Most ridiculous spook?

[Synthesis]

[QUOTE=AndNirina;8169320]

The new guy is petrified of squirrels, which are everywhere at our barn. So I promptly bought him a stuffed animal squirrel off of Amazon and placed it right above his feeder. He now looooooves his stuffed squirrel. So I spend my hacks with him ‘squirrel hunting’ as in he’s not allowed to spook at a scurrying squirrel, now our mission is to gallop after it. So I’m the idiot chasing squirrels around our barn on the big bay boy. It’s working, though.[/QUOTE]

I used to be at a barn with pigeons. All the kids were winding each other up over the horses getting spooked by the pigeons. I put a $20 bounty on the pigeons, escalating $10/month. First kid to mow down a pigeon with their horse/pony got the cash.

I eventually paid out $50-60 on it but almost every horse was miraculously cured of its pigeon fear

[Synthesis]

[QUOTE=apcohrs;8171616]
cornfields - as soon as the corn in the field next to the arena is eye level height, I can no longer work in that end of the arena.

We work and work on desensitization, and he gets so I can RIDE there … but his mind is on the corn and it is not effective WORK. and then the wind will come up and the corn will rustle, and HOLY CRAP![/QUOTE]

Well, your horse knows that the corn is listening, whispering and plotting

[SmartAlex]

Last weekend there was an estate auction across the street from the barn so BO had dragged an old lawn sweeper and a couple of old kitchen sinks out by the edge of the driveway and taped For Sale signs on them. My horse just about lost his marbles.

[microbovine]

I, er, um, fluffed and he jumped. Which, of course, made me fluff again. :o

[FineAlready]

This thread makes me feel a lot better about my struggles with my spooky horse. It’s nice not to feel so alone, and to be able to laugh about it a bit.

Here is a (by no means complete) list of the things my horse has spooked at in the time I’ve had him (I’ve had him 7 years - he is 10 now…still spooky).

1. Birds. OMG, birds. The chirping, and the flitting about. But especially the chirping.

2. Cat walking past door to indoor arena, while we were in the indoor arena.

3. Frost on door.

4. Light through crack in door.

5. Sign that said “Caution: Horses” (I had to get off and lead him past this eventually, as it was simply a no go).

6. Sound of cars pulling into driveway if we are at that end of indoor arena.

7. Wind through trees next to outdoor arena.

8. Sound of barn owner and her family doing dishes in her house, which is next to outdoor arena.

9. Jumps that have been blown over by the wind and are lying on the ground (this happened just yesterday).

10. Sound of someone’s voice on other end of cell phone. HORRIFYING.

11. Corn stalks set up as decorations for upcoming clinic.

12. Bag of cat litter in driveway.

Things that are not spooky:

1. Massive hail storm hitting roof, causing all other horses in barn to freak out.

2. Knocking over bookshelf onto self, scaring all other horses in barn.

3. Single engine plane flying so low I thought it was going to land in the field we were riding in.

4. Rapid gunfire from semi-automatic weapon.

5. Fireworks.

6. Chain saw being used next to ring.

7. Loud exhaust fan being turned on accidentally and suddenly while we were in indoor arena.

[AirForceWife]

A darker than normal patch of sand in the arena. This resulted in a stop then and “Ok I’ll go mom” he proceeded to jump it at my persistence that he move and not stand still staring. This ended up with my butt in the dirt and a broken finger because I couldn’t let go of him to cavort around with kids in the ring on ponies. :o

[SmartAlex]

[QUOTE=FineAlready;8186429]
5. Sign that said “Caution: Horses” (I had to get off and lead him past this eventually, as it was simply a no go).[/QUOTE]

Your horse obviously read it as “Caution, horses”. See, bad punctuation can get you into trouble.

[Bisoux]

Oh, I’ve got bunches:

A rake (to put footing back in place near the jump) sitting on the edge of the arena.

The flower boxes when they are anywhere other than their designated spots under jumps (and even most of the time when they are there)

The pile of neatly stacked extra poles at the end of the arena. Every day. Every time around the arena. Even after he’s sniffed them 3x.

