Well, some are truly clueless, and some have awesome "trailer magnets" in
their heads. I had an Arab mare that always knew exactly the shortest way
back to the trailer, no matter where it was parked and even in new areas.
One day my friend and I went exploring in the hills way across the creek
from me. She was on that mare, and I was on a new mare. We did all
kinds of exploring, backtracking, dead ends, etc. Finally on the way home,
we were cantering up a wide dirt road. Suddenly the mare did an abrupt
swerve and leaped up a little deer trail up a bank; my friend almost fell off
(well, we were laughing pretty hard too). Sure enough, we had come down
that way and would have forgotten the turn.....
Other horses.....well, I would certainly not trust my life to their sense
of direction!
Yes, I was just wondering (and maybe I'll post this to ridecamp, because
I know the group will know), when we are in the middle of our lovely trail
wandering, how good is my horse's sense of direction? If I ride her in a loop
over the hills, will she still realize we're heading home if we come down the
other side of the ridge? I bet she does! Need to check it out. Other
observations on horses' sense of direction?
Laura "Not all who wander are lost." (jrr
tolkien)
