“Why isn’t the horse running?” - Andrea muttered under his breath, seeing how the horse was hounded by a pack of wolves. Andrea was simply enjoying a quiet hike in the mountains when he saw this frightening incident.
A moment later, the wolves tried to launch into the horse. However, unlike Andrea expected, the horse did not move. Then it did something that made Andrea totally shocked. " I can't believe my eyes..." - he whispered in bewilderment.
What Was He Doing in the Woods?
The morning before Andrea took off for his hike at the Dolomites, one of his friends was about to join him. Although certain circumstances prevented the friend from coming – he had to take off alone. Andrea was no stranger to hiking by himself, so he gladly went ahead with his day.
He also had a plan to go into the city center to take photos of buildings and people. However, heading for the mountains was much more enjoyable for this lone photographer. So that was what he did. Soon, however, he would regret that decision...
Photography Was His Passion
As a younger man, Andrea knew that photography was something he wanted to do for the long run. He soon invested in a set of cameras and a bunch of equipment, and he was quickly off making money with the talent he had. Not many people can say this, but Andrea was one of the lucky ones.
This is why he had his camera on that very same day when he encountered the pack of wolves and the horse. That very same day, Andrea was hiking up the Dolomites when he heard various growling sounds. Naturally, this caused him to panic a bit, so he hid behind a massive tree to figure out where the sound was coming from.
Something Caught His Eye
A few minutes after hearing the growling, Andrea was getting more anxious. He couldn’t find where it was coming from, and he also considered going up the tree at one point. He said to himself, “There’s no way I’m going to die today at the Dolomites.”
Luckily, he had brought a pair of zoom lenses with him and this was what he used to scan through his surroundings. This pair of lenses acted as his binoculars, and he wasn’t prepared for what was about to uncover.
A Frightening Sight
He had his camera in hand, and Andrea knew it was the perfect time to capture photos. While hiking the Dolomites, the least thing that Andrea expected was to witness a natural fight between predator and prey.
Even though he was a couple of miles away from the scene, he could still feel the anger and fear between the wolves and the horse. He didn’t know what to expect, but he had a feeling that the horse would lose its life that day. Was his hunch correct, or would he be proven wrong?
A Scary Pack of Wolves
While he was scanning through the distance, the growling sounds started to come nearer and nearer. Andrea’s heart started beating faster, and he was feeling more and more nervous because he couldn’t find where it had been coming from. So when he saw that the pack of wolves was coming from a distance, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Although, the pack of wolves wasn’t interested in Andrea, but in another prey. There was a massive horse nearby, and the wolves started to make their way towards it. For them, it was about to get down and bloody – was Andrea about to witness a natural interaction between predator and prey?
What Would the Horse Do?
By looking at it, you could see how aggressive the pack of wolves was – it seemed that they were both hungry and ferocious. Then there was the horse who had no idea what was about to come to it. Andrea started taking photos and even recorded a video to show his friends later.
As soon as the wolves came near the horse, they surrounded the big prey. The wolves even went as far as taunting the horse so it would calm down and surrender. However, it wasn’t going to happen, and the photographer would be stunned by what he was about to witness…
The Photographer Waited
He had his camera at the ready, and he had been recording for quite a while now, but the wolves were still surrounding the horse. The latter had no idea what was happening, but instead of running away, it seemed that the horse was studying the predators. If only Andrea could shout, he would say, “Get away and run as fast as you can!”
After a few minutes of waiting, the horse was starting to move. Andrea thought that this was the moment it would be eaten alive, but he was so wrong. What the horse did was something that nobody expected at all – not even the pack of wolves…
A Surprising Incident
The horse started walking towards some of the wolves, which no prey would do. Usually, a horse would run as fast as possible to get into safety, but this was no ordinary horse. That wasn’t all it did, though…
A few minutes later, the horse started rolling over and exposing its belly. This was the perfect time for the wolves to attack, but they didn’t. Like Andrea, the wolves were equally stunned and shocked by what the horse was doing.
