[bunkerhill7]

We had a horse ranch in Alamo ... One late afternoon a mountain lion came down the trail, spooked the Morgan my sister was riding, and threw her off... I saw a mountain lion going after horses in the hill behind McDonald’s in Fremont at noontime in broad daylight...mountain lion attack in southern California...
Rambulatoryambulatory.com....mar. 22, 2010 attacked in Northern California

[Battle Axe]

I was out by myself bareback on a middle aged Arab mare in the Lava Beds National Monument, early 1960’s. We came to a fork in the trail and an unusually large sagebrush. The mare planted her feet and would not go forward or around this sagebrush. I could not smell anything, or hear anything or see anything that would cause this poor horse to start shaking uncontrollably. What ever she was afraid of was in that sagebrush.

I carefully gathered her up and slowly turned her around and made her walk in the direction of home which was about 10 miles. She did not stop shaking until she could see the house.

I started asking the old timers in the area what was making her do that. A cat!!! They said. The natural enemy of the zebra is the lion.

The sagebrush was probably a marking post for a territory.