As summer approaches, the days get longer and hotter, and everyone is looking for a little cooling off. And it's not just humans who are in the mood. My balcony water bath has attracted many more songbirds and other animals, and my neighbor's dogs have been attacking the sprinkler heads on their walks much more often than they used to.
The desire to take a little dip in the water applies to larger animals too. In this video, two horses decide to take a dip in their local pond, even though there isn't much water there.
In this video, we see two beautiful chestnut horses frolicking in a very shallow pond. At first, it's not even clear how shallow this body of water is, but as we see one struggling to get his neck further under the water and the other standing, both on their knees, we see that the pond is probably only about a foot deep.
RELATED: The pure joy of watching a horse swim in a pool is simply beautiful
Hey, any kind of water will do?
“My horses are swimming together as a couple,” the caption reads. While “swimming” may be a bit of an exaggeration here, it's nice to see the horses enjoying a refreshing dip.
Can horses swim?
Most mammals have an instinct to swim, and horses are no exception. In fact, many veterinarians use swimming as a form of physical therapy for horses who need to maintain their strength, as well as reduce the strain on weak legs after an injury.
Horses are most often encouraged or trained to swim, but they soon learn that they have a natural affinity for it, and in fact in some coastal areas swimming with or renting a horse can be a popular pastime.
Swimming is very strenuous exercise for a horse and should not last more than 5 to 10 minutes.
Famous swimming horses
Most people know about the Chincoteague, Virginia, tradition of “pony penning,” where wild ponies that live on the Virginia side of Assateague Island are driven each year across the waterway that separates the two islands. In pony penning, ponies are sold to buyers to help care for the ponies and control the feral herd population. Today, the average price a pony sells for at these annual auctions is between $5,000 and $6,000.
The cowboys running the event check the herd before releasing the horses into the water to ensure the safety of any injured horses or foals too young to cross the channel. The actual pony swim, which takes about five to ten minutes, is closely monitored by cowboys and veterinarians to ensure no horses are harmed during the tradition, and has become a hugely popular tourist attraction in the area.
But on the Maryland side of Assateague Island, the population is controlled by secretly giving birth control to mares.
Chincoteague Island legend has it that Assateague horses first arrived on the island as a result of the shipwreck of a Spanish galleon. While other theories regarding the horses' origins are more mundane in nature, everyone agrees that wild horses have lived on the island since the 1600s, and that Chincoteague “pony penning” events have been taking place on the island since the 18th century.
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