While I can’t recall any time my horse “saved me” there is the tale of Irish stallion Welcome Flagmount who saved his groom. Apparently they were in the wash stall which was probably cement or cinderblock wall when the wall started to come down on them, Welcome put himself between the wall and the groom thus protecting the groom from the falling wall. Sadly Welcome didn’t make it but his groom did.
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Very much NO. My dearly departed gelding was the least protective (without being mean) horse I have ever met. Just truly reckless with my safety. Pawing right where I was standing, barging/swinging hips, cutting it awful close around trees on trails. I’ve known some horses who are nervous but still careful not to hurt humans. Not my horse. I didn’t have him long enough to do much to help him/improve his training. He died suddenly. Of course, I wonder now if he was showing symptoms that we just didn’t recognize, but the necropsy didn’t provide answers. He was also fairly low in herd hierarchy, so when I was getting swarmed by the frat house (begging for treats), he’d just hang back and let me come to him.
Yes. My gelding will pin his ears when others approach me. He has even turned his butt to the more pushy ones. I do discourage this behavior at least when he’s in my hands though.
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This is a common behavior in boss mares in mustang herds. They check out what the danger is.
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I’ve had horses display uncharacteristic behavior upon meeting my SO at the time. Two different horses, two different men, both of whom said they felt the message the horse was sending was clearly, “If you mess with her you will have to answer to me!”
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I had a “protective” experience once. I was a senior in high school and I was out riding my horse in the freshly baled hay field. Our exercise of the day was loping around every single hay bale in the field. He slipped going around one of them, enough that I fell off the side but I was still able to keep my reins in my hand. I vividly remember time practically coming to a halt. I am laying on my back, and he is trying to get back up. The way that things were, I thought for sure he was going to step on me with his front feet in order for him to get back up. I remember each of us looking into each others eyes, and I just knew that he was also terrified he was going to step on me. I don’t know how he did it, but he somehow got up without touching me.
Seems a bit anthropomorphizing I know, but it was just one of those moments where you read each other and I just knew what was going through his mind.
He was a darn good horse.
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I brush lightly and spray horses for flies after I feed their alfalfa flakes and they settle.
I was by my old man and the silly youngster that was very flighty had one of his moments of panic and shoot like a cannon ball from under the shed, would have run over me if the big fat hiney of my horse had not blocked him and received the glancing blow as youngster ran by headless.
My old horse then smelled of me, guess to be sure I was ok maybe, then went to eating, so I took my time hugging, grooming and fly spraying him, very grateful.
Will never know, but it sure felt like he protected me that time.
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My horse had a sweet relationship with my old dog. Horse used to chase dog around the pasture, and when dog got old horse would do this exaggeratedly slow trot—almost like a piaffe— so he could stay behind her slow poke old dog run.
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I don’t ever remember one of my horses protecting me–but my kids were another matter.
A neighbor sometimes came by with his German Shepherd. My Paso Fino mare was fine with this unless my sons were in her paddock then she became a herding virago, running at the dog snaking her head until the dog escaped.
When my sons were latch-key kids for a while I owned a Davenport Arabian stallion. I told my kids that if someone came by that seemed threatening to run to my stallion’s paddock and stand in the middle, that my stallion would protect them because they fed him every day. NOBODY was allowed to interfere with his food bringers, nobody. Luckily this never happened but I felt better with my stallion there when I was not around.
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Nope - my mare tolerates me because I have cookies and even then, the dislike of everyone else can still override cookies. Closest she gets to protecting me is when she knocks me over with her chest because the 3-year-old ran up her butt, she might marginally swerve away, but I’m not convinced it’s not simply a case of her wanting to avoid having to pick up her feet to step on the human-shaped lump, swerving takes less energy. If there are scary things (like hay bales that weren’t there 15 minutes before), it’s everyone for themselves, sorry human.
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I’m sorry you lost your good friend.
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The irony is she was the lowest in the pecking order, even below the donkey. 
But she had 11 foals and was always in protective mother mode.
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protect? ours are Morgans they seem to believe their impute is required with anything that is being done. They will be right there with you to make sure the task is completed to Their satisfaction.
