Hold Your Horses, It's a Runaway Trail Run | Editor's Letter

On a recent trail run with my pre-teen daughter, our leisurely expedition through a short 4km out-and-back fire trail early on a Sunday morning, turned into an unexpected adventure that required a little bit of navigation through caution and awareness.

Firstly, no one got hurt, so that was a relief. But our sudden encounter with a runaway horse certainly gave us both a bit of a fright, and was an important reminder of the unpredictable factors or occurrences we face on the trails. 

There we were, with me leading the way at the 1.5km mark, both of us with our headphones on, when I heard a horse’s whinny a little way behind me and galloping hooves getting closer. 

I’m going to preface this by saying just the day before, I had purchased a new pair of Shokz OpenRun Pros, which if you’re unfamiliar, are open-ear bone conduction headphones that sit in front of the ear and not inside the ear canal. Now, normally I wouldn’t take headphones when out trail running with my pre-teen, but when you get yourself some new gear…need I say more? 

Anyway, back to the story. When I heard the whinny and gallops, I immediately turned around to see a big, bay-coloured horse, fully tacked with bridle and saddle, and no rider, charging straight for us. I mean, we were on a single fire trail. There was nowhere for this animal to go. Immediately, I pushed my daughter between two spread out bushes so she wouldn’t end up in an actual bush, and then stood next to her slightly as the horse sped past. Clearly spooked, this was 600kg of muscle zooming right past us. 

I’d hate to think what would’ve happened had I not heard it behind us. 

The remainder of the trail run was with music turned off, just in case the horse decided to turn around and come back in our direction, and convincing my daughter that horses are not malicious wild animals that attack unprovoked (sometimes, their imagination can get away from them). By no means am I horse person either, so there was no way I’d know how to stop it and reign it in; in the end, the both of us came away from our adventure unscathed and with a story to tell. As well as calling the local police and rangers to alert them just in case a rider lay hurt somewhere – we had not come across anyone during our out-and-back. 

My experience with a runaway horse brings with it reminders of important trail running advice to ensure a safe adventure – how to react calmly in a situation, assessing the situation, taking action, and awareness to prevent or prepare for future incidents.