[Melkor]

I went for a jog today (for the first time in like a year, I just came back, my chest hurts, lol), and something kind of cool happened. I have this route in the woods, and like a quarter of the way into my run there's this big horse standing on the road. I slow down and turn off my MP3-player, and he's standing there musing kind of menacing at me, deciding if I look like someone who's about to take him back to his compound (he had obviously escaped from somewhere, there was no one around, and he didn't have a bridle or anything else on him). I approach him, and he doesn't seem to like me at all, but then I kind of put my hand out and look down for a sec, and he comes over and lets me pat him on his muzzle, and suddenly we're best friends. I pat him on the side as I walk on by, and he continues up into the woods, away from civilization.

Now, I've been around horses before, but it was kind of an experience meeting a big stallion alone in the woods. It was just me and him, and there was immense amounts of communication going on. Stallions aren't always nice, and around here people breed racing horses, and some of them are definitivly not very nice, so it was pretty cool to sort of come to an understanding with the big animal.

Next week: "I met a crazed wolf!"

[lumi]

That's what I like about living in rural areas. Today I saw a rabbit, two deer, and a coyote.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Beautiful little story, Melkor. I only hope that he got on fine and didn't get hit by a car or anything.

[Melanie68]

They're too big. It happens on occasion that you'll hear of a cow getting hit but usually the car sees them far enough ahead of time to slow down (unlike a small animal). He probably got out of his pasture and eventually ambled on back to graze.

[Catbert]

All we get here are dead cats and moles squashed by cars.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Melanie68

They're too big. It happens on occasion that you'll hear of a cow getting hit but usually the car sees them far enough ahead of time to slow down (unlike a small animal). He probably got out of his pasture and eventually ambled on back to graze.

Nope. Sometimes size is not a deterrant.

My sister, who lives 1 1/2 hours northwest of Chicago (where she works), hit a horse while driving one early winter morning to the train station enroute to work. Evidently the horse had escaped a farm and was trotting along the shoulder of the road as my sister was heading up. Having a bit a night blindness, she did see it kinda (it was dark brown), but then it suddenly galloped too close and she struck it with her SUV.

Tragically, they had to shoot it to put it out of its misery.

[Melanie68]

I probably spoke too soon.

Mel

I did some searching and it does happen. The more deserted the road, the less likely it is to happen. Most of the stories I saw, the horse survived but they don't always. I always get nervous when people do a lot of horseback riding along roads. Drivers are not always aware of the riders and horses being there.

I hate, hate, hate that method of euthanasia. It works but you have to get the bullet in the right spot.

[Melanie68]

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext...TH-HORSES.HTML

[Jatsie]

Hitting a horse isn't good, one cannot eat them - unless one is French.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by Jat316sob

Hitting a horse isn't good, one cannot eat them - unless one is French.

Field-dressing a 1500 pound animal in the middle of the road would be sort of hard, too. It never fails, the one time you don't have a block and tackle in the back of the truck...

[Jatsie]

Hehe.

I have an urge to reiterate this post, just because the story always amuses me.

http://forums.adventuregamers.com/showpost.php?p=287248&postcount=31