Bit of a Scare with Zena and the horses!

The racehorses have now been turfed out for the summer in one of the fields I walk across on my evening walk, and last night as we walked past along the top of this field, Zena started barking at the horses hanging their heads over the fence, even though she has seen many horses before, so I did a detour and took the track. Anyhows, tonight, I noticed they were all down at the bottom by the bottom gate as I was walking along the top and then they all moved off, all nice and quietly and started grazing moving in the other direction. Great I thought, I'll try taking her through the field and if she starts barking at least they're a long way off and I can turn back or something. I did keep her on her stretchy lead just in case she tried to chase them though, and about 2/3rds of the way down I started to run coz it started to rain, and she was tightly tucked in by my left side running with me, ball in mouth. Horror upon horrors, I hear this thundering of hooves, and they all just descended on us in a circle all around us both snorting and blowing, and Zena, although not particularly bothered even though a great big chestnut had decided to come up for a sniff of her still snorting, was going to get me trapped up with that extendable around my legs and gawd knows what would have happened then!!! So in my quick thinking, I thought the best thing to do, is to let her off and throw the ball through a gap I could see and with a bit of luck it would go the other side of the post and rail fencing which it did and she followed! Blooming 'eck was I shaken up, not that I'M at all scared of horses, I've had horses for donkey's years including my own great big racer tb, but I was really, really scared for what they could have done to her, but as I ran to get her over the other side of the fence, she wasn't preturbed at all, and I was a quiverring mess! Lol! I met a couple coming through another gate as I was legging it out of that area and he laughed and said they always do that and that's why most people take the track now instead of the field! Well, I know that now don't I!!!! I don't think she'll bark at horses again though!!!

LOL, looks like it's that track for you then! Glad no one was hurt!

Bloody hell!!! I would have been terrified, Imagine if that was Poppy she would have been squished.
Good thinking that, throwing the ball. In fact wasn't that mentioned on here somewhere on another thread, think that was cattle though but the idea would work on most animals I think.
Good girl Zena and good for you for thinking on your feet.
I would have been a quivering wreck too.
What did Dave say?
Elaine xxxx

OMG , poor you. I was on the edge of my seat reading what happened..... I can only imagine how you felt xxxxx

Glad you are both ok xxxxxxx

Helena you had every right to be! And even to you, if you'd fallen and they'd accidentally trodden on you

In my view we as humans tend to think it's Ok to cross fields with paths in but I've been chased by cows a few times, plus once a horse that was quite territorial, and although I've handled and ridden both horses and experienced a tiny bit of handling small cows (calves at college) I'd never now go anywhere near to them with my dog.

I think it's the dog rather than the human, but there are so many "accidents" with dogs, owners and cows in particular you would be surprised Often with owners themselves being killed or badly injured

That man was an idiot to laugh. Would he have been laughing if you or Zena had been badly hurt?! And if the horses are doing it a lot and it's a public footpath there are going to be many scared people who go through it this summer who could be hurt
I am very glad you are both OK

Wys
x

So glad you are both ok, must say I try to avoid horses and cows when out with Ollie. sometimes it can take you by surprise though and that is not funny this happened to us last year with some cows luckily they were well behaved and so was Ollie it was Gorden who wanted to take photos I just kept going at a good pace with Ollie to get away as quick as I could.

Phew! Thank goodness you were both okay - and well done for keeping your head and letting Zena off the lead. It is almost always the dogs that the horses, cows etc are interested in, so it is a wise move to let the dog off to get out of the way, and to also give you a chance to get out of the field in one piece.

As Wys has said, there are many accidents (sometimes very serious or fatal) involving dog owners and livestock, in particular cattle, every year. Unfortunately I don't feel it is publicised enough, so many people have no idea just how dangerous cows/horses etc can be when you are walking through them with a dog.

I am not scared of horses or cows, but I have to say I would have been bricking it in that situation!

Oh H although I totally appreciate the seriousness of this I have to admit I did laugh, not at the situation, but at the mental picture I have conjoured up!

I am so glad you are both ok and that Zena behaved impeccably and that you had your wits about you. Sending some hugs x

Thanks for all the input guys, and yes, I've also heard of terrible accidents with cows, but never horses, in fact, I've always walked across this particular field in the past with my old Cassie (who was soooo used to being around the horses and always got chased, but was smart enough to always duck under the nearest fence!) and I did it with Georgie on the lead, just to show him they were fine because of course, my village is full of horses having two racing yards in it, I just can't avoid them) This is a new bunch though, they look like youngsters to me, and I never for one minute expected them to leg it over to us, they were quite a way away and with their backs to us you see, I thought we would be safe, and I thought it would be a good idea to stop Zena from barking at them again like she had the night before, but she never made a sound, even when the big chestnut put his head down to her and snorted! Lol! Bless her heart. So glad I thought to quickly undo that lead off her harness because she COULD have gone into panic mode and tripped me up or got herself kicked, and it was sheer fate, that I saw a big gap in this big circle of them, made her look at me by saying what I learned last week at training, i.e. the "watch me" which she knows very well now, and chucked the ball along the ground knowing it would roll under the post and rail. Had it been barbed wire like the top half of the field, then I wouldn't have been able to do that, and I might have blooming well picked her up (all 37kgs of her!) and ran for it! I will never be doing that again that's for sure now.

He doesn't like us dog walkers walking across his fields even though the paths are actual bridleways and between the whole of his gallops, he has put a proper walkway for us 5ft across (as is the law) fenced off with nice new post and rail fencing so we don't end up in the fields either side, but like I said, two of the fields, have the paths going across with just nothing to keep us away from the horses.

Even though I've been around horses, big ones at that, most of my life, the way this lot came charging over to us did make me a bit wary even if I was on my own, but then I know what to say to them and I know what to do with my hands, unlike most people who would be bricking it! I knew to just stand still and apparently so did Zena!! We could never have pushed our way through them that's for sure!

We lived to tell the tell thank goodness, but please be very wary now, because all the horses will be turned out for the summer, they can deliver quite a nasty kick which would kill your dogs let alone the damage to yourself! If you can avoid them, do so, like I'm going to do now!

Quite honestly, when I got home and told Dave, I said he shouldn't HAVE horses like that in a field with a footpath in it, but Dave just said, it's his land, he can do what he wants in it, which I suppose is right, hence those "beware of the bull" signs where footpaths go across fields!

Oh that dog of mine is smart, thank God she listened to ME, thank God we didn't have old Georgie with us either (he's soooooo slow!!!)and thank goodness I was very near to that other fenceline, probably about 20 feet, but the ball was a hard rubber one thank goodness so it went further than a tennis ball! Lol! I might take up bowls with a shot like that!!!!