One day I was riding a trail on a nag that didn't want to leave the barn and the chaff, and it did everything to try to scrape me off against fences and under trees, and turned back at any opportunity, or just stood immobile as often as possible. We pitted our wills against each other for miles. Then from nowhere a large black dog started to harass the horse, which tried to kick it and intimidate it, but the dog wouldn't leave it alone.
After about ten minuted of dog/horse anger the horse (called Coco) all of a sudden took off like like the barrier gates opened in a race, chasing the dog and trying to trample it, and then just galloped full tilt along the trail until it was pretty tired and the dog was a distant memory. My ride went from bordering on miserable to having one of the best rides of my life, and I think Coco enjoyed it in the end too, because it did what it was told after that and we didn't have to fight each other anymore. We trotted and cantered and walked, rested at a river a while, then turned back to home after a couple of hours.
Heading back was interesting. Coco was tired after the run, but really wanted to go home, so cantered most of the way without any encouragement, saw the dog again and just galloped straight past it flatout without fuss, leaving the dog chasing us in the dust. Only stopped impatiently so that I could open the gates, and made a bee line for its stall, and probably would have taken off the tackle and saddle itself if it could.
Funny horse.
