This message is from: PHILLIP Odden <n...@norskwoodworks.com>
This message is from Phillip Odden in Northwestern Wisconsin where there are plenty Bears.
It was a wonderful day. Nice summer temps around 80 degrees, clear skies, and reasonable humidity. After working a green horse to get ready for the evaluations I harnessed up my pair, Marcy and Beorn for a training run. We worked on dressage elements to begin with then went outside to do some hills and circles. Hickory Knoll CDE is coming up in a short 10 days. After about 6 Kilometers we took a turn down toward the county land. Its about 3 K to where the logging road starts and as we came over a hill, there about two good stone throws away was a Bear. He was close enough so I could see his silvery brown muzzle and the shinny black nostrils and his fuzzy little ears. As far as Bears go he wasn't a real large one but he wasn't a little one either. I think he may have weighed around 250-300 pounds. Plenty of Bear right in the middle of the road.
He didn't seem to notice us even though my pair was making a good bit of noise with the 8 steal horses shoes churning along at a pretty good clip. So I said in a rather small voice the same I use to talk to my horses" Bear, get out of here." I didn't want to alarm the horses with a big voice. But the Bear didn't take much notice and we were getting closer. So I said in a little bigger voice over the noise of the marathon cart and the horse's hooves, " Bear, its time to get going." At that the Bear looked up and couldn't believe his eyes. He turned tail and ran down the road with us right behind him. The horses didn't mind the sight of the Bear but when they hit his sent after a few more strides at a fast working trot Marcy was unsure of wisdom in chasing the Bear but Beorn never questioned the idea so Marcy didn't have much choice. Beorn was trotting straight and true and Marcy was thinking of a way out. She was kind of flinchy you might say. Well the Bear dove into the woods and soon we were past the smell of the Bear.
We had to turn around at the dead end and recover the same ground. Again Marcy was a bit flinchy and Beorn ( Beorn means Bear ) seemed unaffected. I always wondered what the ponies would do if we came up close on a Bear. This time we had the momentum and Beorn either had a plugged nose or isn't much worried about Bears or wasn't willing to question the wisdom of chasing him down the road. Marcy's vote didn't count.
I am not so sure that Beorn is fearless either since I have seen him jump pretty high from a wispy Butterfly.
All in all it was a good training run to cap a wonderful summer day. Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
