Spin-off what does and doesn't scare horses:

[californianinkansas]

[QUOTE=Miss Anne Thrope;7826023]
We’ve run into flocks of turkeys on the trail (on the ground, though, not in the air), and I always mentally prepare for THE BIG SPOOK, but it’s never happened. Same with deer that pop out of the woods. My horse might stop and stare for a moment, but then carry on.

But then there was the time a big hawk was sitting in a tree near the corner at one end of my arena. Really freaked out my one gelding. I tried to convince him of the size difference (1000 vs maybe 3 pounds?), but he wasn’t having it.

Things out of place … like a stack of newly arrived bedding pellets in the aisle instead of on the palettes in the back corner. The pony cart, which is now in the wash stall for the winter. Yikes! What’s it doing in there??!?
People running on our road. For some reason, my mare seems totally affronted by this. Cars, fine. Motorcycles, fine. People with umbrellas or strollers walking, fine. But people running … whoa, Nelly!! What are they up to? Why are they running?

Haven’t met a pig yet. Think I’ll take that off my bucket list.[/QUOTE]

It feels great to know that I’m not the only one with a horse who will spook if something is out of place. :lol:

The roofers and their noisy equipment on top of the roof? No biggie. Various large pieces of farm equipment? Yawn. Controlled burn at the farm next to us? Snooze.

But when I moved the mounting block ten feet to the right? :eek: Arabian teleport trick plus bolt. :sigh:

[rustbreeches]

Casanova huntsman Tommy Lee Jones had a hilarious story years ago in In and Around Horse COuntry about feral emus, and bicyclists. It was brilliant.

My first pony was deathly afraid of cows. A horse I retired off the track was deathly afraid of ponies. As a 3 year old, one of my favorite horses was deathly afraid of a white horse that always seemed to be backing up on the racetrack the same time we were galloping.

I still haven’t found anything DD’s pony was afraid of. I think that goes along with being a working QH. The neighbor was gathering his steers last week up in the foothills and rousted a bear and his horse never flinched. Of course, it was a chestnut mare, so the bear might have been more afraid!

[chestnutmarebeware]

My late, great Prince Willow was only truly terrified twice while I had him. The first was a camera that the instructor left lying on a folding chair, but only as he passed it to the right. We first went by it to the left with no problem.

The second was emus—the farm I moved him to had neighbors (a long way away!) that raised them. Apparently, emus eat horses…

My next horse, an OTTB gelding named Peter, was afraid of stepping from grass onto asphalt (or vice versa), the yellow lines on the road, and storm drains. As you had to travel on a virtually-unused McMansion-development road to get to the trails, it made life interesting.

[Trevelyan96]

Both of mine had a meltdown this morning walking past the 2 tree stumps that Mr. Trevelyan put in the back pasture yesterday.

Basically, if it moves, it’s alive - and if its alive, it eats horses.

[KBC]

The very deadly daffodil, quietly nodding in the breeze of a beautiful spring morning, just biding it’s time before striking and killing a small bay mare…which I happened to be riding. All other flora was peaceful, just the deadly daffodil.

Her predecessor, was a conservative, everything in it’s place, the best series of over reactions, the first spring I had him, most rides started down a green lane, that opened out into a field, that had a couple of bridleways leading off to out hacks. All was fine until one day “OMG what has happened, I cannot possibly set foot in this field” Mmm they seem to have cut the grass for hay, you’ll be fine. Next day, no issues, lines of hay waiting to be baled, I’ve got this. Then of course we had OMG, Bales, and OMG bales have disappeared.

[Miss_Anne_Thrope]

I am keeping myself amused today reading this thread. I’m having to restrain myself from quoting each post followed by the laughing smiley-face.

[NurseHorsey]

Mules. Devil-incarnate, ungodly looking mules. We schooled in a ring that butted up next to a Mennonite farmer’s field full of mules and he was just not.having.it.

And carts. Oh the horse-eating carts! He saw one attached to a horse for the first time at a schooling show this summer and flipped out. Backing up, staring, snorting, ect. I think he thought the horse was trying to run away from the cart and the cart was dragging it slowly into its mouth - slow motion horror movie :lol:

The DB was standing ringside, not paying attention, and heard a trainer go, “Oooh, that horse is not a fan of the cart,” and knew before he turned around that it was JJ. Sigh.

