Unfiltered Story #351378

Many years ago I was painting someone’s house when she told me she was going to the store . . . a few minutes later a horse comes trotting out of the barn and up the road.

Naturally the first thing I did was go close the barn door . . . since there were still other horses in the field! (I found that the kids had left the corral gate, corral/stall doors, the inner stall doors, and the main barn door open . . .) I closed all of the stall doors and the corral gate, then headed up the road in (walking) pursuit.

A few block-equivalents up the road I find the horse and walk up to him talking calmly and moving at medium speed, not sneaking and not grabbing either . . . I get his halter first try and he prances/semi-spooks a bit – rather pro-forma – while I talk calmly to him . . . I rub his neck a bit, which settles him down, shift grips, and walk him back to the house . . . just as the owner arrives home! She is obviously rather startled, runs to get a gate open and waves us through into the field . . . once I turn loose, he goes spooking away, silly-horse style . . .

<i>Then</i> I found out that Zed is a rescue who had been abused, and was normally very flighty and easily frightened . . . She tells me that I must have a lot of experience with horses . . . No, I was simply taught that horses have an extreme startle reflex so you avoid startling them, and told how to move and talk so they know what you are and that you are safe.

She was rather amused that my first reaction was to secure the barn after the horse has escaped . . . but agreed with the priorities.