My wife’s horse’s back feet sliding off the side of a steep, narrow trail in front of me was the scariest. On side of the trail was a 75 foot drop off into a deep lake, and the other side was straight up at least 50 feet of solid rock. The second scariest was realizing I had to take my green, to trail riding, OTTB across the same section of trail after she made it through.
One thing that was really frightening was some other riders on the trail. I was about on a narrow (brush on either side) trail with about eight horses behind me and two in front of me. We heard hooves on the trail ahead, just around a blind curve. It sounded like they were moving fast, the leader hollered out that there were horses on the trail and to slow down. Now, that woman was a riding instructor and could’ve announced a show without a microphone. But the hoofbeats didn’t stop and we realized they were heading straight for us at a dead run! Everyone tried to press themselves along one side of the trail into the bushes, but there was no way galloping riders were going to get past without causing a wreck.
At this point EVERYONE was yelling at the top of their lungs for the oncoming riders to SLOW DOWN and they flew around the blind corner at a gallop and landed right in the middle of us before they stopped dead. It was two riders, one leading a young horse. Our lead rider, the one who had first called out, asked (in a very unhappy tone) “Didn’t you hear us calling out for you to slow down?!” One of them smiled real big and said, “No, sorry, didn’t hear you there!” and went on their merry way. I was utterly gobsmacked. ALL of the riders were SO LUCKY that the horses stopped when they did. We were lucky we heard them coming and weren’t caught while navigating that blind turn - the entire trail became twisted after that, so we would never have seen them coming and they would never have seen us. There were children and small/green/space sensitive horses in our group and the chaos that would have ensued if there happened to have been a collision would have been horrifying. I was picturing a medflight evacuation. It’s also part of the reason why I don’t like large groups of horses on the trail anymore - you can bushwhack your way out of a situation like that with three or four horses, but not 11. Also, 11 horses and riders make a lot of noise; we were lucky we heard them and had time to prepare.
[QUOTE=sterling2000;7256638]
One thing that was really frightening was some other riders on the trail. I was about on a narrow (brush on either side) trail with about eight horses behind me and two in front of me. We heard hooves on the trail ahead, just around a blind curve. It sounded like they were moving fast, the leader hollered out that there were horses on the trail and to slow down. Now, that woman was a riding instructor and could’ve announced a show without a microphone. But the hoofbeats didn’t stop and we realized they were heading straight for us at a dead run! Everyone tried to press themselves along one side of the trail into the bushes, but there was no way galloping riders were going to get past without causing a wreck.
At this point EVERYONE was yelling at the top of their lungs for the oncoming riders to SLOW DOWN and they flew around the blind corner at a gallop and landed right in the middle of us before they stopped dead. It was two riders, one leading a young horse. Our lead rider, the one who had first called out, asked (in a very unhappy tone) “Didn’t you hear us calling out for you to slow down?!” One of them smiled real big and said, “No, sorry, didn’t hear you there!” and went on their merry way. I was utterly gobsmacked. ALL of the riders were SO LUCKY that the horses stopped when they did. We were lucky we heard them coming and weren’t caught while navigating that blind turn - the entire trail became twisted after that, so we would never have seen them coming and they would never have seen us. There were children and small/green/space sensitive horses in our group and the chaos that would have ensued if there happened to have been a collision would have been horrifying. I was picturing a medflight evacuation. It’s also part of the reason why I don’t like large groups of horses on the trail anymore - you can bushwhack your way out of a situation like that with three or four horses, but not 11. Also, 11 horses and riders make a lot of noise; we were lucky we heard them and had time to prepare.[/QUOTE]
This is why when I go for a canter or gallop on the trail, I only do it in places where I have a clear line of site for at least 50 or so yards. Those riders were obviously less concerned about wrecks than I am.
