Lucky escape today!

AmyHack

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13 February 2013
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I have the ride of a gorgeous ISH who belongs to a friend I used to work with. Went out for a hack in the sunshine today :) was really proud of him as we haven't done much water and we went through a ford which was up to his knees and he didn't bat an eyelid! We ran into a problem though when we met a malamute on the bridle path. My friend and I had met this dog before and it has no recall at all and loves to chase horses! Last time we just stood still and the owner got it back eventually but it was a good long while before he managed to catch it as it was playing him. Anyway today I was glad to see that he had seen me and popped it on a lead which was great, chatted to him as we walked past and had a few attempts at getting the gate open (we're still practising, we can do the ones which you push away from but struggle a little with the ones that open towards you). Managed to do the gate and went through a little walkway before coming up to another gate. Just reaching forward to get the gate and horse shot forward, and had a little hooney. Was a bit worried he was going to try and jump but luckily he barged forward and the gate withstood the force (oops). Turned out the guy had let the dog off the lead once we had got through the first gate and she ran under it towards us and made horse jump. Horse is fine with dogs and very tolerant but not when they come out of nowhere and run up behind him barking! Owner came back and got the dog and apologised and looked very embarrassed. I did feel a little sorry for him but then he said she was kicked by one a couple of months ago! Was so glad a) she didn't get kicked and b) I hadn't have started opening the gate or it could have been nasty if he had tried to run through when it wasn't fully open! Anyway, I'm a bit of a lurker and news years resolution is to start posting a bit more so thought I'd share this with you. Ps. If anyone can tell me how to make a paragraph on here that would be great.....my enter key doesn't make a new line for some reason and this is looking like a verrry long block of text!
 
I had to check your location when I read 'malamute' - was expecting it to be 'Alaska'! Glad your encounter ended ok for all - they are big scary dogs if not under control!
 
Glad you all came out unscathed!
Coincidentally I was chased by a dog today too - he was all cute and interested in the horses - until we started to move off - then he got all aggressive and chased a bit.
I did have to just google
"malamute" - never knew that breeds name until just now (thought they were huskies!)
You learn something every day! :D
 
Well I'm a student vet nurse and worked with animals a long time so know quite a few breeds. I thought it was a fairly common one though. Full name is Alaskan malamute, im just lazy!! I get chased by them quite alot thinking about it, but I guess the bridleways I use are really popular with dog walkers and many dogs don't see horses that often. Some of them seem mesmorized by them and can't help but come over!!
 
Yeh maybe they're more common now - when I was younger I knew lots of breeds, but I don't think I saw many of these about where I grew up in Manchester lol!

Luckily where I ride the beach dogs are used to horses & the horses are used to the dogs.
But you get the occasional "non-beach" dog being walked which tend to be more unpredictable.
I think they've never seen a horse before and are fascinated until horse starts moving faster - maybe that worries them into aggressive/defensive mode bless them!
 
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