Franklin Levinson's
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Horses running off on their own big mystery
Hi Franklin,
My name is Stefanie from Germany and I´m having a small problem. At present I´m in Patagonia, Argentina, living a childhood dream. i bought a couple of horses and started traveling north on horseback. The most difficult, but the most enjoyable adventure in my life. The horses of course are very tame and used to work in camp. So I had no trouble handling them at all. Then one day they just disappeared over night. While I camped at an estancia. I think i´ve been betrayed, but of course can´t prove anything. I would like to know if a horse would go back to where it was bred. Because one turned up again five days later 100 km far away at its home. But to do that it had to cross three estancias one deserted, no water and the rest, I don´t know how many fences and a highway. Before I stayed ten days at one estancia and the horses have never even tried to leave the paddock they were in. The other one is still missing. Its all a bit mysterious, the whole story. There is more but you´d just get bored. :-) Do you think its possible for a horse to seperate from its buddy and walk home alone? Because maybe i´m just overreacting and doing these people wrong. Thank you for your time and help!
Kind Regards, Stefanie
Hi Stefanie,
This is one of the more unusual questions I have had in a while. Generally, horses will stay with their buddies unless something 'spooks' them which prompts them to be afraid enough to run off. They can backtrack themselves and make it back to their home area very easily and will do this. Whether or you have been swindled by people who sold you horses who will run off back to their previous barn I do not know. I suppose its a possibility although it seems unlikely. You say they "just disappeared over night". What sort of enclosure where they in? If your fencing was not good or wasn't there at all, as the horses were a bit new to where you had them, it might be reasonable for them to go off and either return to their previous home or simply move off for better grazing. It takes horses a while to settle into a new home. If you left avenues open for them to leave before they had a real chance to get used to their new home, they probably did. If there are any preditory animals around where you are, it is possible they got spooked by a preditor and high-tailed it somewhere else to safety. It is possible for the two horses to separate for a number of reasons. However, it is a bit unusual as they would tend to stay in the same vacinity as each other. Again, there could be a lot of variables we are unaware of. Let me know how this all plays out. As I said, your story is one of the most unusual ones I have had. Thanks for the question and good luck.
Sincerely, Franklin