A horse snorting in its stall down the barn aisle.

Me coughing.

The velcro noise of his own boots that he’s worn for years.

When he kicks bits of footing up and it hits the arena walls or jump fill.

I could go on and on.

[FineAlready]

[QUOTE=SmartAlex;8186495]
Your horse obviously read it as “Caution, horses”. See, bad punctuation can get you into trouble.[/QUOTE]

Exactly! This spook was pretty funny, actually. It was hilarious to think that a sign that was there to keep us safe was nearly my demise.

[Color_of_Light]

This just happened a few hours ago: riding in my indoor, stretchy walk. Suddenly, SPOOK!! across arena about 15 meters. We stopped at the mirrors as my horse spun around to face the monster just as I jumped off. I’m like, what the he77? What is inside the arena? Oh! Woops!! A zone of two sprinkers had gone off (not sure how, I’d ran a few zones on mannual settings 6 hours before). They are practically silent. Guess I forgot to turn the dial to off. Duh? So we walked over to watch the pretty sprinklers together for awhile.

[dontskipthecafe]

We went for a little walk around the 1/4-mile track to cool out after a lovely ride. She didn’t feel tense until we got to the turn, where there was a collection of large machinery and many big piles of dirt. She had to stop and snort at them to make sure they knew she was not to be trifled with. And we moved on. No huge drama.

And then, on the “homestretch”… THERE WAS A SHRUB. A SHRUUUUUB.

Snort, squeal, rear, pivot, bolt in opposite direction. I almost came off and it took four more tries to get her past the horrible pony-eating bush -_-

[apprider]

My mare has on two occasions, forgotten that I had hands. Took me a bit to realize what was bugging her, but as long as I did not use an opening hand on the reins, no problem. Open them a little bit and got a pretty strong lateral spook. She also spooked from a person wearing a floor length dress. Never trust anyone who can move towards you without visible legs.

[dontskipthecafe]

[QUOTE=apprider;8187344]
Never trust anyone who can move towards you without visible legs.[/QUOTE]

God, apprider, didn’t you know that was a ghost?

[Donkaloosa]

Barking dog? No problem. Pick-up truck? No problem. Barking dog IN a pick-up truck, aka a Barking Truck ---- nope, no way will horse go past that.

[jodyjumper]

A fish coming up for ‘air’ barely breaking the surface.

[showmanship]

Peacocks jumping up on the fence or gate beside us? No problem.
Doors banging from the wind? No problem.
Snow sliding off of the roof? No problem.
Another horse pooped in the ring? PROBLEM. HUGE PROBLEM.

[tabula_rashah]

My new, very goofy TWH mare- on Sunday had a total come apart as we were schooling about a fox that chased a rabbit through the field. I guess the fox was going to come after her next? Then yesterday we had a melt down about a fern on the trail- a spinning, rearing, trying to bolt melt down. That darn, evil fern- it was hidden among a bunch of other ferns, deceptively like the hundreds of other ferns that we’d already passed, but it happened to be about 6 inches taller than the ones around it (I’m sure that’s how you spot the really dangerous ones!!).

[Synthesis]

I got a new one this week.

Come around the indoor to the back door that the big mare is suspicious. Mare drops a foot out from underneath me, flees backwards at high speed and proceeds to crap herself in terror.

Reason? The adorable Fjord with zebra flysheet had moved from the barn (where there is no problem) to the back turnout without prior notice.

And that’s not including the look of sheer horror on my horse’s face when she subsequently realized she could see the other horse in turn out moving, through the spaces in the wall.

Horses in unexpected places. Unspeakably terrifying to herd members.

[Sweetums_Mom]

How about a human fart!..Walking my quietly spooky 22 year old OTTB gelding on the driveway towards our mini trail. This specific part of the driveway is always very scary although he’s walked this area for the past 14 years. Anyway, as we were in the very heart of demon land, I just had to fart and it did make quite the noise…:eek:…He bolted forward a step and then stopped with all four feet in four different directions. Hilarious! :lol:

[SnicklefritzG]

“Oh @#$% !!! A grasshopper just invaded my personal space. EEK!!!”