FreeSpirit : Horses on the towpath? Well fancy that!

Suddenly realised these three were following me

Well.... who would of thought as I set out to walk Jade this morning that I would see equines on the towpath. Reminiscent of the good old days except these horses were running free! Instead of our usual walk along the Nottingham canal and as it was such a glorious morning, I thought I would give Jade a treat and take her for a dip in the River Erewash. On the way back we had to walk across the flood plains, a fast area of open space which is a haven for all sorts of birds and insects. Never has there been any sort of grazing animals on the grass land so I was very surprised to see three horses munching away on the rich grass. The path took me very close to one of the horses who stopped its munching and decided to follow me. It stayed with me right up to the opening onto the towpath and then luckily it turned around to go back to its mates. Jade and I carried on along the towpath heading for home when suddenly I heard the clip clop of hooves behind me. Turning round quickly I came face to face to with all three of them. I managed to halt them and get them to turn round and then attempted to herd them back towards the opening. All was going well until the lead horse just kept on going. It failed to head down the entrance but continued along the towpath. Meanwhile the other two, who had more sense, went back into the field. A couple coming toward the lead horse managed to turn it again and it finally decided to join the others. I am assuming that they have escaped from somewhere as I cant believe any horse owner would leave them in an unsecured area.