As mentioned many times before, horses are herd animals. It means that no matter what, they want to be within at least seeing and hopefully smelling distance of another horse, especially horses they know and like, and especially family.
Well, here’s an example that horses would do anything for another horse. As we can see in the video, during the California wildfires, an old horse was filmed rescuing some younger ones from a stable fire. This hero horse is named Prieta, from a ranch in Simi Valley.
Today, the little animal that Prieta saved, named Onyx, is enjoying a calm, sunny day in Southern California. Onyx’s mom, Mona Lisa, is safe after being captured on camera, evacuating when flames broke out near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
Horses can watch over each other and protect each other. Some can watch out for predators, while others eat or look for food sources. They are very altruistic animals. So if one horse from the herd were in danger, the others would try to protect or even rescue it. That’s why horses are so amazing. They are selfless, kind, and brave. But also, nature has made the horse cautious and given him a strong sense of self-preservation.
Although most horses, If confronted with a threatening situation, prefer protecting themselves by running away from the danger, some of them can be very protective of one another, and we can see this very clearly in our video. If running away from a threat isn’t an option, horses can also protect themselves and other horses from the herd by biting, hitting, rearing up, bucking, or kicking. Many of the horse’s natural behavior patterns, such as herd-formation and social facilitation, are directly related to their prey species.
Many of them are known to be loyal because they are essentially protective of the members of their herd in the wild. The females tend to their young and would defend them at all costs.