Most ridiculous spook?

[One_Two_Three]

Oh another one! Same mare I had that spooked at the duck. She was mostly bombproof, as I said. Had a big resume with obstacles, never spooked at things you would think she would.

How could I forget the times she had to walk past freshly cut trees. These particular kind of trees were a white-ish color when cut apart. Godforbid we walk past them. It’s like she could smell the tree blood and it meant death. Only white ones though. Cedar? No prob. Pine? No biggie. Whatever these white trees were…forget it.

[kdow]

[QUOTE=SmartAlex;8157684]
I just thought of another.

My horse spooks at the smell of natural gas. Twice he has diagnosed gas line leaks along the road that even I couldn’t smell. I just flag down a well tender when I can, tell them to get their sniffer out and check such-and-such a spot and bingo! Gas leak.

He can also diagnose those pesky mechanical noises that the car never makes when you take it into the garage as vehicles pass us on the road. “Hey buddy, my horse says your universal joint is about to go… or at least that’s what it sounds like”[/QUOTE]

Have you considered renting his services out?

Last summer I rode a trail horse who HAD to spook and dance sideways past just this one very specific small tree branch on the ground. Every time. Any other fallen parts of tree? No big deal. Really narrow crossing because part of the land bridge had washed away? Okay. Random dude mucking around in the woods where there weren’t normally people? Meh. Little tree branch? OH MY GOD IT IS GOING TO EAT ME!

I also rode a lesson horse who’d randomly decide deer were terrifying. Not deer right next to him or anything, no, only when they were peacefully grazing up on the hill a reasonable distance from the arena. Suddenly it’d be “DEER!” and you’d have teleported all the way from one short side to the other. Which was impressive agility, when you think about it.

[Kerrysmom818]

Oh my, what doesn’t my horse spook at?!

The watering hose in the barn aisle is always a big cause for concern - not sure what a hose ever did to him, but it must have been bad!

There is an alcove in the indoor arena - smack dab in the middle of the long side - he is sure that all sorts of monsters lurk in there.

Light, from the door, in the sand. There are three outer doors on each side of the arena - that can make for a fun ride. People/horses suddenly appearing thru those same doors . . .

Shadows, loud noises, the hay cart - you name it, he’s spooked at it. He does make me laugh - a lot - of course, I have to be careful about laughing too loud - cause that spooks him too!!

[Capall]

Two others I just remembered:

Cows behind fences. If they are on the same side of the fence, no biggie. We can pick our way through a trail that has cows lying all around (and even getting up right in front of us) but heaven forbid a fence separate the cows from the horse. EEEEEPPPPP!!!

The other: Green tractors good, red tractors are obviously of the devil and we must do the Arab Jig for 4 miles.

[SmartAlex]

[QUOTE=2DogsFarm;8158110]

Horse planted & stood shaking.
I could feel his heart pounding through my legs.[/QUOTE]

My horse has a joint click in his left shoulder. If his heart rate goes up before he is warm and limber, his shoulder clicks in time with his pulse. Nothing like sitting on a horse who is rooted, on alert… and ticking like a bomb…

[dungrulla]

[QUOTE=Capall;8158190]
Green tractors good, red tractors are obviously of the devil[/QUOTE]

Can I have this for my sig?

[xQHDQ]

A horse I leased as a kid was terrified of herself after I had lathered her up for a bath. Normally, a chestnut (with roaning, mind you, so she was already a little white), after all of the soap she was mostly white. The horror! She also spooked at her own shadow if I rode her in the morning since almost always I rode her in the afternoon after school.

My current guy spooked at a spider. First he spooked at the light coming into the indoor, so I let him walk up to the spot to check it out. While up close, he breathed out, disturbing a tiny spider who was sunning itself. Spider jumped. Horse jumped back 10 feet. Then he (the horse) realized how stupid he had been and was a good boy for the remainder of the ride.

[RockstarPony]

The pony once decided to headbutt the back of my shoulder to get my attention, then LAUNCHED himself backwards in the cross-ties to get away from me, his evil assailant who had just jabbed him in the face so rudely. I think maybe he struggles with cause-and-effect.

[StormyDay]

Not really a spook, but one of my horses will jump any horse poop. Every single time. In the arena, if a horse poops on the track in the arena, I have to get off and pick it up, or our dressage lesson becomes a jumping lesson

[zakattack]

[QUOTE=One Two Three;8158065]
New guy spooked sideways on his second ever trail ride when a riding buddy opened her velcro phone case to take a picture of how cute he was. :no:[/QUOTE]

I can definitely relate to this. One of the horses I ride sees everything - and I mean everything! - in his every day life that could possibly be spooky to a horse and what’s the one thing he spooks at? Every time I open the velcro to my cellphone case :lol: :rolleyes:

My horse has always been deathly afraid of…white ponies. Specifically, white ponies under 13hh. Terrified! Just try schooling him in the same arena as a small, ghostly pony. Forget it!

