Dave, I am not sure where this bit of information you put out there came from. 1) Were you late getting the irrigation done yesterday and maybe had a little over exposure to the sun? or 2) You had a bad runin with one of the local Nez Pierce ?
The safest and best horse I had was an Arab gelding, Brim. He was my once in a lifetime horse. Good with both my Border Collies and Hounds. He would listen for the hounds and would go to them, he would even track them. There was one time when the hounds went into an area that was not practical to take the horse, so I stripped all his gear off (saddle, bridle, halter) and left him. It was 4 or 5 hours before I got back with the dogs to where I had left him, he was still there. He knew all that country and could have chosen to leave.
In a hurry to get home late one evening we cut through some timber, the light was getting dim, and we were traveling at a brisk trot when he hit an old woven wire fence. It caused him to rear up, I went off sideways and had to make an effort not get impaled on a steel post. When his front feet touched the ground again both front feet were on one side of the woven wire fence and both back feet were on the other side. No barb wire. I had no tool with me of any kind to take the clips loose with or cut the wire. Brim stood quietly while I tried to find a way out of this situation. Pulled his saddle off, put the blanket over the woven wire in hopes it would give him a better idea of what he had to clear and hoping it would lessen any chance of a foot tangling in the wire. He very carefully managed to get both hind legs over the fence when I asked him to. Was always so thankful the steel post scraped me and wasn't under Brim when he came down.
Brim and the Black Bear.
Following an old skid road into a brushy canyon on Brim one afternoon, every now and then he would pause and listen. Was nearly to the bottom when I started seeing a few cows scattered around in the brush so thought that was probably what he had been paying attention to. A little farther there were more cows and the old roadbed had a washout and got increasingly brushy so decided to turn back. Had gone maybe 100 yards and here comes this Black Bear down the skid road at us. Brim stopped and the bear kept coming another few feet before he noticed us, there was maybe 60 ft between us. The bear stopped, looked us over, then whirled and headed back up the skid road, ran maybe 50 ft and went up over the bank and disappeared into the brush. During this encounter Brim never moved, but the way his heart was beating it felt like it was going to come out through his ribcage. Only one way out of there, up the skid road the bear had just followed us down. Never at any point did Brim snort, threaten to bolt, rear or buck. But we went up out of that canyon at pretty quick walk. Those little Arab feet were touching the ground very lightly. It would be about an hour before his heart quit pounding against his ribcage.
I lost Brim a long time back to a severe bout of colic.
Okay story time is over. Hope today is a better day. You would have liked Brim, he is the only horse I have ever been around that could "share" your space, without being "in" your space.
