Last Monday night.
Not scared of: wind, rain, lighting strike in field next to covered arena and ghastly loud thunder with it.
Scared of: wheelbarrow parked out of place next to the arena, and predominantly white paint being lunged at other end.
Ridiculous really.
My horses are fine with turkey, fox, deer, bear, motorcycles, bicycles, runners, trucks, the school bus, barking dogs and pretty much anything that happens while we are hacking but every spring when the little blue flowers pop up along one particular trail, they are sure the world is ending. For the past 15 years living here, every horse has gotten over everything but the blue flowers…
[QUOTE=BEARCAT;7826071]
"Horses are only scared of two things: things that are there and things that aren’t. "[/QUOTE]
Things that make noise and things that don’t make noise.
Things that move and things that don’t move.
I love this 
These are hysterical!
Scared of: minis, spots, spotted ponies, cars parked perpendicular instead of parallel, a woman standing on a chair outside the covered arena taking pictures, cows. Things that are not in their right place. DO NOT rearrange anything. It needs to be The Same.
Loves: tiny rodents, birds.
Dried leaves!!! My Mr. Bombproof literally freaked out on a trail ride…as in walking on hot coals when he set foot on dried leaves crunching under foot. We live in the desert SW and leaves are something he has never encountered!
THis has got to be one of the best threads evar. I am SO glad I am not alone!
A couple more, not all from my horse:
Killer Butterflies: Butterfly landing on nose led to violent head-shaking and a near-bolt, and a sideways scoot every time the horse passed that place in the arena.
Unattended Running Tractors: If it’s not attended it could shift into gear and chase horses
Newly painted divider line on the road: Obviously a very long yellow snake (and G*d help us all if it had been a double yellow line!)
White lines left by retreating waves: OK, the beach is full of scary stuff, but how about a very brave eventer who spooked at those little white lines (snakes again), then JUMPED over them and was perfectly happy to go into the ocean up to his belly?
Bicycles: Being ridden, even coming up from behind, no problem. Being walked, or left unattended, um, very scary!
And one that I consider to be completely reasonable:
Three Jack Russell Terrors barking and growling as they come bounding across a paddock toward us.
My old gelding is about as brave as they come. He will look at things but they generally don’t scare him, except little dogs on leashes. When we would see them at shows, he would spin and scoot. Not big dogs, just the little ones. Not loose little ones, just the ones attached to a leash. Go figure.
My gelding is pretty much bomb proof except when he sees the BO’s Corgi. OMG he can’t figure that one out.
[QUOTE=Sandy M;7827149]
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.[/QUOTE]
My boy is like this, too. I’ve stolen a phrase coined by another Arabian owner to describe her horse. I tell people that my gelding “has a penchant for recreational spooking.”:winkgrin:
A tiny piece of cellophane that blew in her stall. OMG she freaked out. Any plastic bag… but especially if it blows in her stall.
'A penchant for recreational spooking." Beautiful!
A NibbleNet hanging in the stall. Seriously, mare refused to go in, planted her feet, snorted, rolled her eyes. I took it down, put her in, and then let her realize that NibbleNets have hay in them. Took about 20 seconds for her to decide that they are the best thing ever!
Not spook worthy: riding a trail that goes along I-70 (fence between us and the freeway). Trucks cars semis - no problemo. No problemo when a trucker thought he was cute and honked at us. Combine out in the field last night - dust flying, lights on, noisy. No problemo. Outdoor arena is near the road - farm equipment, bicyclists, motorcycles. Marching band practicing at the high school down the road. Sheep suddenly standing up in a field got a little jump, same for the barking dog that ran out to the trail and I thought for sure was going to bite him. All no problemo.
Big problemo: weeping cherry trees next to the ring. Spring, summer, fall, they must look like those talking trees in the Wizard of Oz and HE HATES THEM. Tall waving weeds on the trail. Plants in general especially if they move. Like the horse above, he is also not a fan of daffodils!
He used to hate the pile of sawdust in the arena but it’s been downgraded to stinkeye only. That’s progress, I guess!
But nothing, no nothing, compares to how he felt about this:
http://pdemott.smugmug.com/Horse-Shows/Dancing-Horse-Costume-Dressage/14331499_Rx7Crc#!i=1060861826&k=ms34GsT
Surely that pony was being eaten RUN RUN RUN!
Judge’s comment on test after he saw the pony above warming up while we were in the ring and he blew a fuse: Unfortunate distraction.
:winkgrin:
Another one here who is terrified of any sort of cart hitched to any sort of equine. My older retired guy is pretty much fearless. Might get an occasional stare and snort if seeing something for the first time. Pigs and cows, I remember. But has been absolutely undone - quivering, trembling mess, backing up, anything to get away kind of undone - by any sort of moving cart. Horse and buggy, mule and wagon, pony and cart. Has been that way for the 15 years I have owned him.
My current riding horse seems to be pretty sensible. He might be looky at some of the normal things - something out of place, missing, etc… But generally will look, accept and then be fine. He lives with turkeys (local wild flock is about 35 birds and they are always in the pasture) so they aren’t a problem. Sunday we were out for a hack and scared up a big buck in the woods and he didn’t even flinch. But on the way home, out of the woods came a gigantic Great Blue Heron. He lumbered onto the trail while taking very ungainly flight right in front of us. Although It startled the h*ll out of both of us, I was pleased that Percy didn’t lose it. There is no water in that area so I have no idea what he was doing in the woods!
My horse is a stress case. He spooks at strange stuff. Stuff you would expect him to spook at doesn’t bother him but normal stuff is the end of the world. It changes on a daily basis, stuff he was fine with one day will be the end of the world the next day. Cows are the most terrifying creatures on his planet, but pigs, goats, and sheep are fine. One day the BO replaced the water trough with a new shiny one and left the old rusty one outside of the pen. That was enough for a full blown melt down. He was terrified of the new trough and terrified that the old trough had moved. God forbid someone moves the mounting block. But, you can put tarps all over him, plastic bags and really whatever else with zero issues.
He is a strange boy.
[QUOTE=quietann;7828251]
A NibbleNet hanging in the stall. Seriously, mare refused to go in, planted her feet, snorted, rolled her eyes. I took it down, put her in, and then let her realize that NibbleNets have hay in them. Took about 20 seconds for her to decide that they are the best thing ever![/QUOTE]
Both my Arabians, even the bombproof one, lost their collective minds when I replaced the worn-out white hay net with a black hay net. Same kind of hay net. I had to stand there for half an hour, hand-feeding them hay pulled out of the hay net, in order to convince them that the new black hay net was not going to devour them whole. :rolleyes:
Mine is super spooky near the cattle chutes where they put the numbers on our sorting/penning cattle. All of the horses hate that area. Some have said it is the smell of fear pheromones from the cattle or maybe the glue smell? They all act weird there
My gelding was certain that a small flock of chickens was out to get him on a trail ride once. He’d seen chickens PLENTY of times before, but apparently them being along side a trail meant they were quite dangerous.
He’s never been much of a fan of bridges over water. Especially bridges over water with dancing shadows on them.
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