[Alibhai_s_Alibar]

What doesn’t scare Wizard:
Garbage trucks, school buses, boat trailers, farm equipment, etc. banging, clanging, and driving too fast on narrow back roads
Flapping bags, tape, ribbons
Encounters with dogs, horses, humans on the trail
Gun shots
Pheasant and quail stocked in the park where we ride

What does scare Wizard:
The silvery underside of leaves.

[billiebob]

My TB is fine with: large farm machinery and semis (unless they go over a cattle guard and rattle loudly), bicycles, goats, deer, pheasants (mostly), plastic bags, tarps, buffalo, fighting bulls, newly weaned calves screaming their heads off.

NOT OK: a chain in the bucket of the skidsteer, rabbits, newly weaned calves running up to the fence when we pass (understandable, last year this was around 150 calves at a time), the bull that sounds like a donkey, actual donkeys, other horses, dogs playing frisbee.

The cowpony is fine with: any cattle and their activities, rattlesnakes, pheasants, buffalo, bricks wrapped in flapping plastic on a windy day.

NOT OK: the skidsteer, the stack mover, rabbits, cats, roundbales with rabbits and cats napping in them, imaginary sounds in trees, people walking on the road, cardboard boxes, piles of seed on the ground, farm machinery in use, things in new places, life in general some days.

You’d think the New Jersey-bred TB would be the flighty mess on the cattle ranch and not the ranch-bred working QH.

[RedmondDressage]

My old QH gelding has always been absolutely bomb-proof… EXCEPT… LLAMAS!!! God forbid we run across a field of llamas or Alpacas on a ride - he just wanted to spin and bolt the hell outta there! I can only assume that they appeared to be horrifically deformed horses to him.

My Hanoverian gelding - another super, super chill dude. We once had to vet check 50ft away from one of those rubber band fair rides where they pull the people back and slingshot them… They were shooting them right for us and didn’t get a flinch… But OH LORD! Two mini horses dressed head to toe in neon tiger and zebra stripe sleazies??? DEATH WAS IMMINENT! Seriously, I thought I was going to end up stomped to smithereens underneath all 17 hands of him while he made an absolute fool of himself… Even so l couldn’t stop laughing hysterically. Those things couldn’t have been more than 30" tall but they were clearly horrible horse eating monsters :lol:

[NurseHorsey]

@billiebob;7826775

My TB is fine with: large farm machinery and semis (unless they go over a cattle guard and rattle loudly), bicycles, goats, deer, pheasants (mostly), plastic bags, tarps, buffalo, fighting bulls, newly weaned calves screaming their heads off.

NOT OK: a chain in the bucket of the skidsteer, rabbits, newly weaned calves running up to the fence when we pass (understandable, last year this was around 150 calves at a time), the bull that sounds like a donkey, actual donkeys, other horses, dogs playing frisbee.

Bolded part made me laugh the hardest out of all these posts :lol: guess he really doesn’t like donkeys!

[Bluey]

A neighbor had some of his cattle find a hole in the fence and come down into the canyons to mix with ours.
One morning we were going to ride out there, cut his and help him drive them back up to the plains.

Well, he was an older rancher, had a heart attack already, really should not be riding a colt, but here he comes, on this beautiful, big, four year old light red roan, very fancy, refined and athletic, not only flashy but that moved like a cat.

He told us all about buying him from a cowboy with a broken arm, courtesy of the colt, that bucked him off.
Really? That was just the kind of horse he didn’t need to be riding, we thought.

We started out and, riding by the house, by the bay window, that colt saw himself in there like on a mirror and teleported very gracefully clear across the road in one huge sideways jump.

We were watching that happen and ready to pick our neighbor off the ground, but he was still sitting up there, smiling as he told us, “yes, he is green and shies some, but this colt is so nice, he takes you with him when he does that”.

Moral of the story, if your horse is the shying kind, be sure he is also the kind that takes you with him.

[Field_of_Dreams_Mini]

My Arabian:scared- things that moved.
Still scared- Things that didn’t move.

My Mini: Not scared: things that move and whirl and hum. i.e., street sweepers. Not a big deal.

Scared: applause. Yup, my Res National Grand champion is afraid of applause. sigh

He’s not overly fond of marching bands, either… or cactus. Weirdo.

