[Jeff Higgins]

I bet once the rider has shown it which one, he could probably get off and watch from there.

And yes, prey animals. That run, as their only real form of self defense, in spite of their size. Oh, we have all heard of them stomping cougars, coyotes, and the like, but believe me, their first instinct is to run. Right after they panic...

One of my favorite, illustrative horse stories: I used to stop after work to help my sister in law exercise their horses. One day we were riding from her place to a trail about a mile away, just riding down the shoulder of the road. I was on Maverick, their new American Quarter Horse. Pretty green, I think maybe three or four years old. Laura was in front, on Primo, her 20-some year old on whom my boys learned to ride. Steady Eddy all the way.

At one point Laura looks back at me and tells me "you need to cross the road".

"Oh, why is that? The trail is on this side."

"See those sheep?"

"Yup."

"Maverick is terrified of sheep."

And yes, by then, I could feel him getting jittery, so we crossed. He wouldn't take his eyes off of them, and it was all I could do to keep him somewhat "calm".

Next thing I know, Laura tells me to cross back over to the other side again. So I told her we were fine where we were for now.

Now she says "see those mail boxes?"

There was a stand of half a dozen mail boxes coming up. So I said "your kidding me, he's afraid of mail boxes too?"

"No, not at all. But he thinks they're sheep..."