We were riding on the WA beach, & ran into local wranglers who told us there
was a place we could swim our horses up a river. We untacked, & started out
in a line, four horses abreast. The water got higher... higher...
wither/crotch level, & still the horses went on! Suddenly - the bottom
dropped off & we were sinking! All four horses as one began toscramble in
their own personal style of "swimming".
My husband & his horse got all the applase though. He was wearing jeans, &
has a beard. His mare would sink, push off the bottom - the two of them would
appear above the water (with pants & beard streaming water) - Butch would yell
"YE HA!", and they would dissapear again!
What really impressed us, (as we were discussing the experience on the wet,
cold ride back to camp) was the amount of faith it took, for those Arabs to
enter a brand new, deep water enviroment , just because we asked.