"I'm so grateful the horse stood calmly and moved only sideways until Isabella caught up. It felt like she was waiting for Isabella," saysTherese Öhlund.
Therese Öhlund and daughter Isabella Nilsson live in Öjebyn and are summer residents in Sikfors. As on other summer days, they were going out for a ride in the forest.
With Therese on her horse and her daughter on a bicycle, they rode along chatting. When they came out on the road up towards Shoemanstjälen and were about to cross the bridge, the horse reacted to something. The horse refused to move forward and just moved sideways.
– She usually never does anything like that. Isabella cycled on to the bridge when I suddenly saw something run by on the road. My first reaction was that it was a moose, says Therese, who was sitting on her horse about 30 meters away.
But in that same instant, she realized it was a bear. Her daughter was only 15 meters away.
– The bear stopped abruptly and turned towards us. I screamed at Isabella to get back on her bike, but she couldn't hear me. She saw the horse was upset and thought it was because of her bicycle, so she started to back away.
Isabella was oblivious to the bear and didn't immediately understand her mother's urgency but slowly began to cycle back.
– I was terrified, but I had to yell at her to cycle fast: 'It's a bear! Don't look back, just keep going!' the mother said.
Once Isabella was beside her, she span the horse around and they cycled and rode and didn’t stop until they were safely away. She called her boyfriend, who came to pick them up in the car. He didn’t see the bear but spotted a moose and her calf.
They returned to the farm shaken to the core.
– Our hearts were racing. Later, when we started to process what had happened, it was overwhelming. We were incredibly lucky, but it was a terrifying ordeal, Therese said.
She began researching bear encounters.
– You're supposed to stay calm and avoid running. I did everything wrong. How could I have panicked like that? I was just trying to protect my daughter, she explained.
While they’re accustomed to spending time outdoors, they'll now stick to shorter trips in familiar areas.
– But we also know we need to gradually reintroduce ourselves to the forest. It’s part of our lives, Therese concluded.
"It's terrifying how close we were. I don't think I could go into a forest alone anytime soon," said Isabella Nilsson.