9 Wild Horses. S Carol Johnson

       Running in the snow

      Chapter 2 – Getting Acquainted

      I was back in Seattle a few weeks later when I got a call from one of my neighbors up on that mountain. She just had to tell me about her experience with a herd of horses!!

      The work on my barn was continuing and the two builders had also built this neighbor’s cabin so she knew them well. She and her husband had been out in their yard (which is east of my place and across the canyon where the creek normally runs) working and were a distance apart. To hear each other they had to yell. The guys building my barn heard them yelling to each other so the guys yelled across the ravine to the neighbors to bring coffee. (That’s how few folks lived up here at that point.) They heard them yell and hollered back “You want coffee?” And the guys responded with a ‘yes.’ The neighbors quickly made some coffee, jumped in their pickup and brought the coffee over to the builders working on my barn. While they were visiting the construction guys they heard the sound of hoof beats. The hoof beats were loud, fast and not that far away. They said that within seconds 7 horses came in running at full speed and ran right up to the barn where they and the builders were visiting and the horses stopped on a dime in a cloud of dust.

      The neighbors had not yet heard my story about giving the horses water, but they suspected the horses were thirsty so they found the 2 blue buckets and started filling them up. Their experience was very similar to the one I had a few weeks earlier. Only they weren’t quite as freaked out by the horses as I had been because there was some safety in numbers, I guess – there were 4 people this time.

      The neighbors didn’t keep track of how many times they filled the buckets up, but it was many. They shared with me that they could tell the horses had some sort of pecking order and they didn’t feel like they were in any danger from the herd. And just like before, when the horses were done drinking, off they went, in one fluid motion. Weird how they do that!!!

      It wasn’t too long later that I took a couple of days of vacation and was back up on the mountain, sitting on my deck (which is on the second floor, so it has an awesome view of the mountains and the fields) with my dog Chewy when 7 horses came into view out in the field in front of the house. They were staying right at the fence line a few hundred feet to the west of the house and that seemed odd. So I started watching closely and finally figured out why they were sticking to the fence: one of them was on the other side of that fence and 6 were on my side and one of those 6 was the stallion.

      This particular fence is open at both ends, but a lot of critters don’t seem to ‘get’ that part because that fence is about a quarter mile long. It must be really easy for them to get separated when they come around one of the ends. All 7 were just standing there – not moving in either direction. The end to the south was closest. The end to the north was a bit of a jaunt away. Okay. Now what? I needed a plan – quick, but you will remember that plans are not my strong suit. I had helped range calves around the end of that fence when they got separated from their mothers. Should I help these horses get back together? And, if so, how do I do that?

      Down off my perch I came, leaving the dog inside the house. Outside and down the steps I went. I stood on the step talking to the horses that may or may not have been able to hear me from that distance. I thought it might be best if I let them get used to me being there before I did anything else. After a bit I slowly walked out toward the herd and was talking to them all the while. The field was a golden brown and grass came up to my knees as I talked and walked toward the horses. I could tell this was the same herd of horses I had seen before. That stallion was familiar. They just stood there watching me. As I got over to them they were all still just watching me. Feeling pretty brave after the water bucket experience, I inched my way up to the fence to talk to the horse on the other side. It was a mare, copperish brown with long flowing black mane and tail, and she seemed quite friendly. She let me pet her on the face and neck. The other 6, including the stallion, were standing right behind me – just watching me. The stallion was mostly white with just a few spots of brown and black on his rump and near his head.

      I decided to see if the horse on the other side of the fence would follow me down the fence line to the closer, south end of the fence. I petted her and talked to her and turned around to the south. She turned to the south and I thought we had it made. And we would have – the pieces were coming together: I walked a few steps in that direction and she kept right with me. But remember that whole flexibility thing….. well, the stallion wasn’t okay with that whole idea. He had just been watching me, not moving, until I started trying to walk south. That was all it took: he finally moved and got directly in front of me – between me and the south end of the fence – feet planted, he just stood there. If it had been a person I’m sure the person would have had their feet a bit apart for stability and hands on their hips -- as if to say “I don’t think so!” I’d never been that close to any stallion so I didn’t know if he was dangerous or if he was friendly with an opinion, or if he just wanted me out of his way. Whatever it was, I was not confident enough to challenge him. So I said to him “okay, we won’t go that direction. I get it. You’re the boss.”

      But the mare on the other side of the fence still was looking for a way to join her herd. So, I thought – let’s see what the stallion does with going north…. I again petted the horse on the other side of the fence and turned around 180 degrees. By doing that I had put that stallion behind me. No eyes in the back of my head, more than a little scared, I wasn’t sure what he was doing. I slowly started to walk north, talking to the horse across the fence, and totally to my surprise, that stallion came right up to my right shoulder as I was still moving and followed me with his head nearly touching my shoulder. He was so close I could see him without turning my head. He stayed right there the whole way to the other end of the fence. In my mind I thought he might be saying “One wrong move and I’m all over it. So watch your step, lady!” The mare across the fence was anxious to be moving and she followed me very easily. The rest of the mares followed that stallion. We were all following the fence line headed north!!! If someone had been watching from afar, I wonder what that would have looked like…..

      We slowly walked up and over the small ridges in the terrain covered in grass and the occasional bush and some with a few stickers. We walked up the last little ridge before the largest dip in the field and the north end of the fence came into view. The mare spotted the opening called a ‘friendly gate’ (an opening in the fence for critters but not for vehicles). She whinnied and took off running, it took her no time at all to run through the opening and she joined the herd as they ran around me and started running to meet her. Together once again. they all took off running east toward the creek that leads them to the woods and hills. I didn’t speak horse then and I still wonder if that whinny from the mare on the other side of the fence was for me or was just letting the herd know she had spotted the opening and she was coming. In my ‘happy place’ I think she was telling me ‘thank you.’ I also think that mare was the same one I later started calling Bossie.

      I had trusted the horses and that stallion, specifically, and I lived to tell the story. I am smart enough to know that might not always work, but, in this case, that was the beginning of my relationship with a herd of wild horses.