I'm not sure what the first indication was - whether a human spotted them, or a human noticed their dog prick up his ears and fixate on them. Immediately, everyone who was close to their dog put it on lead, everyone else recalled their dog before it was too late. There may be a few who did neither as they knew their dog wasn't going to react.
Not one dog broke and chased after the horses. All the ones who were called back came back. Some were pretty worked up as the horses came near, and were on their hind legs barking at them. Jasper (who had come back when called) was pretty excited, but I had no trouble controlling him on lead.
Not bad at all for a group of dogs who some people think aren't very trainable and have no recall
A bit later on we rounded a corner and practically bumped into a couple of horses with riders. Within moments, all the dogs were back under control and moved out of the path of the horses (the riders had dismounted and led them past us). I think it's a great reflection on how well the owners were able to manage their dogs, regardless of the dogs' backgrounds and personalities
