One of our favorite things to see when hiking the mountains in Europe were cows. Maybe it was just seeing any sort of animal in general or maybe it was that we always found Alpine cows to be very friendly, personable creatures.
Whatever the reason we always loved seeing them.
These two in particular looked especially comfortable and relaxed soaking up the rays of sunshine.
They almost look like they're having a conversation, like two old lady's shooting the shit and gossiping over tea.
On one of our hikes in Bad Gastein we ran into a lot of cows on the mountain in various locations, and saw a few different varieties as well.
I don't know the names of the different types of cow, but its pretty easy to recognize that they are different. I always consider black and white cows to be the quintessential dairy cows. It's because in Ontario Canada, where I live, there are a lot of dairy farms and the cows are always exclusively this black and white type of variety.
These ones (above) look like the typical alpine dairy cow that you would see in Switzerland. If only it had a bell around it's neck to complete the look!
On this particular hike we also ran into a lot of horses. We've seen horses on mountains before but it's a lot less common it seems.
They were scattered around in groups, or alone, walking the dirt paths or grazing in the grass on the hillside.
My wife always stops and says "hi" to every single one of them she sees. They are generally pretty friendly and often seem to like the attention.
Some of the groups of horses were gathered around the gates that day and made it slightly challenging to go through. Proper etiquette is to not let the animals pass through the enclosures (obviously) and to close the gate behind you when you pass through. You don't need signs to tell you that, though there are almost always a few reminders posted.
A little further down we ran into this family of horses with this colt (or filly) that was super friendly.
It approached us immediately and stayed with us for quite a while almost begging to be pet and dotted upon. It was super cute and reminded me of a pet dog or cat in how friendly it was.
We both spent some time with it, giving it lots of attention. It was cuteness overload and probably the friendliest horse I'd ever met in my lifetime.
Actually, that little guy (or girl) ended up being the highlight of the hike that day and a really good memory of the trip in general.
