On horses and hikers

[flick]

There's a thing that hikers and dog walkers tend to do when they see a horse.

They get off the path. I know why they do it, but it is Wrong.

Horses are prey animals, and even the most relaxed of them is constantly on the lookout for predators.

If they see a person, with or without a dog, standing on the path in front of them then they go "Ah, a person."

If they see a person, especially with a dog, lurking behind a tree near the path then they go "Ambush!"

Please remember this and pass it on to walkers of your acquaintance.

(We didn't have an oopsie this morning, but only because Benny is a good lad. He was, however, frightfully nervous of the three walkers plus dog that he'd spotted on a cross path several hundred yards before they saw us and who then who kindly stayed in the undergrowth until we'd passed. Even more so when, when we were only a couple of hundred yards away, another horse went across our path at speed close to where they were lurking, in what was *obviously* a sensible reaction of running away from the ambush.)

Comments

[vicarage]

I'll stay in the middle of the path, and the horse can push through the bushes then! I think walkers need to move out the way, but I can see why its better to have them in plain sight.

[flick]

[g] No, please do move off the path *so the horse can pass you*. Just don't run and hide in the undergrowth as soon as you see it and then lurk there for five minutes until it's gone....

(Those people yesterday, if they hadn't waited, wouldn't even have crossed paths with me!)