PETERSHAM—Andi Balser is no stranger to bears on her property.

The Petersham resident encounters them fairly often, and most times, they’re scared off by her 80-pound dog, Colby. But on Oct. 24, she said a bear walked into her yard and could not be persuaded to leave.

“I live in Petersham, I deal with bears often,” she said. “I saw several this summer and this was the first time it happened. He would wander around and he would yawn and look at my dog.”

During this most recent visit, she said the bear—which she estimated at 18-24 months old—walked into her pasture and approached her three horses. At this point, Jake, an older Morgan horse, put himself between the bear and the other two horses. A standoff of sorts then ensued, with the bear motioning as if to pounce the horses and Jake turning around and lifting his back right leg as if to threaten the bear with a kick.

“It was more of less, ‘you’re not going to get through me,’” Basler said.

Afterward, the bear began wandering through Basler’s yard and climbed atop her chicken coop. She began yelling at the bear to get off, which seemed to do little good.

“He was not scared at all,” she said. “He climbed back down and I took off. He went off into the woods.”

The bear didn’t come back, but Basler said the incident could have gone far worse, as the bear had ample opportunity to attack her horses. She said Jake helped raise the other two horses and did not hesitate to protect them from the young carnivore. Later, Basler called her neighbors to tell them what happened.

“He was definitely a healthy bear,” Basler. “He was very bold.”