On that note, kind of, I was cantering down a trail with thick forest on either side, but the trail is straight so you could see if anyone is in front of you, when a kid jumped out of a tree and landed right in front of us. I practically sh*** myself, but my horse did a sliding stop that would have done any reiner proud. Luckily my horse is smart and quick to react to such things and there was no one else with us.
so mine technically wasn’t on the trail it was out back from the barn where I was walking to cool down so a mini trail ride. This farm had cows and other animals and my guy was pretty good with most of them (except the poor donkey who had both ears cut off at his head that they bought at auction because they felt sorry for him. My horse WOULD NOT go to that half of the barn once he moved into the end stall even once the donkey moved out to the field. I tried desensitizing him by leaving my guy in a stall with hay/treats and grooming the donkey on the cross ties who just stood there falling asleep while my guy shook from head to toe) anyways I was walking around on a loose rein past the cow field and turned a corner and my guy literally cantered backwards. No idea how I stayed on but I did. So I know a number of people mentioned pigs as being the scariest thing their horse has seen. I got off and walked up to a trailer that he was staring at (as close as I could get he was shaking) and it was full of pigs. So he couldn’t see anything but could hear grunting and smell them. So I def stayed a little more alert when just walking around to cool off.
I can now comment on this thread. 
The scariest thing I have seen on a trail ride… a 2000 pound CHARGING Cow with the biggest horns I have seen on a cow (Not a bull) coming straight for us and only 3 strands of spider web (Ok so it was Barbed wire) between us. This was my 12th ride on Myst and our first trail ride. Behind the charging cow was a hog the size of a mini, a couple sheep and a goat… Beside that pasture was 5 horses, tails flagged, bucking, rearing, snorting…all having a good time tearing it up.
Myst popped up 2 times and we did the most GORGEOUS sidepass into the corn field before we could walk forward. One person had to bail out of the cart cause the horse was circling and nearly tipped the cart, the two minis were doing the same.
It was very scary. I am not sure what would have happened if that cow kept coming…
My guy is pretty good, he looks at deer & motorbikes but doesnt really spook but being QH when he does its not going to be pretty for me haha. He has spooked in the arena bareback at the walk at a ghost horse, thats one time Ive fallen off him :lol: The scariest for me was going up the hill behind the barn, BO had a new earthmover toy to cut off part of the hillside that had the path going up to the trail to make drainage ditch :rolleyes: so I decided to find a new way up the hill, well BO had cut the slope off straight up for 6 feet from the flat ground where I was to the trail. So I went to the front of the hill and took a deer path across & up the face, narrow but still doable, well he started to climb the hill but the whole hillside had slipped about 3 feet but I couldnt see it because the bushes & grasses were so tall with all the rain. so he couldnt climb up that extra 3 feet plus his feet were sunk in the slid earth. He plunged around & got his feet out & turned around with me clinging to his neck or I would have gone off. BO cut a new path after that.
Well, there were the motorcycles with paulaedwina. Still kicking myself for not turning him to look at the things, he’d have done much better. Of course then he might have spun before his bolt, and that spin is a doozy. Then, same ride, the guy with the flag.
Later, at home, the deer popping into the woods. The spin dumped me, thankfully the TALL grass nicely cushioned the landing. And another time, the heron taking off not 20 feet from us. I was out of the saddle leaning waaaaay forward to see the bird, he didn’t see it until it was leaving the ground. That time the air vest and thorn bush provided the soft landing, but the jerk led us halfway home before he deigned to be caught. I still think he’d confused himself with that wrong turn, or he would have led us all the way back to the barn.
And you wonder why I’m a chicken on the trail! We are (sloooooowly) getting better, though…
In Canada: a black bear. Thankfully he heard the horses so we didn’t surprise him, and was busy doing something else (he was in the woods, maybe 20 feet from the trail, sort of hidden). The horses were surprised and cautious, but we kept going and nothing happened. We took another way back.
Coming off a trail to another trail that is right besides a cornfield, and the farmer happens to restart his combine right when you’re walking next to it. The shetland at the end of the line took off in the opposite direction.
When I was on a riding holiday in Ireland, we chose not to have a guide and make our way on the scheduled paths on our own with a map.
The day we had to ride in a bog was not a good one. It was raining and cold, we were lost, we tried to cross a small river that was on the map’s path, that turned out to be deeper and with more current than expected. We were able to turn around and find some other way but boy were we miserable. The horses were such troopers.
It had flooded in my woods, so I naturally had to ride my pony as far as I could in the water. It was really quiet when I heard this loud crack on the water and look over and there was a beaver swimming by. Really startled both of us to immobility LOL!
