I keep thinking that it’s a good thing this isn’t next to us. Our mini donkey is adorable, social, and charming. Until he gets close enough to humans, becomes completely overcome with emotion, and bites like half starved crocodile. Repeatedly. Tent revivalists would swoon at his biblical inspired presence just long enough to allow him in their midst…and then, they would meet his diabolical side. I think he could clear a tent in about two minutes.
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The cannon stories reminded me of the time I was riding my bike along the Cherry Creek (Colorado) path, and a cannon went off. I came very close to crashing, and was looking around to see why someone was shooting a cannon at me. Turned out there was a Civil War battle reenactment happening just out of sight. The reenactors had lots of horses there, and not one flinched the next time they shot the cannon. But I wondered what would have happened had one of our local folks been riding a horse nearby, as it was a path shared by horses, bikes and walkers.
Rebecca
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I had a giraffe in my yard. Okay, really a Jarraff. A HUGE machine with an extendable arm for trimming the trees off the powerlines. The line to my neighbor runs right through my yard, and they just drove this machine through my back gate. No notice, no asking permission, nothing! I’m glad I just happened to be home. Luckily I didn’t have a horse in the paddocks to either side.
This is it at my house:
(See how little the guy in the cab looks?) And no, they did not clean up afterward. 
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HAHAHA I need to borrow your donkey!!
The helicopter blade things are something made of nightmares!
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Lots of helicopters flying low near our stable. Several military installations nearby and they seem to use big, particularly noisy helicopters. The horses barely flick an ear now.
One neighbor does a lot of shooting. I suspect he has people over for target shooting based on the volume. The horses are mostly used to it. The only difficulties are the first, unexpected volley, and the fact that it un-nerves me a bit! Unfortunately the neighbor property is adjacent to the outside ring. He is angry at a number of neighbors over a zoning dispute. So several times now he has “just happened” to have a need to fire up a chainsaw behind the solid fence while somebody was riding by. Two people have been hurt. No good remedy was found other than to not ride in that ring. 
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Also interesting is when feral hogs come visiting.
Even the quietest, most worldly old horses channel their inner youngster, ready to bolt:
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When we were stationed in AZ, our barn was a mile north of the Mexican border. It was in a huge plain between two mountain ranges, so the line of sight was very large. We had a lighted outdoor arena and a dressage arena with no lights. In the winter, I arrived at the barn after work when it was already dark. I preferred using the dressage arena, so I would park my car outside of A, get my horse ready, start the car and turn headlights on, then hop on.
The first couple of weeks of riding with the car each winter were always rather dicey. Horse was a reactive OTTB, and the headlights threw odd shadows on the ring. Of course, the C end was still rather dark.
The BOs had eight lovely barn dogs. They always liked to keep me and my horse company. We were always the last ones out at the barn. Plus, I kept a box of dog treats in my tack locker and they knew if I was still around, they would get more treats after my ride. Dogs would come barreling unexpectedly out of the brush, playing, and casting odd shadows. Usually, after the first couple of weeks of TB hijinks, my horse would get used to it and settle down somewhat for the rest of the winter.
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At the barn in AZ described above, there was a paved state road 3 miles from the barn. To get to the barn, you had to turn onto a warren of small, dirt roads for the last 3 miles, ending up about a mile from the Mexican border.
One winter night, I was riding in the car-lit arena, I heard helicopters in the distance and looked out over the plain. I could see flashing lights of MANY emergency vehicles racing along the state road with two helicopters overhead. They turned onto our warren of dirt roads heading to the barn and continued their pursuit. Our piece of dirt road was the last one before the border.
The dressage arena was about 25 yards from the dirt road. My horse became more and more agitated as we watched them approach and the noise of the helicopters became louder. I stayed on because I always felt safer on an upset horse than being on the ground next to one. Plus, I didn’t want him breaking away from me in the dark.
Finally, the helicopters were low overhead, and a car came very fast past the arena with 5 or 6 border patrol vehicles close behind with sirens blasting. I assume they were chasing someone other than a normal migrant. Horse was leaping around. Dogs were leaping around. I stayed on. No one injured. Success. I just didn’t get any dressage work done that night.
We never heard if they caught the fleeing car. I always wondered if the border patrol officers wondered what weird person was out in the middle of the desert at night riding her horse by the headlights of a car.
