Can't believe what I have just witnessed

[Patriciathestripper1]

Ok I'm not going mad but this did happen:
Went over to my stables to show Dh where I wanted my outdoor security light putting.
Whilst he was up the ladder securing it to the side of the stables I started tying up hay nets and doing waters (we have two horses and my DD pony)
When I went into DD's pony's stable and whilst doing his net I heard something 'plop' into his water bucket (large builders rubble type bucket)
I went to look and it was a mouse that must have just fallen in (we find them sometimes in the horses buckets dead in the mornings but not very often)
I shouted for Dh to come quick. I'm not a wimpy sort but I didn't want to touch it but also didn't want it to drown.
My daughters pony went over to the bucket whilst I was standing in the stable door and looked down at the mouse and then to my utter amazement he pushed some of the straw up the side of his water bucket asthough he did it all the time so some of the straw went into the water and the mouse climbed out!
I have had horses all my life (parents had them so brought up with them) and I have never seen anything like that. One animal helping another from a different species?
My Dh thinks iabu and the pony didn't 'help' the mouse out of the bucket but I saw it with my own eyes so I know it happened.
After a lot of 'yes it did'. 'No it didn't' I tried to recreate it with my DD wind up fish which her pony promptly picked up out of the water bucket (I think he thought it was a treat I'd dropped in as she sometimes puts an apple in there for him to 'bob' to occupy him) and he bit and broke it but I know he did it.

Awww! They are amazing animals. I miss him, he was an ex-racer and typically skittish, I was an under confident rider, but looking back I now realise he'd never have done anything to hurt me.

Strange how something so powerful can be so gentle.

monkeyfeet - that story about your horse hug brougt a tear to my eye

Lovely stories. I love yours, Liara! Thank you.

OP, you and Monkey have moved me to tears! I have a house full of animals and ofter take in a poorly Chicken or too, my cats are immune to the crazy of a chicken pottering around the kitchen and just ignore anything in the house, including our giant house Bunny - they don't even make eye contact with her, but one night she got very ill and seamed very cold and quite so I sat cuddled up with her on the Sofa trying to warm her up - My old cat (14) sat the other side of the bunny, pretty much on top of her and within an hour the bunny perked up and was back to normal - and the cat as gone back to ignoring her.

Questa - you have described a 'stress shit'. which is something horse's do when upset.

So the horse wasn't intending it as a personal insult which is how I interpreted it.

Aw these stories are lovely they are making me weep ! I am 7 weeks pregnant and feeling sick and weepy and they've cheered me right up x

We live on a farm. Not a working one but have pet sheep and a pig along with horses, dogs, farm cats and chickens and a rabbit. The animals all seem to care for each other and while their is a pecking order they live together peacefully.
The rabbit is DSs and is a new addition. A few months ago we were playing with him in the house and by the time DH put him out it was dark so he didn't notice the cat had climbed in the hutch. I didn't check the rabbit until lunch the next day and when I opened the hutch was met with the cat. Bearing in mind the cats catch rabbits daily and have even been known to go after pheasants I had my eyes half closed for the carnage. No. The rabbit is sitting next to the cat happy as you like?? The cat who was obviously starving shot off into the horses field and returned with a pheasant.

This is why I am vegetarian and trying to go vegan. I think animals are so special and given the chance all species are capable of amazing things

Oh MONKEY, your post made me cry, bless him.

They're clever chaps. I once worked on a polo ranch and broke my right arm so I had to ride a slow pony (they ride with their left there...). I couldn't mount so I trained the pony to stand next to a haystack so that I could scramble on. The grooms were really bemused as they just leap onto the horses. They watched a few times then one of them took my pony (the outrage!) and lined him up next to the haystack so that he could also climb on. My pony walked off and left him mid air. So loyal!

I've been in a foul mood all day and this cheered me right up. Thanks op.

What a lovely story! Whether it was because he didn't want mouse-flavoured water, was helping another animal out, or fiddling with the straw, still nice to read. We once had a mouse drown in our chickens' water overnight. No equine rescuer there

Wow! I never liked horses until I read that posting. I'm in love with your pony now! Animals are clever. Not quite the same but I was by the canal one day and a young pigeon fell in to the water from underneath the bridge and my dog started to whine and lay down watching it. The pigeon saw it and I swear this too is true, the pigeon made eye contact with him and did a brilliant front crawl with its wings to us, from the middle of the canal to the edge where the dog was, and I was able to lie down and pull it out. I took it home, caged it, let it dry and next day it flew away.

