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To: HairOfTheDog
...but not because he was out to get you or bit your arm off.

Hmmm.

While the intelligent and educated side of me wants to agree with that, the ignorant and superstitious side says otherwise.

I once had an association (he wasn't mine, but I had unlimited access to him) with a beautiful stallion who just would not be broken to the saddle.

A friend and the owner and myself worked that horse, using every technique known and after about 8 months, I swear, that horse began retaliating for our actions.

It would stand behind the dutch-door of the stable and wait for you to walk by, at which point it would snort and lunge and all one could see was TEETH and I do mean BIG teeth.

If he missed you with that, he'd immediately turn and deliver a kick to the wall that would literally shake the entire 12-stall barn.

That would set the other horses off, of course, and they were all terrorized by this stallion. It was if he could smell the other horses fear and he'd get even worse.

Even in his more lucid moments, he would slyly wait for someone to get between him and the wall (particularly the blacksmith) and would put his whole 1100 or so pounds against you and you'd become a hoss sandwich. Out of 3 or 4 blacksmiths in the area, only one would even come out and look at him. And all he'd do would be to give a recommendation on whether a shoe was in need of work. From 10 feet away.

That horse knew exactly what he was doing.

Exception perhaps, but none the less dangerous for it.

I came to hate that horse and it was later sold to a older lady who put it to pasture and it was never ridden or touched by a human after that, except for one time that he was re-shoed. That, after a three-day chase and then being restrained by two pick-up trucks and a tractor.

I truly believe that horse had murder in his heart.

He met his end several years later, after he jumped the fence and challenged a Peterbilt log-hauler, about twilight, on the paved road to the paper mill. And even that is believed to be intentional, as that stallion would often be seen racing the length of the fence along the road every time a log hauler would come through. He'd get all excited by them and it was noted by several persons that lived in the area.

The Peterbilt won as it still would operate but the driver definitely lost.

The driver received some grievous injuries from going through the windshield and entanglement with the steering wheel. As I recall, he was hopitalized for a good while. The horse died.

I think that horse got some measure of revenge against the human race, after all.

57 posted on 02/22/2004 5:56:32 AM PST by OldSmaj
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To: OldSmaj
While the intelligent and educated side of me wants to agree with that, the ignorant and superstitious side says otherwise.

I said most. One can't make assumptions based on the odd fringe case. If you have other experience with horses I am sure they are not all like that one case. My post was in response to posts that said they were learning a lot about "horses" from these anecdotes.

58 posted on 02/22/2004 6:04:17 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: OldSmaj
I think in most cases the horse knows what it's doing --- when we were kids, my uncle's horse would kick us if he didn't want us to catch him --- I thought I knew what being kicked by a horse was --- sometimes he'd knock us down with those kicks --- later in this town a groom at the race track was kicked to death, the horse pinned him against the wall of the stall and used all 4 hooves to get him. That's when I realized that a more gentle horse adjusts the force of it's kicks so you aren't going to be injured. Even when you think a horse is accidently standing on your foot --- it's not an accident, they think it's funny.
61 posted on 02/22/2004 7:06:41 AM PST by FITZ
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