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Saturday, September 15, 2007 Pigs! By Diana Hsieh @ 11:25 AM Well, I just had a far more exciting ride on my mare Tara this morning than I would have liked. My friend Melissa (also known as my fabulous house-and-beast-sitter) and I were enjoying a quiet cross-country ride on two well-behaved horses. Until we encountered pigs, that is. They were in a pen about 50 feet away from our path. Melissa's horse was as quiet as usual, but Tara was highly disturbed by the first pig, and then another appeared in the pen, and then another, and then more. Although I'd gotten off, she was growing ever-more agitated. She even broke away from me and trotted around the nearby field in alarm for a few minutes until I caught her again. Unfortunately, removing ourselves from the vicinity of the pigs required walking down a tricky set of switchbacks. That was a dangerous undertaking in and of itself given Tara's mental state. Yet even once we were down that hill and out of sight of the pigs, Tara was still bonkers. She would wheel around rapidly, half-rear, leap into bushes, and whatnot. It definitely wasn't safe to be on her back, but I wasn't exactly safe on the ground either. Attempting to walk along side her on the narrow, winding, hilly, and wooded path would have been foolish in the extreme. She was just too freaked out to pay much attention to me -- or to her own safety. So we were in something of a pickle. She was only growing more upset where we were, as she could still hear the pigs snorting. Yet I couldn't safely move her forward on the trail, either on her back or walking by her side. Obviously, I didn't want to endanger Melissa or her horse. Tara solved that dilemma for us by suddenly jerking the reins out of my hands and trotting off down the trail. It was only about a half mile to home, but she did have to cross the main road in our neighborhood. So I was a bit worried for her safety. I trudged home with Melissa. It's the only time I recall, in all my years of riding, being reasonably happy about the necessity to walk home from a ride. (I really hate to do that, even when I have the ill-behaved horse in tow.) Happily, I found Tara exactly where I expected: near the barn, as close to her buddy Jackson as possible. The reins were still over her neck -- and, amazingly enough, still intact. Since she was reasonably calm, I climbed on her again, took her for a few turns around the ring at the walk and trot, then called it a day. She was clearly emotionally exhausted. I'm a bit worn out myself, I must admit! Share |    E-mail Diana Hsieh     PermaLink ()    Comments (New Page)   Subscribe to NoodleFood Blog Posts via Feed Reader   via E-mail Subscribe to NoodleCast Podcasts M4A via iTunes (MP3)   via Feed Reader   via E-mail

Comments
	Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 18:58:42 mst Comment ID: #1 Name: Mike Hardy E-mail: hardy(at)math.umn.edu Horses are incredibly dumb compared to dogs. (But still WAY smarter than cats.)
	Sunday, September 16, 2007 at 9:52:17 mst Comment ID: #2 Name: John Dailey E-mail: phyrm_1(at)hotmail.com ~ O-t-other-h, pigs are supposedly smarter than dogs. Not sure if there's a moral there. ~ Still, for any animal, once fear (of known situations or just strangeness) enters the picture, 'smarts' and training are irrelevent until trained for THAT. ~ Parakeets and fish are the least problematic, but, you can't take them for walks. LLAP J:D
	Monday, September 17, 2007 at 7:58:17 mst Comment ID: #3 Name: valda.redfern E-mail: valda.redfern(at)gmail.com URL: http://valzhall.blogspot.com John D asserts that "~ Parakeets and fish are the least problematic...". I beg to differ with respect to fish. They are a big problem, because you can't tell from their expressions how they're feeling. Usually, the first sign of trouble is that the fish has expired. I have never kept fish myself, but from time to time have heard from my friends how they met slow, horrid deaths - gradually boiled in tank; poisoned by over-feeding; petrified by cat - without the slightest change of expression. (OK, I made up the cat one.) But Diana's experience does sound scary. Being on a precipitous trail is bad enough by itself, let alone in the company of a frightened horse.
	Monday, September 17, 2007 at 15:09:07 mst Comment ID: #4 Name: Ron Harris E-mail: rharris_43403(at)Yahoo.com It may not be their respective intelligences but the kinds of intelligences they have. Horses, elephants, dogs, and people are among the many social animals. They are able to pick up on social cues from con-specifics - and other social animals to and even cooperate with them. When it comes to social intelligence horses are smart - dogs are smarter and we are the smartest. However smart pigs may be, their social intelligence seems to not be very high. Cats have no social intelligence at all. Neither seem to have much ability to cooperate with con-specifics or other animals. So I wonder if the horses saw something about the kinds of minds the pigs had and it revolted them?
	Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 2:07:50 mst Comment ID: #5 Name: valda.redfern E-mail: valda.redfern(at)gmail.com URL: http://valzhalla.blogspot.com "Cats have no social intelligence at all...[nor]much ability to cooperate with con-specifics or other animals". Clearly, Ron has never seen our Kirk and Janeway destroying an enemy toilet roll: as she unravels, he shreds.
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