That's lovely. Once a wood pigeon flew into my window and ended up in the garden, stunned and unable to move. While my neighbour and I were panicking about what to do, 2 cats came prowling over. Next thing my neighbour's dog moved on front of the pigeon and growled at the cats, as if to protect the bird.

Nellie is my 17 year old Parson Jack Russell. Almost blind, deaf, arthritic and prone to seizures. Sybil is the lame Muscovey duck which has adopted us. I feed her twice a day.
While walking Nellie and the duck round the field next to the river at 11pm she had a seizure.
Sybil limped over to us making frantic cooing noises and started to shake Nellie's life jacket, nibbled her face and seemed very distressed. As Nellie recovered and we continued our walk the duck walked alongside Nellie, chattering to her and occasionaly nibbling her face. Sybil got an extra supper that night.

What a nice story :)
I remember my mum's cat bringing in a mouse and letting it go in the kitchen. The dog promptly swallowed it whole and alive. Dogs are dicks.

I love this! Just what I needed after reading sad news stories. Clever pony.

Aww some lovely stories in here.
My mums childhood dog used to stop her cats killing things. Apparently if the dog caught them playing with mice she'd hold them down until the mouse had escaped.

How absolutely delightful!! Your DD is lucky to have such a sweet pony

Lovely pony and lovely story OP.

We have ponies and I believe you. We have a couple of pet sheep too. Sister was lunging her cob one day and the sheep ran across where pony was going. Pony nearly broke her neck stopping in time so she didn't trample them. Waited until they had both passed then carried on.

And my little old pony who has never so much as pulled a face at another pony defended her old friend against my new pony and the rest of the herd last year when they were hoolying around establishing pecking order. Her friend had always been the 'boss' but was older than my pony. My old girl forced her up the field and into a corner near us and the gate and sent every other pony who came near flying back down the field with its arse smacked. This was a pony we used to nanny baby ponies. Never seen her even think about gaffering any of the others.

And when dd was tiny (4) we had a naughty colt escape onto the yard. I was in with dd in old ponies stable at the time. Figured dd would be safer in there than trying to get across the yard to feed room while a knobhead colt trying to climb into stables of unimpressed mares.

Helped mate capture knobhead then heard dd crying. Rushed back to stable to find her sitting in back corner on water bucket with a wet arse and a pony guarding her. Dd was crying because pony had pushed her all the way back into the corner and dd had stepped back into water bucket. But pony wouldn't let her move.

She was protecting her from knobhead colt pony. In the wild if a colt or stallion gets with a herd of mares they will sometimes kill the foals to save resources for their own offspring.

Ponies are cleverer than we give them credit for. And very much do care for other species.

There's a clip youtube somewhere showing a hippopotamus helping a wildebeest calf, or possibly a bat zebra, out of a rive away from crocodiles. I think animals have a much stronger emotional life than we give them credit for, and are also very ethical. If another animal is vulnerable, and is neither a predator nor a competitor for resources, I think they often help each other.

Zebra - I have seen exactly the same thing happen with a rabbit and my five terriers. They had the rabbit trapped and it froze. My boss terrier (something of a Matriarch) then sniffed the rabbit and warned the others off it. I thought she would kill it as soon as it moved again, but she waited quietly, and it became confident to start hopping again - a couple of tentative little hops then it shot into the brambles. None of them followed it, even though two of them were squeaking with excitement!

BTW OP - if your lovely pony disappears, I will probably have stolen it. It will be in my kitchen eating apples

We were once walking on a causeway next to a saltmarsh grazed by sheep one spring, with our dog (one a lead of course). From quite a distance we could see a lamb standing in the middle of the path baaing. As we approached, it held its ground, looking and baaing at us - odd behaviour for a lamb. We stopped, wondering what was up with it, and not wanting to scare it - and noticed a sheep stuck on its back nearby. DH went and righted it, lamb ran to join her - obviously its mother. My opinion of the intelligence and bravery of sheep changed that day!

happy he's anyone's for an apple and half a pack of polo mints