Clever horses

Yesterday the entire family I work for and I were at a showjumping thing and one of the kids was doing the course on Major and her sister was videoing it and I was just watching when a big horse, fully tacked up, went galloping past us, just behind Major and on towards a gate at the end of the paddock. A few people nearby began to approach the horse as it stood against the gate but before they were anywhere near it, and after only about 20 seconds, the horse opened the gate and charged through. It proceeded up a hill at great speed, pursued by its owner, and began to jump around playing tag with her among the horse floats and tethered horses.

Two things struck me from the experience, firstly that is an excitable yet clever horse and secondly Major is extremely well composed to not even bat an eyelid. His rider knew nothing about it till we told her.