A couple years ago in the Selway, I had a horse picketed to a stake in the meadow (don't ever use a bungie cord on a picket stake except for training purposes). I had hobbles on my paint pack horse, but he broke the hobbles when he was getting up after rolling so I let him graze loose (don't ever let a dominate bully graze loose). All the horses were grazing and content so the bully had to stir things up a bit... he sped towards the picketed horse and ran into its picket rope and stretched out the bungie cord with such force that it pulled up the stake and shot it hard at the picketed horse. The horse spooked after getting smacked with the stake and he sped off to the trail... and the the paint and another loose horse followed him. With amazing speed and agility for a 40 year old wearing Whites pacs, I sprinted for the trail to cut them off but didn't get there in time to catch the spooked horse... but I caught the the other two.
There was a fork in the trail and the spooked horse took the correct fork back to the truck, but second guessed himself and turned around and went down the wrong fork... which took him deeper into the wilderness. We had taken two trips to pack everything in and he still got lost on his own.
Normally horses are real good at going back to the truck or camp, but so am I. If I ever got lost I would trust the horse, but only if I was lost.
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