The Wolves Were Scared
As soon as the wolves saw what the horse was doing, it seemed that they were both terrified and curious. They had no idea why the horse was rolling over – it looked more bizarre because of the size of the horse. It was about twice the size of its predators, but it decided that the best way to fight them off was to roll over.
Luckily, the horse’s trick seemed to work because the wolves started to back off. Andrea thought that it was such an extraordinary thing, and who would’ve thought that it would actually work? A few minutes later, the pack of wolves started to run towards the direction they came from.
Victory for the Horse
As soon as it saw that the pack of wolves had left, the horse slowly stood up and went about its day. It started galloping towards the opposite direction, and it was so lucky to leave that place alive. If that were a completely different animal, maybe it would have the opposite fate.
That day changed Andrea’s life forever, and he couldn’t believe the spectacle that he had just witnessed. He also couldn’t forget the trick that the horse pulled off, and what was even more astounding was the fact that it had worked. Although there was one question on everyone’s mind: why did the horse do that?
The Photographer Was Astounded
Andrea started to record the incident at that point since he knew that nobody would believe him without it. He said to himself, “I should keep this recording as proof, so people won’t claim that I’m a liar.” It was a great decision because even scientists were baffled by the footage he took that day.
It took less than half an hour to fully capture what happened with the wolves and the horse. It did seem like quite a lot of time, but it wasn’t at all. Not only that but the photographer was astounded that he was there at the same time this incident was happening.
Why Did It Do That?
There was a whole debate as to why the horse did the trick. Naturally, the photographer uploaded the video online, and it has since gathered millions of likes and views. It had been a popular video, and quite a lot of people all over the world had something to say.
Some people say that the horse might be sick or simply taunting the wolves. Then there were some people who suggested that it might just be playing with the predators trying to eat it. Nonetheless, none of these stories were proven correct, yet countless theories have appeared…
Various Theories Emerged
Even a bunch of scientists have been reached by the viral video, and they too had hunches of their own. It would seem that even prominent people in science had something to say, but would they be correct?
The original video can still be viewed on the internet today, so this doesn’t stop strangers from trying to dissect the horse’s behavior. After all, it did something very unlikely, and people wanted an explanation. Although, some of the most famous theories spreading on the internet seemed a bit too shallow or even naïve.
The Wolves Weren’t Hungry
There were some people who predicted that maybe the wolves weren’t that hungry. They said that perhaps the pack simply wanted to play with the lone horse when they saw it from a distance. Then again, this was something that was pretty hard to believe.
Although, a lot of people supported this theory. Still, it wasn’t an explanation that was good enough, unlike the next theory claimed by others…
The Horse Pretended to be Sick
Some scientists also claimed that the horse had this instinct to pretend that it was sick. In doing so, all it needed to do was lie down and pretend to be having some sort of attack. This might be why the horse decided that it was going to roll over in the sight of the wolves.
This could also explain why the pack of wolves didn’t want anything to do with the lone horse. Maybe they thought they would be sick too if they ate the infected animal. This could be a proper hunch, but there was another one.
The Wolves Were Too Small
There were some people who claimed that the wolves were too small to even compete with the bigger horse. Still, they were predators, and they had an instinct to kill and eat their prey. So this doesn’t really explain that.
Sure, the wolves were a bit smaller, but it doesn’t mean that they weren’t going to try to eat the animal. After all, they came in a pack, and they were ready for what was about to come.
The Horse Grew Up with Dogs
The last theory could be explained, but it wasn’t the most logical explanation. Some people say that maybe the horse grew up with a bunch of dogs, and upon seeing the wolves, it just wanted to play. This was also highly unlikely, but it wasn’t impossible.
Maybe the horse did grow up with dogs on a farm, but wouldn’t an animal express fear if someone was trying to eat them? So this couldn’t be the case for this horse.
What Happened in the End?
In the end, Andrea was just grateful that he didn’t witness a “crime” in the animal kingdom. Hiking the Dolomites that day was life-altering for him, and he would never look at animals the same way again.
As for the horse, we hope that it was glad it skipped death that day – after all, what it did was a bit crazy, right? Still, it’s alive, and we hope that horse is doing better than ever. We also hope that someone might give us a better insight into what happened with the horse that day – do you have any theories?