Groomed and rode Magic in the arena. We rode to the Oak pasture gate and I had to get off to open the gate now that the cows are in the pasture. This was Magic’s first time in the pasture with the cows. And he was paying attention. I thought it best to lead him up to the cows. They are pretty tame cows as there are two very nice little girls that provide a lot of the care giving. I see them out all hours of the day and night taking feed to the cows on the four wheeler. These are young girls, maybe 6 and 8. When the daddy cannot get the calves to load, he waits until the girls get home from school, and, if I understood correctly, the smallest one gets the calves up and makes them go into the cattle trailer. Anyway the cows are tame but I am somewhat of a stranger. And Magic was a stranger for sure. I walked straight towards the nearest cow knowing they cannot stand this and will, sooner or later, turn and move away. Being tame, she waited a little too long and that put me too close when she figured out that she was going to have to move. She stood her ground until we were maybe 10 feet away then she spun around and bolted off. The quick movement gave Magic a start, but the cow moved in the correct direction (away) and he liked that. He puffed himself up and had a really nice spring in his trot. After a while he and the cows quit paying attention to each other and started grazing. I got on and we started riding the 20 meter circle. We had gone around a couple of times. I pay close attention to what we are doing because that is what it takes to ride a good circle. I did not know it but about this time, one of the heifers, decided she wanted to see what would happen if she ran towards the horse. So I’m looking ahead and a 600 pound red heifer is running up on us from behind. I was unaware but Magic knew what was going on. It was every horse’s horror story come true. It was “coming at ya”. My only memory of the movements were “oops, I lost my seat, I’m still on, but my center of gravity is somewhere below me.” All I know is there were some very vigorous movements, I was hanging on to Magic’s neck, and he stopped in a position facing the heifer. I did not fall off, regained my seat, and realized we had all the cows attention and they were coming to see if they could help. I thought it best if I stepped off while we taught these cows to keep their distance. They moved back and everybody started grazing again and Magic and I left. I mounted after I closed the gate and we returned to the barn without incident.
This is speculation: I think Magic took care of me. He was jumping around and realized “oops, Dumbo’s lost his seat. I’ll stop and maybe he won’t fall off.” I’ve been in that same situation before when the horse thought “when I get him off my back, I’m flying out of here if I have to go through the barbed wire fence.” I like Magic’s attitude. My obligation is to make sure I do not put us in any bad situation.
Magic got in the trailer today.