[Miss_Anne_Thrope]

[QUOTE=RedmondDressage;7826813]
But OH LORD! Two mini horses dressed head to toe in neon tiger and zebra stripe sleazies??? DEATH WAS IMMINENT! [/QUOTE]

OMG, that reminds me of the first time I put little white flysheets on my two minis … the minis that had been part of my small herd for several years … I’m sure my horses thought they were ghosts or something (maybe GOATS or, possibly worse, SHEEP!!) the way they ran off snorting and blowing with that terrified look in their eyes, with the minis looking around, probably wondering what they were supposed to be afraid of.

[billiebob]

[QUOTE=NurseHorsey;7826840]
Bolded part made me laugh the hardest out of all these posts :lol: guess he really doesn’t like donkeys![/QUOTE]

Donkeys are Satan’s minions. He was fine with that bull until it made a noise and then we both had a WTF moment because it really does sound like one of those little hellions. Cattle make some weird frigging noises.

[Simbalism]

My horse is generally pretty been there done that. Went out on a trail ride on Sunday with a friend. We got to the back of one field and were heading to the opening in the woods to go thru a ravine/creek that leads into another farm. My friend’s horse stopped and stood staring and then my horse stopped. There was something standing on the path into the woods staring at us. We stood and looked at it for a minute and them I realized it was a turkey and I could see about 10 more walking around in the woods. The horses behaved fine, but we decided to avoid the area as there are several drops created by roots on the path down into the ravine/creek. On the other side the path had completely washed out so the whole area isn’t the best place to be having turkey spooks.

[Sandy_M]

ahhahahahahaha. I’ve decided my horse isn’t actually “spooky,” he’s just “sensitive” and “reactive.” hahahahaha.

Seriously: Took him to a schooling dressage show this past Sunday. He was pretty well behaved, if somewhat tense. He “spooked” (flinched) once or twice from other horses in the warmup that came too close to him. He didn’t like the people on benches next to the warmup or leaning on the fence. He approved of those who stood at least 3 feet way from the fence. LOL

What he didn’t spook at: an over six foot tall inflated horse and wagon with a skeleton driver, huge sheaves of cornstalks, huge inflated jack-o-lanterns - all right next to the warmup arena. Okay. Talk about “selectively spooky.”

My old horse, whom I had to euthanize at age 24, was pretty unflappable. Interestingly, he was not “spooked” by cattle if HE started them moving, but if they suddenly started running on either side of a trail I was riding, he found that - - well – exciting rather than spooky. I guess he just wanted to chase them.

[KBC]

[QUOTE=b![](lliebob;7826886]
Donkeys are Satan’s minions. [/QUOTE]

Gibbs agrees…not that he would spook, but they are a bit pushy for him

[IMG]http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/rm185western/Horses/Gibbs/19thNovember4.jpg)

[ReSomething]

Neither the old guy nor the pony batted an eyelash when we brought home the pigs. The biggest boar was a little less than half the size of the pony and I could see the thoughts whirring through the little pony brain on how exactly he was going to get his head down in the pig feed trough and Get That Feed.

However, the first time DH drove the beat up old Kubota with the FEL down around the pen with the pony in it he just about hurled himself over the side of it he was so bug-eyed terrified of the thing. Once he figured out that hay and grain were transported by the monster . . . he changed his tune.

[quietann]

It’s hard to guess, isn’t it? Mine likes her world very ordered, and putting something she sees every day – a tractor, say “where it doesn’t belong” can cause a spook. She seems very bothered by noises she cannot see (OMG the utter meltdown when we inadvertently ended up on the back side of the property where a local hunt keeps their dogs, and they started baying. She nearly jumped out of her skin and took about 30 minutes to achieve calm, afterwards.)

Sometimes I swear she is hallucinating. Like one arena ride where we were cantering along, I was preparing for a downward transition in the corner, and all of a sudden we were Over There, about 20 feet away, she’s stopped and was snorting and backing up and fussing. And that corner clearly contained Monsters, for the rest of the ride. It was at night, and there were bats flying through the arena occasionally, which really freaked me out, but she didn’t even notice.

Flocks of birds on the ground were scary until she realized she could “push” them a bit. Ditto deer. Makes me wonder if she “has cow.”

Seriously, she is a very solid horse, 99% of the time. Fairly placid, well-trained, etc. She does have a very high need to protect herself, though. I get tired of being asked if my lovely 16 year old mare is “green” and/or “young.” :lol: