my horse is scared of rocks

[BigHorseLittleHorse]

So today on our trail ride we saw:

a road crew working less than 25 feet away, with a cherry picker and one of those enormous drills for breaking up asphalt

a cyclist riding literally 3 feet in front of his nose while we waited to cross the road

a landscaping crew with leaf blowers and giant blue tarps, which we walked past 5 feet away

… none of which were scary in the slightest. So what did he spook at today?

rocks

stumps

a large dead branch that had fallen across the trail

and a pile of rock salt in the road

so, what does YOUR horse spook at?

[Bravestrom]

My draft cross thinks that rocks are bears - we can hack all over the place, deer can jump out, a dog can come barking at us - but nothing is more scarey than a big rock or stump.

I think they are just waiting for it to jump up and bite them.

By the way, my gelding is clyde/hackney - he is a shady maple, I have his sister and she has given me a swedish warmblood colt and in april we are expecting a hanoverian cross - all not accidents.

you can see some of our crosses at www.hotelfun4kids.com/horses.htm

[Bank_of_Dad]

Sigh, still spooks at bicycles…
moving trains…

stumps sometimes…

most rocks are ok…

one thing is for sure, never too tired to spook.

[horselips]

One of my horses has never cared for stumps or big rocks.

He was especially weirded-out by a rock at the end of someone’s driveway about the size of about 4 small square hay bales stacked 2 by 2 with this grapefruit-sized design painted on it:

http://liq-xtal.cwru.edu/wahoo3.jpg

He obviously recognized it as a bizarre little face, and was very unhappy that this big rock had a face. With scary eyes & teeth.

[cloudy18]

Logs, like firewood size. Running deer. Benches. Ruffed grouse, but to be fair Gus did have one come out at his legs squawking and flapping. Lucky me was riding behind to see it all. Signs posted along trails. The sled that I use to haul water out to them for the last several weeks. :no: They were doing somewhat ok one day going up to moving logging equipment, until the big arm with the claw on it swung in their direction. Yep, that ended that, we had to lead them past.

Oh, and one day Hubby got Gus to walk up to a bird house that was next to the trail. I was waiting for a bird to fly out bc THAT would have been a riot, but no such luck.

[tkhawk]

And here I thought only Arabs spook at rocks!:lol:
My mare, we can ride over rocks, over and under bridges with traffic , land strewn with rock formations, walk downhill on shale-sometimes I just wanted to close my eyes and throw the reins away-but then a tiny rock somewhere -OMG, the horse eating monster going to jump and devour me-lets get outta here!!!:lol::lol:

[Shadow14]

Slush. I run roads alot and with this mild weather and snow it creates slush and having narrow shoulders and deep ditches cars spray us and it really bothers Rio when he gets hit. Other then that there is nothing off the top of my head that I can say bothers him. He saw his first snowmobile out on trail today and didn’t bother.

[4whitefeet]

Mailboxes.:lol: My horse will cross an interstate highway with no problem, and not even twitch a muscle if a transfer truck goes by and blows his horn, but a mailbox will make her do the most amazing sidepass you ever layed your peepers on.:eek:

[2Jakes]

New palm fronds…

New branches down on trail…

New stumps…

New trash…

(Old anything above is okay…)

[Beverley]

My 5 yo appendix is really, really scared of rocks, and nothing else. Mind you we’ve largely gotten over it- he’ll go by any rock, but on major alert.

He was orphaned on the range in Colorado, and I just wonder if his Momma’s end didn’t have to do with a cougar or rattlesnake behind a rock.

[Mtn_trails]

This is almost embarrassing but my mustang is, alas, afraid of rocks :rolleyes: Yes, a mustang, born in the wild, in the desert, where she lived until 18 months old, is afraid of rocks. Not the sandy desert, but high mountain desert where there is nothing but rocks. We are starting to get over our unreasonable fear of large hard objects that sit on the ground and don’t move so time to move onto something else. What will it be this year? hmmm. only time will tell.

[lizathenag]

pampas grass. . .(only the horse eating kind though)

fine with the bridge building equipment for the devil’s slide bridge however.

I figure it is a TB thing.

[twofatponies]

My older mare (warmblood cross) hates large rocks. Anything larger than a crouching dog…ooooh scary! Silly horse.

[AlmostDun]

Rocks are ok. Barrels, however; those things are evil. We encounter varying quantities depending on the day. They always see the white barrel full of sand (which one of the local farms put out in case anyone gets stuck and needs traction. ) That one was extra scary for a full half the summer because it was WHITE. It got hit by a snow plow this winter, so I expect we’ll be spooking at the pieces of it for a good month or so next summer, as they will still be WHITE but no longer barrel shaped.

Trash day is really fun. My horses insist on informing me them there trash barrels were NOT there yesterday; they’re up to no good. Repeat discussion at each driveway until we get to the trail head. Return 90 minutes later to discover that the trash collectors have passed, and all the barrels are now lying on their sides. My horses insist on informing me them there trash barrels were NOT lying on their sides when we went past before; they’re up to no good. Repeat discussion at each driveway until we get home.

[BigHorseLittleHorse]

[QUOTE=tkhawk;3756233]
And here I thought only Arabs spook at rocks!:lol:[/QUOTE]

ah, but he IS an arab… you called it! (Sasha in my sig link)