Panicked Horse swims three miles out to sea

aceplace57 · #1 05-17-2012, 12:57 AM

A photo shoot that nearly went horribly wrong. Arabian show horse freaks out and starts swimming out to sea. They found him three miles out.

You can't exactly pull a horse into the boat with you.

They had to guide the exhausted horse back to the beach. I never knew horses could swim this well.

The horse is ok and maybe he's heading to London for the Olympics? LOL

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...the-ocean?lite

few more pictures here. The close up of the horse in the water is amazing.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...oastguard.html

Der Trihs · #2 05-17-2012, 01:16 AM

Wow, that was quite the panic reaction. At least the horse survived though.

Rachellelogram · #3 05-17-2012, 01:57 AM

What a cool story. I love the thought process behind the horse's actions, though. "A GIANT WAVE CRASH SCARED ME! I KNOW! I WILL RUN INTO THE WAVES, SURELY THAT IS A GOOD IDEA!"

YogSosoth · #4 05-17-2012, 02:35 AM

If you think that's incredible, he only came in 3rd in the triathlon.

Covered_In_Bees! · #5 05-17-2012, 02:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rachelellogram

What a cool story. I love the thought process behind the horse's actions, though. "A GIANT WAVE CRASH SCARED ME! I KNOW! I WILL RUN INTO THE WAVES, SURELY THAT IS A GOOD IDEA!"

What better way to conquer your fear than to run head first into it?

Alka Seltzer · #6 05-17-2012, 04:13 AM

Elephants are also surprisingly good swimmers, and have been found miles out to sea.

StGermain · #7 05-17-2012, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YogSosoth

If you think that's incredible, he only came in 3rd in the triathlon.

Yeah but you have to admit the bicycle phase is not exactly designed for horses.

StG

Musicat · #8 05-17-2012, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alka Seltzer

Elephants are also surprisingly good swimmers, and have been found miles out to sea.

Probably out to visit their cousins, elphant seals.

StGermain · #9 05-17-2012, 07:09 AM

Was his name Bob?

StG

ZipperJJ · #10 05-17-2012, 08:49 AM

So I was on my oil rig and this horse swam by...

carnivorousplant · #11 05-17-2012, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rachelellogram

What a cool story. I love the thought process behind the horse's actions, though. "A GIANT WAVE CRASH SCARED ME! I KNOW! I WILL RUN INTO THE WAVES, SURELY THAT IS A GOOD IDEA!"

Hey, works with burning barns.

Zsofia · #12 05-17-2012, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rachelellogram

What a cool story. I love the thought process behind the horse's actions, though. "A GIANT WAVE CRASH SCARED ME! I KNOW! I WILL RUN INTO THE WAVES, SURELY THAT IS A GOOD IDEA!"

Horses can be smart, but not SMART smart. They're herd herbivores, which makes working with them weird if you're used to domesticated cats and dogs. Their actions often don't make intuitive sense to us with our eyes on the front of our heads and all.

Bootis · #13 05-17-2012, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alka Seltzer

Elephants are also surprisingly good swimmers, and have been found miles out to sea.

Its been said the reason elephants go out to sea is to form cocoons which later hatch as whales. Whether this is true or not may be debatable, but the movie "Cocoon" was based off this phenomenon.

ultrafilter · #14 05-17-2012, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rachelellogram

What a cool story. I love the thought process behind the horse's actions, though. "A GIANT WAVE CRASH SCARED ME! I KNOW! I WILL RUN INTO THE WAVES, SURELY THAT IS A GOOD IDEA!"

I'm not entirely convinced that "thought process" and "horse" go together in a sentence like that.

Alka Seltzer · #15 05-17-2012, 02:18 PM

In case people think I am pulling their legs, here is a video of some elephants swimming in the Indian Ocean.

Darryl Lict · #16 05-17-2012, 02:19 PM

Whoa, that happened here in Santa Barbara. I was noticing that the photos were attributed to the Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol. They do pretty good work and saved my ass when I turtled my catamaran and couldn't right it.

The owner of the horse is the ex-wife of movie producer Jon Peters.

Hello Again · #17 05-17-2012, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rachelellogram

What a cool story. I love the thought process behind the horse's actions, though. "A GIANT WAVE CRASH SCARED ME! I KNOW! I WILL RUN INTO THE WAVES, SURELY THAT IS A GOOD IDEA!"

Actually running straight towards the enemy is a pretty good survival stragery. If it's a wolf or other smaller-than-you predator, you might trample it, or at least surprise it and give yourself some time to scram. You can't trample the ocean, but horses don't generalize all that well.

Anyway - yeah its surprising how well horses can swim. Their "paddles" are pretty ineffcient, but they are quite bouyant.

My friend has a horse summer camp where every year as a treat the kids swim the horses in the pond on a hot day. the horses enjoy it. Except... She's got one horse -- otherwise one of the more athletic horses she's got -- who can't swim. Just flails and sinks. It's pretty strange.

voltaire · #18 05-17-2012, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rachelellogram

What a cool story. I love the thought process behind the horse's actions, though. "A GIANT WAVE CRASH SCARED ME! I KNOW! I WILL RUN INTO THE WAVES, SURELY THAT IS A GOOD IDEA!"

According to the Daily Mail piece linked in the OP:

Quote:

'But William got scared by a big, crashing wave and just panicked. He was running up and down the beach and people were trying to catch him but he jumped into the sea.

So, yeah, it sounds like the wave crashing spooked him, but it was the people trying to catch him that prompted him to try and become a seahorse.

I just wonder if any sharks went to investigate him and were like "WTF!? I've never seen anything like that before!"

Rachellelogram · #19 05-17-2012, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by voltaire

seahorse

Oh lawdy, how did I miss making this pun the first time around??

snowthx · #20 05-17-2012, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StGermain

Was his name Bob?

StG

Or, if he was waterskiing, Skip.

Chimera · #21 05-17-2012, 06:27 PM

I'm sure there's a "You can lead a Horse to water..." joke in there somewhere.

Rysto · #22 05-17-2012, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chimera

I'm sure there's a "You can lead a Horse to water..." joke in there somewhere.

But you can't make him sink?

ralph124c · #23 05-17-2012, 06:58 PM

I belive it..many years ago, my brother and some friends were out in their boat, about 1 mile offshore (fishing). My brother spotted something swimming-it was a small brown do. The moved over and pulled the poor dog in-he was exhausted. They took him to shore and he ran off-none the worse.

PlainJain · #24 05-17-2012, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alka Seltzer

In case people think I am pulling their legs, here is a video of some elephants swimming in the Indian Ocean.

Not that that's not cool - it is - but come on, they have buoyancy and a built in snorkel.

Spiderman · #25 05-17-2012, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darryl Lict

Whoa, that happened here in Santa Barbara. I was noticing that the photos were attributed to the Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol. They do pretty good work and saved my ass when I turtled my catamaran and couldn't right it.

Well, I've never heard of a donkey on a catamaran before but you're saying SBHP is experienced in this & probably has procedures for equine rescue???