[Whyevernot55]

Old Man spooks at legitimately everything ever. We were once at a very lovely barn with a show jumping course in one of the arenas, and I swear to you we jumped the wee little liverpool every single day for 2 months and he would try to stop and snort and act like a moron EVERY DAY. We also once were at a place where some of the farm equipment came in the indoor in the winter. It lived there. The horse was turned out in the indoor and ridden in the indoor and every day OMG TRACTOR IT WILL KILL ME. Also, shadows. And light. Certain poles will absolutely leap up out of the jump cups and murder us. The only thing we don’t spook at are peppermint wrappers. And sometimes food.
Personal favorite is little gray ponies. You know, the cute little hunter ponies that are all over the show grounds? We once walked out of the barn at a horse show to warm up and he went FLYING backwards and ate it on the concrete (conveniently putting himself out of commission for a month) because a nice little gray pony was grazing just outside the double doors.

Baby Mare is currently in “look for things to spook at” stage, and we recently acquired chickens which roam around the back of the barn. They are apparently possessed and likely to murder us every time they come near the indoor. Totally fine if I hop off and we go introduce ourselves to the (very friendly) chickens, complete with mom picking up the chicken and allowing BabyMare to sniff it.

[Unfforgettable]

I’m outside doing some gardening. My three year old gelding, Freddy, is in his paddock across the driveway, up near the road edge. The neighbors were building a house, and evidently, some of that yellow plastic tape used to block stuff off got blown across the road. Freddy, being a curious sort, picked up a five foot strip of it with his teeth. And the breeze caught and fluttered it. He spun around like the hounds of hell were on his heels, ran toward the pipe gate and smashed into it, trying to get away…from the horse eating, flapping plastic tape…that he held clenched in his teeth. By the time I got to him, he was standing there shaking, with his eyes crossed, staring at it, and I had to pry his teeth apart to get him to Just. Let. Go.

[PushersBlue]

Once rode with a mare who spooked at different colored dirt. As in, along the trail, the dirt color changed, she had a problem. And drains. Mare had a lot of miles, too.

Was all spiffed up for a lesson at a fancy barn on a 17h 3yo Irish sport horse who promptly spooked at his own shadow and almost JUMPED right over the trainer before he could scoot out of the way.

Current gelding? Not afraid of the scary fan I’m tying to his stall; practically jumps out the back window when I sneeze though…

I just keep telling myself, “This. This is what we strap a saddle to.”

[tbchick84]

A mushroom growing out of a tree stump. Guess I can’t blame him. It wasn’t there the ride prior. Apparently it was the mushroom from hell since it was necessary to snort, spin and jump sideways and on the way by.

[flatnfabulous]

The steam coming off her own pile of poop she left minutes before.
Another mare, a saddle pad hung over a fence, nothing ever bothered this mare, but hang a saddlepad on the fence and oh boy…

[Frostbitten]

A pile of his own hair, swept into a heap in the aisle. He snorted on it and it flew apart and so did he. Must have thought he had killed the mystery animal.

A friend’s horse came bolting back from the field with the string of deflated mylar balloon stuck in his teeth. He nearly tore down the barn before he could be calmed down and the string extracted.

[RMJacobs]

My driving pony will brave nearly anything–fire trucks with lights and sirens going, eighteen wheelers hauling bouncy backhoes, trash trucks compressing trash, road graders, motorcycles, bicycles, ATVs–he’s good with it all. Except, of course, for the day that we were coming home and there was an evil tree branch (not even super big) on the road that hadn’t been there when we went out. We circled, circled, circled, and he would.not.pass.it. He started getting so agitated that he backed us hard into the ditch on the side of the road and started popping harness off.

My friend lives right there, and she saw all the commotion and came outside. She tried picking up the branch to move it. As soon as the pony saw her touch it, he heaved a huge sigh and completely calmed down. I guess if it was safe for her to touch, it was safe for him to pass. She didn’t even have to move it.

I have 65 Ponderosa pines at my house. Those branches are fine, even on the ground.

Rebecca

[Capall]

[QUOTE=dungrulla;8158203]
Can I have this for my sig?[/QUOTE]

Permission granted!

[billiebob]

My TB spooks at other horses. And donkeys. And the bull we used to have that sounded just like a donkey. And the other day he spooked at a blanket I’d laid on the ground to fold. This is a horse who will jump anything (liverpool made out of a blue tarp? “Ditch” made out of black trash bags held down with logs but still managing to flap in a 35 mph wind? Doesn’t even blink at it.).

My uncle’s cowpony spooks at piles of hay on the ground or little round bales. Not the big bales, though.

[runNjump86]

Sneeze. A mare I was riding a couple years ago was definitely not the brightest crayon and was VERY spooky/green. I think the second time I rode her I sneezed…she went into a violent bucking fit. I laughed.

The gelding I’m riding now has lived at the property for 10+ years. He’s notoriously “quirky”. One of the main rings we ride in has a little hut next to it…it’s been there longer than he has. Every. Single. Time. he goes in that arena he has a meltdown over the hut. Apparently it has horse-eating trolls living in it just waiting to pounce. They’re also invisible, so lucky for us he has the ability to see them and alert us to their presence.

What a guy.