CANADIAN HORSE STORIES

IS YOUR HORSE SMARTER THAN YOU? - Brigitte K.

"Hi all.  Thought I'd share a story that relates to how smart the Canadian Horse is.  First, I have to say that Dexter will go through any puddle or water crossing that I ask him to.

While down in North Carolina we drove down the same sand road at least 10 -15 days in a row.  Some days there were puddles and other days there weren't.  Anyway... on December 24th we were heading down the road and I saw a puddle up ahead and we didn't give it a second thought.  We were about 10 or so feet ahead of it when Dexter came to a fulll halt.  I tried to urge him forward but to no avail.  My passenger/hubby Mike said, "Give him the whip."  I did and suddenly Dexter swung a 180 deree and we were heading home again.  I got him under control, turned him around, and Mike got off.  Mike walked over to examine the puddle and to our shock and amazement it was a very deep sink hole.  Mike took Dex by the bridle and guided him around it.  After a few snorts he was fine and we continued on our drive and crossed many more puddles.

Need I say more... except how utterly stupid I felt and how deeply moved I was by this amazing creature."

And later Brigitte wrote, "Gosh... I"m still feeling completely humbled by that experience.  Hate to think what could have happened if Dex hadn't put the brakes on."

ARE CANADIANS LIKE BEAVERS? - Ken Morris

"This past summer we had several Canadian horses at a living history event.  We had a highline set up in an old grove of filbert trees.  The trees had not been pruned in some time and had a lot of sucker branches growing from the roots.  By the end of the weekend the trees under which the Canadians had been tied looked like a herd of beavers had come through!!  All the sucker branches were stripped completely bare of bark and leaves as high as the horses could reach.  None of the horses of other breeds touched the branches.  It was quite astonishing, really.

Interestingly, I went to a lecture by a wild horse researcher and they found that in the American West, wild horse diets contain 20 percent woody material (bark, twigs and wood).  She said that this rough material helped tone the intestines and made the horses less prone to colic than if they were on a pure grass diet.  This also explains, she said, why many horses chew wood.  So maybe these Canadians know what's good for them."