Yes the front gate is closed. Not only to keep ours in ,but to keep others out. After a Clydesdale with 2 other horses that stripped the paddock, we fed them and we led them home for klms, for them, when they finally contacted us, and not even a thank you.
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The whole thread is as ridiculous as the original post, however it’s an unbelievable train wreck I can’t stay away from…
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I love all the turkey stories! My favorite turkey episode is when I was leading my big Hanoverian gelding out to the nice tall grassy pasture. Mama turkey was leading her brood through at the same time. She was not impressed with my boy, and promptly flew at him in full attack mode. I was quickly flying a huge bay kite, instead of leading my level headed gelding! We have all kinds of birds on our little farm. Chickens, turkeys, guineas and of course the wild grouse (who like to explode under the horse, as someone else mentioned). He was well exposed to their shenanigans, they were mostly free range, and would make their way to pick through whatever delicacies were in the horses’ paddocks. Never bothered him. But that mama turkey was something else!! lol
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My Hackney pony freaked out at the sound of pigeon wings. They make a clapping sound as they are taking off, and he hated it. Of course, we had tons of pigeons around our neighborhood where I drove him. A pigeon taking off was generally good for an out control bolt.
Rebecca
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I once either did a clinic or show at a farm that had peacocks. A ton of them. They hid in the trees and then randomly jumped out of them while flapping and screeching. ‘Twas awful.
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I used to do what was then called “versatility” which was basically obstacles, kind of like mountain trail but without the massive permanent banks, bridges etc. At one I went to, one of the obstacles was 2 big white turkeys in a cage that you had to ride a circle around. Not easy!
Feronia was, however, only looky about wild turkeys, and truly amazed me once when a dog spooked a big flock of them and they flew right over us, about 10 feet above my head, when I was riding. Turkeys are clumsy and noisy in flight. Mare kept all her hooves on the ground. But a few months later, we flushed a hen and her poults out of a bush. I was riding bareback, mare started to rear but ended up jumping sideways and came down snorting. I did not fall off! (Part of why is that Feronia considered it her job to keep me from falling off, no matter what.)
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I wonder what the horses thought they were? Monsters, I would guess.
Rebecca
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I was attacked (on horseback) once by a small angry bobwhite. The best I could figure was that we were somehow near her nest and she did not want us there. Thankfully my horse at the time was an experienced trail horse and just looked at her like what on earth! The grouse were also fun and very good for a huge in-place spook with legs splayed.
We have random peacocks here. Apparently, 20 years ago, someone released a bunch of peacocks at a park not far away. At least once a year, we’ll spot a male.
My main gelding tried to kill the guinea hens that were on the property when we moved in. I’ve never seen a horse attack something like that, but he was NOT happy that they were in his pasture and he went for them with both front legs. The guineas were faster, and survived that incident (only to perish to a raccoon much later). He has also been under suspicion for the death of a fox in the pasture - we found an ex-fox trampled and since the other horses he was out with are significantly more passive and I can’t imagine what else trampled a fox…
Suffice it to say I have warned the neighbors that they need to be aware and keep their dogs on the outside of the fence.
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I keep coming back to look too 
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We raised heritage breed turkeys one year. Their pen was right across the drive from my horses barn. The turkeys started flying over the fence, strutting and spreading all their feathers in all their glory and my horses were terrified of them . This went on day after day for months.
I wonder if I had kept them around long enough if the horses would be eventually desensitized??
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My burro killed something in his run in shed. There were arterial blood sprays everywhere and his front feet were bloody up to his ankles. I never found a corpse, so maybe he ate it?
And speaking of, I used to walk with my beginner students around the farm after their lessons. One kid said, “Oh, can we go see if we can find the Murder Birds again?”. Murder Birds…I finally figured out that she meant kildeer, several of which we’d seen the previous week.
Murder Birds.
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For us it is ducks and hares that explode when you walk next to them. At least the ducks don’t fly when they do that. They pretend to be injured so a predator will follow them away from the nest.
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I think they would eventually realize the turkeys are just that. Big dumb birds!
My guineas are loud, screechy birds, that will panic at the sound of the wind, or a butterfly, or loosing sight of each other, etc… My horses could care less about them anymore.
