Amazing Donkey Story

This story is tooo amazing not to share!! I promise, this really happened, and it's not exaggerated. The other day I was riding MiHijo and we woke up a rattlesnake!!! I never could see it, but it was right under us, rattling! MiHijo pivoted and crowhopped a couple steps, then stopped!I could still hear the rattle snake 3 to 6 feet behind us, and was afraid that MiHijo would start bucking again! I didn't want to end up on the ground on my back, so I decided to step off! MiHijo felt me putting weight in the left stirrup, and whipped his head around to the right and grabbed my right stirrup and boot top in his mouth. I knew he couldn't buck in that position, but I couldn't get off either!! He stayed like that till Teryn rode around, got down, walked up to us and pryed MiHijo's mouth open!'!!! He has never, ever offered to bite me, so I was shocked when he did that. The only thing I can imagine, is that as a guardian animal, he didn't want me on the ground with the rattler so close! Anyone else have ideas on how to interpret what he did????