They believe they need to direct
my little Morgan mare (13,3h) always thought I was lost when riding trails at the Grassland the trails looped around and through a central parking area, When out on an outer trail she would just stop, turn to look at me with an expression LOST again? … so giving her the freedom to “take us home to the trailer” she would turn to climb/route through the brush and hills to take us directly to the trailer, once there she would just sigh thinking she saved us again.
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Absolutely yes for my current boy, I was pootling about the yard on him in the summer - bareback, no headgear.
He moved another horse out the way and she threatened him with a leg, he bit her, I slid off as I could see trouble ahead, and landed on my bum in the barn.
He flew at her to make her leave, then moved all the other horses out and when it was just me and him he came and stood over me to nuzzle me.
I think he was just trying to empty my pockets of the haycobs in there, but it made me feel good.
He was given to me after I rehabbed him and we do have the loveliest bond.
My other boy would leave me in the dirt…actually he’d probably kick me as he went past
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Your foto reminds me of my young horse Rosy. Any time I am working around the barn, he will be right there offering a helping hand. This usually involves picking up my tools, giving them a good shake, and tossing them in the dirt, or maybe dumping out a bag of fence parts, or undoing a coil of e-fence cord.
I was working on the tractor yesterday, and had just opened a cardboard box with some hydraulic parts in it. There were still bits of packing tape attached, and of course Rosy was looking over my shoulder:
“Leave that box alone, Rosy; it’ll stick to you.”
“Oh? Lemme see . . .” And promptly got it stuck to his lips. He gave his head a shake, and the box came loose, but the strip of tape remained.
After watching him trying in vain to rub the tape off of his snout, I had to lend an assist:
“Just Stand, Rosy; let me get it for you.” Rippp; off. “There ya go, buddy.”
“Phphphphph.”
But he came right back to inspect the new parts, and made off with a coiled hose. Sigh.
Rosy is slated to be my new trail horse, and I like an “inquisitive” critter, it means that when he sees something new he will be curious rather than frightened, so I don’t discourage him from checking things out. This time I was actually able to get him to hand me the hose instead of giving it a toss.
This story mostly to amuse, but also to illustrate that every time you interact with your Equine friend, you are training him/her, for better or worse. And as far as I can determine, they never forget. Something every owner should keep in mind.
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I don’t know if I would say my horse protects me, or when she is protecting, I’m not sure it’s personal.
She thinks it’s her job to make sure everything is “just so” at home (and who I am to disagree). She will leave her grain or hay to stare off into the distance if she sees something or hears something moving, even if none of the other horses are bothered. She will get antsy and upset if she thinks she needs to go look at something while in the cross ties or being held for some reason, and she is the first to notice and express her distaste when there is a change in routine. She has killed a raccoon on the property before. She always needs to “supervise” fence repairs or barn work.
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we were taught by our first horse that what we wanted them to be may not be in their best interest
We live in Fort Worth and wanted our kids to learn to ride English so went back east to Kentucky to find an English Pleasure horse, found a nice young horse whose blood lines spoke highly of all being English Pleasure, but ended up doing everything except English Pleasure… she taught us to be open to what’s best for the horse
Our English Pleasure horse was a Regional Champion Western Pleasure
who went on to be a National champion Competitive Trail horse (who at first would not step over a puddle of water)
they taught us to be flexible with our desires
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I had a little mare that was an absolute pistol when an adult rode her but you put a child on board and she was as steady as the day is long. She was a very motherly girl and protective of children. Once I had a little boy in the saddle with me and I had to actually push her to get her to walk.
My old horse who is no longer with us was very protective of me, he carried me safely through some of the scariest trails where one false hoof step would mean certain death and never put a foot wrong.
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My mare is like that, and when I started clicker I marshalled her desire to toss things off the stall front into playing fetch. It’s really cute. I’ve done Christmas performances for our club where she helps me decorate a tree by walking over to a pile of mouth friendly ribbons and things and bringing them to me.
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My mare is very protective of herself so she is sure footed, vigilant about falling branches, and careful about slippery arenas. On the rare occasion she spooks big, like from a falling tree next to the arena, she definitely takes me with her. However she will also bite and draw blood if she’s pissed off, so I’m not sure how protective she is!
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