An Evening with Horses

Last night a funny thing happened. We were outside enjoying a beautiful mountain evening at our fire pit when the neighbor's grand kids showed up across the pasture. My youngest daughter Denali jumped up and wanted to go say hi, but the neighbor has about 10 horses and they were between her and her friends. We asked our older daughter Brindley to go with her in case anything happened. As they crossed under the fence into the neighbor's yard the horses all surrounded them and started nibbling at their golden hair. Denali began to yell and was frightened when she was surrounded by all the large horses. Brindley was afraid, but tried to draw them away from Denali. One of the horses is a yearling and for some strange reason, whether to play or to show dominance we aren't sure, he reared up and kicked her with both feet. She froze and started screaming. All the adults came out and I ran across the pasture to help her, but she wouldn't move. Our neighbor came out and shooed the horses down the field but they came right back. We talked and tried to get Denali to pet the horses, but now she is truly frightened of them. We ruined their nice evening with their family celebrating their Great Grandparents 65th wedding anniversary. I'm just glad she didn't go through the field behind us with the  cows!