A couple months ago Ginger Kathryns
asked about peoples experiences with wildlife on the trail.Well, here’s a fun one.I have just started a new horse (8 yo mare, but knows nothing).We were ready for our first trailering experience and a short ride at a local community
arena with a short trail.
Horse did well in the trailer (except the buckets of sweat
on the floor) and in the arena so I decided to continue for a short ride on the
trail.Past the arena is a cow
pasture with about 50 cows, calves and a couple bulls. On the way out the horse was very
interested – the cows were kind of nuts.Two cows were butting heads as
ferociously as any mountain sheep. Some
were chasing others around rather vehemently.Two cows and a calf raced along the
fence line with us.Horse was
really amazing.
On the way back, I had just remounted (dismounted to take
some steep downhills easy) and the cows were really
agitated now.Then we saw a huge
bird flapping and all the cows in a frenzy,
surrounding the bird, attacking it! It hopped a couple times but never got
off the ground and then we couldn’t see it anymore – one bull went
after it and then all the cows completely surrounded it.
We saw someone walking out toward the cows.I was a little concerned – wasn’t
sure just what was up with these cows.I saw her parked Forest Service truck by the highway.We were too far away to communicate so
after it seemed like the cows were willing to move away we rode back to the
arena and loaded up.
As we left, we saw the truck was still there and being quite
curious we drove down to see what was up.We walked out into the pasture and there was a still alive, but damaged
golden eagle.The lady had called
the DOW and was just waiting for them to show up. It was a young bird, but still weighed
about 20 pounds.We got to help
them catch him and put him in a truck to take to a bird sanctuary.No idea if he’ll live, but worth
the attempt of course. We looked
around the pasture, no dead calves or anything, so still no idea what drove
those cows into such behavior.
Marlene
PS and I just love my new horse, didn’t spook at
anything the whole ride and it was not a particularly calm environment!
