping recently there were 14 horses, each in their own pen. Some people bring extra horses to camp; sometimes for riders that don’t have a horse to ride and other times because they don’t want to leave their other horse at home.

One afternoon I decided not to ride with everyone. I wanted to stay in camp and read and someone was there to ride my horse. I was the only one left in camp and three other horses were left behind. One owner told me that I would be hearing some horrific sounds from one horse she was leaving behind. I’ve heard horses call before and I thought I knew what I could expect from him, but when the last of the riders left camp I got to hear sounds that I didn’t think possible from a horse. It was worse than an Ornette Coleman solo. It went on for hours.

When the riders returned some of the riders said they could hear him calling from miles away. While on the trail they came across two hikers that said they were getting out of the woods because they heard a beast. They thought it was a sasquatch. The owner laughed calmed their fears and told them that the sound they heard was her horse left in camp that was calling for the other horses.

7 Comments:

Blogger JustRex said...

Snappy. So much for a quiet afternoon, eh? Sounds like you would have had a calmer day with a live bluejay stapled to each earlobe.

5:02 AM  
Blogger Beth said...

Never knew that about horses – it’s rather sweet – although I’d probably pee my pants if I ever heard such strange howls while in the woods.

5:06 AM  
Blogger Donna. W said...

Blue likes his friends, but when they're gone for a weekend, he does just fine alone.

5:15 AM  
Blogger Paula said...

Interesting entry. I don't know much about horses but I bet my granddaughter knows this. She has been in Hunter Jumping competition since she was very young.

5:48 AM  
Blogger Amy said...

Hahaaaaaaa.......Sasquatch. I laughed out loud.

Speaking of noises animals make, my sister in law came over the other day and we were talking about our rabbits (her daughter has one and my daughter has one) and she said "Did you know that rabbits make noise?!" I looked at her and grinned..and said "It scared the life out of you, didn't it?" LOL

10:25 AM  
Blogger g said...

we have blaze and bob and if you take one riding without the other, calling occurs.

7:18 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Darev, nice imagery.

Beth, normally it sounds like a horse, but this animal was unworldly.

Donna, Blue is a rare horse, but knowing his eating habits he's probably thing, "Good more pasture for me!"

Paula, I'm sure she knows about being herd bound. Ever hear the phrase "Get your goat" This is because some horse owners have goats as a companion animal for their horses, and if you want someone's animal to get upset and lose a race you take it's goat away and the horse will lose the race. Ever notice that a race horse is always accompanied by another horse and rider until it goes into the gate. Pretty cool.

Amy, when a rabbit is frightened it will let out a blood curdling scream.

g, It's rare I ever ride from the house alone, but I won't even get on my horse until he is out of ear shot of the other horse.

8:34 PM  

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