Zola the Rhodesian Ridgeback Girl

I don’t mind horses but every so often my human likes to check my horse-radar calmness.

Nice and calm ready to stay clear of passing horse and Mrs Horse-Rider

Vikki and Mrs Horse-Rider practise so that horse and I get a positive experience and nice treats for being polite and quiet when near to each other.

Ready and waiting for our jackpot treats now! 

Yesterday, we took a short cut from one heathland through the forest to another heathland. It is a very old path probably used by carts a long time ago but because of its steep hill climbs not many people use it.

For some reason, the horses who are allowed to live, graze and roam freely on the heathlands had the same idea!

Surprise!  We’ve never seen horses come out here before?!

I had been exploring ahead, but once I saw the number of  horses I quickly turned round to go back to Vikki.

Horses coming!

Too many of them to walk past..eeek! 

Check out whats coming behind me! (even Vikki starts to wobble with her camera!)

The horses’ ears were ‘mobile’ moving around, their heads held high and alert whilst they were making neighing noises, swishing their tails with a few foot stomps to tell us “Hey, we are here and we’re not sure about you and your human over there!”.

As a hunting doggie hound, I instinctively knew the horses were alerted to us and that being quiet, keeping away and moving out of their way was the best idea.

Anyone who walks with their dogies in areas where there are horses or bridleways should have a quick read about horse language for at least an insight and understanding. For an example of general explanations on horse body language click here.

I think these horses were grumpy and agitated that we were on the path!

Er…don’t panic but they are heading our way faster than we can walk away…uh-oh!

Only one thing for it, we had to get off the path and walk into the bushes so that we were well out of their way.  We didn’t want to disturb, upset or frighten them.

As they were just about to pass, they all stopped for ages curious to look at us…

Spot the nostril difference!

Blowing through the nostrils (click here for some good descriptions and explanations).

One of the nosey horses decided she wanted a closer inspection (or maybe she wanted a yummy treat) and tried to get nearer to where we were.  She started to walk through the bushes towards us!

She understood that we weren’t interested when we turned away and walked deeper into the bushes to show her we were not a threat and wanted to be left alone.

Two of the big boy horses started to jostle, jump and have a noisy jab at each other.

The two boys continued to jump on each other making moody noises down the hill which distracted all the other horses and they continued on their way following the boys down to the other heathland. 

Finally we see the back-end of the horses….Phew!