A Lesson In Horse Sense

 forward and we cautiously proceeded under the humming wire, completing the trail ride without further incident.

Upon returning home I wondered about the safety of that path, since the weakened wire could possibly break. I contacted my father, who was superintendent of construction for the local utility, and gave him the location of the path. He forwarded this information to a crew, but they could not locate the defective wire.

During a summer job I had marked utility poles with aluminum numbers, so I knew the poles and towers were numbered according to their position on a map grid. If I obtained the numbers of the two supporting towers, I could diagram the location of the problem.

So, the next weekend I took Bull out to the site again with pencil and notebook. We braved underbrush and rough terrain to access the numbers of the towers at each end of the span containing the frayed section. I sketched a diagram to pinpoint the defect and gave it to my father, who again assigned it to a crew. A report soon followed: success! The foreman even joked about giving me a task code for the wire maintenance, but I figured Bull would need one as well, since it was he who had discovered the problem.

Mission accomplished

Again, I rode Bull to the location to survey the repair. Now when we reached the hilltop there was no spooking. I could see a neat, foot-long splice where the frayed wire had been. Even better—no humming or buzzing!

Since that experience I have always double-checked any area where my horse hesitated or shied unexpectedly. I had sensed the buzzing about 30 feet from its origin, but Bull had heard it 100 feet away with ears at least three times more sensitive than mine.

The lesson: Pay attention to your horse’s reactions—there could be something unusual in the vicinity that is nearly undetectable to you, and maybe even dangerous.