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I’m enjoying all of the stories of the various fowl and other wildlife. I joke that I board my horse at a deer farm instead of a horse farm. It’s not unusual to see around 10-12 deer out in the various pastures and other open fields on the farm. I have to stop in the driveway sometimes to let the herd through. They’ll be in the pasture with my horse and his buddy some mornings and evenings. We see them all the time when riding in the woods and the fields. Some were bounding across the big open field once when I was working my horse out there. I thought one of them was going to run right into us, but she swerved eventually. We also spooked a young fawn who was obviously laying hidden by the trail in the woods. Darn thing was practically under my horse when it decided to scramble up and make a run for it. That did get a sideways jump and snort, but for the most part he’s so used to the deer he ignores them. They’re as common to him now as the enormous flocks of Canada geese that frequent the farm. He’ll run right through a flock of those without missing a beat while they’re flapping and flying up and away all around us.
Oh, and there are two great blue herons on the farm. The other day we were cantering across an open field and one of the herons took off from the big ditch beside us (though many yards over). It flew along with us for a bit, and my horse was fine but he kept kind of looking over at the heron like, “Wow. Look at that, Mom.”
I’m glad he’s getting so used to wildlife. It’s fun to see the deer up close and they do let us get close when we’re on the horses.
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One of my ponies loved birds and made friends with them. In Colorado, it was magpies. I would look in the pasture and see them sitting on him, grooming him (looking for bugs, I’m sure). When I took him out to drive him, I’d get a magpie riot, and some would follow along scolding me since we just went out from my driveway and drove around the neighborhood.
I’m sure the magpies were upset when I moved him to board him. Ultimately we moved him to South Carolina, where he made more bird friends–with egrets! That resulted in substantially more bird poop to clean off him all the time.
He was a very funny pony. After we had to euthanize our other remaining horse, he seemed happy to be alone at first, but then started gathering herds of other animals. Whenever he had access, he hung out along the fenceline that had alpacas on the other side. When I’d canter him in harness along that fence, the alpacas would come along on their side, the entire herd. When he couldn’t get near the alpacas, he started gathering deer. I found him sharing his lunch (senior feed) with five mule deer in the shed one day. That’s when I decided to board him, as he obviously wanted friends.
Rebecca
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I had a duck on my roof earlier today. I’ve never seen a duck do that before. We couldn’t see it, but we could sure hear it, quacking away up there.
Rebecca
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One of the reasons we lost our guinea is that the old horse whose back he liked to roost on finally was euthanized. Apparently that was a great spot for roosting guineas to stay away from the raccoon!
Yours sounds so sweet - the capybara of ponies!
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I had a herd of 15 to 40 mule deer on my property. The size of the herd varied with the season–they would group together more in the winter. I drove my ponies across my property and two others that adjoined where I had permission, and the ponies always wanted to chase the deer. The deer would just look at us, since obviously it was their property, not mine, and we had no right to evict them.
Rutting season was always interesting. The bucks would fight in front of the house. Sure didn’t want to go walking through that part of the property in the fall.
Rebecca
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I’m sure horses like having birds on them because the birds can scratch all the itchy spots.
The funny thing about that pony (his name was Salt) was he was totally rank when we got him. He hated being ridden and was constantly trying to scrape my poor kid off. He deliberately squashed my toes, and bit her a couple of times. My daughter was determined to win his heart, and she did. He never stopped trying to scrape her off, but he became an angel on the ground. She worked hard on desensitizing him. One day I saw him trotting around the round pen with about ten plastic bags tied all over him and more on the fence. She had a really good idea–it worked.
Rebecca
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Had a mare who did not get the memo about never leaving the herd, she trotted off down the drive one sunny spring afternoon and went about 1/2 mile away where a mare had a new foal. Guess she wanted to see the baby. No idea how she got out, obviously somebody left a gate open or maybe she rolled under the fence or gate… 2 other horses who were out with her did not join her.
Over the years I’ve wrangled a few loose single horses and secured them until owners were located. We have all seen the videos of single horses loose on the highway too or caught one at a show fleeing its buddies.
If you have been around enough horses long enough, you will learn to never say never and you will see just about everything. Much of which defies rational explanation.
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