[QUOTE=stargzng386;7256694]
so mine technically wasn’t on the trail it was out back from the barn where I was walking to cool down so a mini trail ride. This farm had cows and other animals and my guy was pretty good with most of them (except the poor donkey who had both ears cut off at his head that they bought at auction because they felt sorry for him. My horse WOULD NOT go to that half of the barn once he moved into the end stall even once the donkey moved out to the field. I tried desensitizing him by leaving my guy in a stall with hay/treats and grooming the donkey on the cross ties who just stood there falling asleep while my guy shook from head to toe) anyways I was walking around on a loose rein past the cow field and turned a corner and my guy literally cantered backwards. No idea how I stayed on but I did. So I know a number of people mentioned pigs as being the scariest thing their horse has seen. I got off and walked up to a trailer that he was staring at (as close as I could get he was shaking) and it was full of pigs. So he couldn’t see anything but could hear grunting and smell them. So I def stayed a little more alert when just walking around to cool off.[/QUOTE]
Who the hell would cut off a donkey’s ears? 
[QUOTE=microbovine;7259286]
Who the hell would cut off a donkey’s ears? :([/QUOTE]
Really?!? Who could possibly be that cruel???
I had forgotten one that I would classify as ‘scary’. I used to ride a fellow boarder’s horse for him when he’d go out of town and just to get him out more. He’s a Percheron/Belgian X and rides like a giant couch. Some of the trails I ride include equestrian paths within the residential areas of the equestrian community that I board in.
Nice bridle paths tucked behind pricey homes. Pricey homes behind tall fences. Tall fences surrounding backyards. Backyards containing pools. Pool with ‘voluptuous’ naked man floating on a raft.
I don’t think he was expecting anyone to be tall enough to see over his fence. And I definitely wasn’t expecting to see All. That. I. Saw.
Scary indeed…
Isn’t it awful! He also had really bad slipper feet. My barn owner would go to the local auctions in fall and winter and outbid the meat man for horses, most of which were skinny. He had an insane amount of land so would turn them out into huge pastures, get vet care and feet trimmed. Then the barn manager and sometimes me for fun would do groundwork and ride them to see what they knew. Make sure they had basic manners etc and he would sell them privately in spring. It made it very tempting to buy a second horse. Anyways, 3 weeks in a row that poor donkey was at the auction. He bought him for $20 because he felt so bad for him. He came to our barn and stayed in a deeply bedded stall and had his feet trimmed every 3 weeks. Once he was sound he went out with the cows and lived out his life happily with 3 other donkeys the barn owner bought at auction to keep him company. He was the calmest and quietest donkey I’ve ever met (we named him Bear) and some moron had literally cut his ears off at the base of his head. They were fully healed and I hope he had some pain control when whoever did that. I have no idea why someone would do that. We all loved him and would pull him out and groom him and spoil him with treats so at least he landed at a good place.
[QUOTE=PRS;7259472]
Really?!? Who could possibly be that cruel???
:-([/QUOTE]
We encounter all kinds of scary things, great blue heron flying out from under a bridge we were on was a good one, kids running down the trail to the creek carrying a huge blow up boat in front of them so you couldn’t see the kids, we got off for that one, squirrels jumping overhead from tree to tree is scary too!
But the absolute scariest thing we ever encountered to this day was a double amputee running down the trail with her running legs on, the kind that look like swords! She looked like a sword wielding ninja running straight at us, she had head phones on and couldn’t hear us begging her to slow down and walk by please. It’s amazing how non-horse people really have no idea what to do when a horse they are coming toward is freaking out, it’s rare that anyone thinks to just stop approaching and wait for us to go by or get off. On our trail horseback riders have the right of way, but no one understands what that means. Our horses were quite sure that lady was going to slice us to shreds! We were able to get them off the side of the trail enough for her to get by without getting trampled, the kicker was instead of being apologetic or concerned for our safety, she never did slow down and was rude when she went by mumbling about “stupid horses”! LOL
Way back in 1992, we moved from Lake Placid, NY to Goodland, KS. My sister and I were elated to have never-ending miles of dirt roads to ride on. So off we went - no clue as to what we were riding past, we just stayed on the road. Flat, flat, flat roads. We should have suspected something when we came to a section of road that was typically flat on the east side, but the west side was built up into a very steep hill, about 20’ high…
We figured out what that hill was for a few seconds later, when the spray plane zoomed over our head - maybe 40’ above us - he had the end of the runway built up so he would clear any vehicles or farm machinery that might be on the road.
