Yeah, this was a situation that might have remained simple bad luck but was made so much worse by handler error. If she had run after her pack as soon as they launched and yelled their drop command or recall command, it might have slowed them down enough for her to grab one even if they did not fully obey, and given me time to dismount safely. If she'd gone after her dogs while I was taking my fall, they might not have grabbed Coba, and if she'd contained them when I sent them back to her, Dancer wouldn't have run off.

Pryde, Fen and Jez were inclined, as a pack, to rush and pin any dogs that they happened to catch unawares in the woods; the few times this happened, I was able to stop them with my voice and then grab them before any damage was done (I was even able to call them off of a deer once!) And then, of course, I'd apologize profusely to the other dog's handler. I'm much more relaxed about my current very non-violent pack, but I still keep a watchful eye on them---and when I had the wolves, I was profoundly vigilant and aware of everything just beyond their sight (as well as keeping aware of roughly where the wind was, if it would bring them the scent of another dog before I saw it). The level of vigilance one must keep over one's pack in order to maintain it responsibly certainly varies by pack, but those shepherds were some serious dogs---they were not pet-bred animals or even showring types. They were capable of high performance, which in shepherds means willingness to stop and close with people. They required the highest possible level of handler vigilance (and training in keeping with the maintenance of that much dogpower) and had, instead, incompetence---not that any handler should let any dog run up to a horse. I sincerely hope that this lady learns from what happened and changes her approach to this pack, even when out in the woods. I can't believe she never asked if I was ok.