I knew at an early age that they were capable of hurting or even killing a person with the strength they possessed in their legs...I can vaguely recall distant memories of my parents talking about this...evidently someone they knew had been seriously hurt by a horse and now the neighbors had one.
Magic occasionally got out of his pasture and into someone else’s pasture...my parents told us kids not to ever get near that horse.
It's many years later and horses still intimidate me somewhat but I appreciate them as animals. They have been a very useful animal in the course of human civilization and are quite pretty as far as animals go. Breeding has been going on for some time and even someone like myself learns to recognize certain breeds: Clydesdales, Lipizzaners, Arabs, Shetland ponies etc.
Just recently I've started to realize that they have personality that can be noted even on a first meeting. I didn't see that before...they all seemed indifferent to me!
Where I live now (Merritt, B.C.) there are a lot of horses around. On the ranches in particular I've seen quite a few gentle giants and in one case completely ignored the fact that two horses that had walked past me on a farm road on their way to greener grass were still behind me as I was photographing more horses in front of me. I suppose they are like any other animal...they only react (or attack) if provoked or given a reason.
It's not like back in the day when I worked on a pony ring on the carnival circuits and was around working animals that liked to pick on the new kid (this is true- working animals know the routine better than any crew and know all kinds of tricks to make your working life hell!) On the other hand I have to say that that experience gave me the courage to grab the bridle of a horse I had found wandering on a country road in Saskatchewan and walk it to the nearest driveway where it evidently had walked out of...
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