Horses absolutely wigged out. Spinning, spinning, spinning and then bolting. These horses (a Morgan and an Arab) never spooked at anything we encountered trail riding in the Adirondacks - but they definitely couldn’t handle crop dusters!
Creepiest - 2 guys in full cammo carrying sub machine guns on a narrow trail with nowhere to go. It wasn’t hunting season and although I said a cheery “morning!” as I approached, they didn’t say a word or even smile.
The coyote confrontation - a big unafraid one calling its mates - was possibly the worst as I had 3 dogs with me and a 3yr old under me. I was in an aspen forest and all I could see was my knees being smashed as my horse exited stage left. Fortunately she kept her head and the dogs must have understood the absolute seriousness of my “Come Here Now”
Well, of course it depends on if you ask the horse or the human!
I guess the worst was the time I was doing an endurance ride in the forest on a winding dirt road, and around the corner blasted 2 guys on motorbikes. One immediately slowed down, but the other a****** sped up, skidded in a groove in the road, and almost plowed into me and my horse as he almost wiped out. Idiot kept going, never stopped to see if he’d killed anybody. The only good thing was, it happened so fast, my mare and I were both so startled there wasn’t really anything she could do but jump straight up in the air, and luckily I stayed on.
And, well, there was the time on one trail in the forest we were trotting along when we suddenly came upon a huge herd of sheep. All the horses were so startled, sheep everywhere, both sides, in front and behind, underneath them, moving like an ocean wave, the horses didn’t do anything but keep moving forward!
At this point in life, my Appy is bombproof: it was our job to herd wild animals out of tourists’ way inside a national park for some years (bison and bears mostly, bighorns, moose, pronghorns, elk, and once a wolf!). So the scariest for me and the scariest for him were definitely two different occasions! My scariest was the time we ran head-first into a bear crossing through thick young evergreens while I was training a couple of young outfitters. We were absolutely within five feet of each other, and that bear was as scared as we were, so he charged right on top of us. I have moved lots and lots of bears in the past, but this one charged us so close I thought he was going to swipe Howdy’s rear with his claws. We wheeled about and ran off (and Howdy took this all in stride, completely in control because he has nerves of steel) but I was sure that one of my students was going to come off her horse for sure and we’d have to protect her from the charging bear. Thankfully, she did not, and after his initial charge, the bear retreated post-haste. We were all pretty keyed up from that episode!
Howdy’s scariest moment was probably the time we were crossing a spring-swollen mountain creek over 10,000 feet in June. My fellow outfitter on a half-draft went first, and we crossed second, and the bank caved in and threw us into the torrent of water. I threw myself off Howdy thinking my weight would hinder him, and grabbed a rock to scramble on shore. I still had one of his reins and he was right beside me, and he trembled so badly, poor baby. Obviously we couldn’t cross that creek on the return trip, so we had to ride all the way up and over the pass, and down the other side: 26 miles that day. Every little rivulet of water we came to Howdy had to stop and examine with his nose to the ground, false-start ten times, walk back and forth along it to check for footing, etc. I dismounted every time (I’m talking tiny little rivulets that were 6" across would terrify him the rest of the day) and would lead him across. (That wonderful horse saved my butt so many times. He is now in well-deserved semi-retirement, where his only job is to pony fractious colts on easy trail rides.)
[QUOTE=Hippolyta;7062094]
Scariest thing from my perspective was raving nutter with shotgun & ATV.
Two scariest things from horse perspective: owl ambush & attack forest barrel. Both caused bolts, I came off due to the owl (I vaguely remember thinking I should do emergency dismount, which was a dumb idea).
The forest barrel really scared horse (real things flying in her face don’t scare her, only barrels), and it was hairy b/c she was spinning & swooshing & there were rusty, holey culverts on either side of narrow trail.[/QUOTE]
What is a forest barrel?
Sink hole/muskeg. By far the most terrifying.
My horse slipped off the hardpacked trail once, just one hoof wrong on a well-travelled heavy-equipment track down to an oil lease, and sunk up to his back. I rolled off and he was able to scramble out on his own…but that could have ended a lot differently. The mud hardened to a concrete-like consistency by the time we got back home, but thank God it wasn’t worse.
That’s one thing I don’t miss about the trails up North!
