15th April - Zano Vs. Cows

Zano bonding with Paul

While I’ve been waiting for the saddler, I’ve been walking Zano out in hand everywhere, going on longer and longer jaunts around the surrounding lanes. Sometimes just the two of us wander out, sometimes my partner, Paul, leads him and I walk with them, and at other times I go out with Rosie and June.


Zano can be a bit clumsy, at times almost tripping over his hooves or my feet as he eagerly looks round at all the different scenery. But his favourite thing? Stretching down to smell droppings left on the road from other horses! Horses have a really well developed sense of smell and they can get all kinds of information from sniffing a pile of manure – like who has been on the lane before them, or whether they’re a mare or gelding, Zano loves it!

One thing he is definitely not in love with, though, is cows. Especially herds that rampage about the small field he’s trying to get past! I was on my own with him when we walked down the path between two paddocks. We’d walked down there before and he’d been curious about the cows. They’d been standing quietly then, though, in the far corner of the field and he’s walked past without any problems.

As we approached this time, Zano’s head got higher and higher. Suddenly it felt like I was leading an 18hh horse, rather than a 15.3hh one! Just as we reached the edge of the field, he began to snort. I thought I’d be able to get him past quite quickly, but as we started to go, the cows began to charge towards the fence, right by us! Zano dug in his heels and snorted again. This set the cows off, and they stampeded away again, before turning round and trotting back for another look. I managed to get Zano past, but he passaged (very slow, powerful trot!) until the cows were well and truly out of sight! He calmed down, but he’s a sharp, quick learning horse. I wondered what would happen next time he saw another cow...!