My birthday went very well. I forced chocolate on unsuspecting victims who shamelessly took candy from the bowl. It was great fun.
Because it was such a beautiful day I talked a friend into going on a trail ride. And letting me take both dogs! I bribed him by taking a pizza for after the ride.
So me and girls arrived. Tequila was very excited to be there and her and Kodie ran around for just a few minutes. They followed me into the barn and “helped” me get the grooming kit, halter, shank, etc. Tequila was very good and respectful in the barn.
Then I went out to catch the horses. My rule with my dogs is they can only go into a paddock with me. That way there is less opportunity for them to go under the fence and chase horses at their leisure. Certainly this has helped in that Kodie has never offered to chase horses. Let me just tell you, a horse chaser in Central Kentucky might as well sign their own death certificate, so this is extremely important.
As usual I opened the gate and allowed the dogs to follow me through. They started to dart around a short distance in front of me. I was going to catch a mare and a gelding. The gelding was in the center of the pasture while the two mares were in the farthest corner. I walked up to the gelding and haltered him, with the dogs very near. He looked at them quizzically, as I expected, but allowed me to catch him as usual.
As I was haltering him, out of nowhere it seemed, I heard thundering hooves and saw the dogs stop and look. The chestnut mare was in a full-fledged gallop, ears pinned, neck snaking, chasing my dogs. Kodie understood the body language because she has more experience with horses. Tequila didn’t get it quite so fast. As she started to run, she was too late and the mare managed to make contact with her. Thankfully she was running so the momentum just rolled her. She ran lickety-split all the way to the gate, which was now closed. She dashed under the fence so fast she got a racing strip of fence paint down her back. From there she tore into the barn and ran to a corner of a stall and sat there all freaked out. I put the dogs away, caught the horses, and proceeded to groom. Poor Tequila sat in the corner of the stall the entire time I groomed… I COULD NOT GET HER TO COME OUT! Finally, when I was almost ready to leave I carried her out of the stall. She immediately ran under my truck and stayed there for quite some time.
We went on our ride with Kodie running along but I never did convince Teq that she would have fun. Instead she stayed *very* close to the owner of the barn and his dog.
Once we returned, as I was putting my tack and stuff away, Kodie would go a few feet out of the barn door and look out into the darkness. Teq would not even go out the barn door! She stayed right beside me or in the tack room the entire time. She didn’t leave the barn until she saw me going to the truck.
So my hopes of having two good trail riding dogs has diminished. I’ll wait for a few months and then take her to another barn to give it a whirl. The poor girl didn’t even get a chance. I hope she isn’t traumatized from hiking too!
[Note: The behavior from the mare was quite surprising to me. I would not normally put my dogs in a situation like this. Typically horses will not be aggressive to dogs unless they feel threatened. Purposefully galloping clear across a field to attack a dog is much, much more common behavior for a mule…or sometimes a donkey. Both of which will fight to protect the herd from a wild dog, which can be very handy for cattle farmers. In my 22 years of horses, I had never seen a horse act so aggressive towards dogs.]
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