The owner of a horse who had a chat with a black rhino while out on a ride said the irony is, the horse will spook at a rock – and he was more scared of the tortoise they had met earlier that day.
Touran Bristow captured footage of her 10-year-old Arab Magnum face to face with the rhino in the game reserve they live on, in South Africa. The film was shared on social media by a friend, and has had more than three million views.
“We didn’t expect it to go as far as it has,” she told H&H. “It’s lovely to see that people still care about protecting wildlife, and incredible wildlife encounters.”
Touran, who was born in England, said Magnum needs more exercise than her other horse so when she is riding Sioux, Magnum comes along for the ride.
“We were at the end of the ride when we saw the rhino on the road ahead,” she said. “Black rhinos are very unpredictable, and they might not look it but they’re very athletic and fast, with quick reactions. I stopped and was filming it from a safe distance.”
Touran explained that she films or takes pictures of any rhinos she sees while riding so their condition can be monitored. The species is classed as critically endangered and they are under threat from poachers, who kill them for their horns.
“I was filming it on quite a zoom, then Magnum just walked out from behind me, passed me and carried on towards the rhino; so confident, like he knew exactly what he was doing,” Touran said. “I’ve seen people asking on social media why I was calling him and the answer is, I was absolutely petrified. I’ve lived in Africa for 10 years and have never seen anything like it. For two animals to have that level of curiosity – and a horse to have that level of brazenness, essentially – is something I’d never seen before.”
The footage shows the animals walking towards each other, meeting, and then communicating.
“I was thinking ‘What do I do?’” Touran said. “The only thing I could do was call him and hope he’d come back. He’s a sweet, sweet horse but he was obviously busy having a chat. It was probably curiosity rather than aggression from the rhino – but I say that very much in hindsight, having watched the video a lot. At the time, I just felt powerless; it nearly gave me a heart attack!”
Touran said she stopped filming as “I think it was more than I could take!” and turned Sioux away.
“I started trotting away and luckily was able to film him coming away from the rhino and back to me,” she said. “I think he decided ‘we’ve had our chat and my friends are leaving so I’ll go with them’. The rhino followed for a bit; not aggressively, just walking, and we went home and Magnum had his dinner.”
Touran said she and her husband moved to the reserve about a year ago; until last November, Magnum had “never seen anything more exciting than a dairy cow”.
“He was petrified of rhinos when he first saw them!” she said. “But they may have smelt each other; the horses are in a fenced-off paddock within the reserve and maybe the rhino’s been up to the fence. The horses sniff what are called rhino middens; they mark their territory with poop so there’s familiarity – but I never expected him to do that.”
Touran sent her husband, who grew up on a Zimbabwean game reserve and is far more used to reading wild animals’ behaviour, the footage, and his reaction was “that’s cool”.
“So he didn’t say Magnum was in danger,” she said. “I bought Magnum in a terrible state and he was quite lethargic for the first five months but he’s looking and feeling great now, which is lovely, and he’s taken to this life, he obviously really likes it.
“My friend who shared the video runs horse safaris in Zimbabwe and is always looking for perfect lead horses. They have to be curious about wildlife but not scared – now she’s trying to recruit him!”
Touran added that Sioux did not seem tempted to join the chat with the rhino but was also relaxed and happy to stand and watch the encounter.
“I don’t know what level of communication the two horses had, or the rhino and the horse; all undercurrents we don’t really understand,” she said. “The irony is, Magnum shies at rocks or cacti – rocks are the enemy – but he’ll walk straight up to a rhino. Earlier that ride, I’d filmed them looking at a tortoise [see video, above] and they were both more scared of that than of the rhino!
“It’s incredible to live here and be surrounded by these animals. I did wonder if I should have been filming it – but I’m really glad I did. It was amazing.”
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