(BTW, I had actually gotten the idea of using my headlights from an article I read decades ago about Olympic eventer Torrance Watkins and Poltroon. She worked in NYC and couldn’t ride until after dark. No lights, so she used her car headlights).
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Oh they are rocking! Every night starting at 7:00 the drum and bass start up. They go until about 9, which is late for me (almost 9 months pregnant, so I go to bed EARLY!)
My animals are all used to it, so I can’t complain! But I must say, it is WEIRD. This is the first time in our 5 years they have had it on our road.
As long as they remain in their tent, I am a happy camper! If anyone gets loose, I may lose it haha
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Wow, that takes nerve. (Love your property with all those beautiful trees). 
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I hope for your sake that everyone in need of reviving is revived quickly so they can move on.
That’s a hell of a tent. I can see why you thought the circus was in town.
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The power company was clearing all the ROWs, and I guess they figured they had right of access to their lines.
Thanks for the compliment, I had way more trees before Hurricane Katrina. 
And after a month of no power after Katrina, I’ll put up with occasional tree trimming around the power lines!
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We’ve had a few 
moments in various places we’ve lived.
Hunts coming past the end of my fields, another time the hounds running through the manège whilst my friend and I were on youngsters.
A plane landing next to us in a field we were riding in.
Helicopters doing power line reccies and flying at tree top height over our yard.
We’re on a jet fighter route here and they come screaming over, we also get prop planes and the odd Hercules low flying directly overhead.
Also here there’s an annual tractor run with literally hundreds chugging past…oh and an overnight car rally comes past once a year too.
The worst was in a previous house and we had neighbours who set fireworks off over the fields my horses were in.
I would have done time if they’d been hurt. Not even the courtesy to let us know beforehand so we could have moved the horses out.
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Years ago we rented a house in a new area and everyone just nodded when we told them what road it was. Thought that a strange reaction until December rolled around. Turns out the folks at the end of the dead end road put up a huge Christmas display. Getting home was a freaking adventure. People would glare at us, honk and be quite rude as if we were cutting in line. Nope just trying to get home. Our horses would stand at the fence and watch the spectacle. We had nightmares of them getting out and running through and dragging miles of Christmas lights. We moved soon after.
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i’ve had helicopters come and pick me (and my dog) up before. Was not watching the horses to see, but i think they were probably OK. They’ve always had plenty of room to run and get away, so i assume they did if they were frightened enough.
I used to own a 2 acre lot in the middle of town, had a house and barn and several horses on it. So not much space around us. One day a piece of heavy equipment being driven by a county employee on the road in front of my place rolled over and crushed him. I saw him drive by, turned around to walk in the house, heard something odd, turned back around and it was over on it’s side. Called 911. Life Flight was sent out and the helicopter landed in the empty one-acre pasture next door. The road and the rollover were maybe 20 yards away, the helicopter maybe 50. The horses spooked at the helicopter a bit at first but then settled down. There were a LOT of first responder vehicles there too.
Same house, on the corner of a T-intersection. One night heard a loud crash, got up to find that someone had taken the corner too fast, missed the road and careened into the ditch, and then caught the front tire of their car on our culvert, causing it to flip. Injuries but no fatality. Again, lots of first responder vehicles but the horses didn’t care.
Another kid did the same, only this time taking out the fence before he got to the culvert. He asked us for ride home. Cops were called instead. Alcohol was definitely involved and he wound up coming back to repair the fence himself, once the dust settled. No animals were behind that particular section of fence.
Neighbor on the non-street side had a heavy metal band, and they practiced regularly on his back deck. Again, quite close to the horses. They didn’t seem to mind that either.
Oh, and there was a railroad track that ran parallel to the road, opposite of my house. I could throw a rock from my fence and hit it when it went by. Fortunately the spot where the trains would start blowing the warning horn for a road crossing was just past my house.
The horses got used to a lot of commotion on that corner. It was great for desensitizing them!
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At one boarding barn there was a row of shrubs between the riding ring and the adjacent property. I was walking my horse towards the ring one day when he stopped dead with his eyes bugging out. You could hear squeals and shouts and periodically see a small human flying through the air above the shrubs. Seem the neighbors bought a trampoline and half of the neighborhood kids were there to enjoy it! The horses got used to it (though I would walk over to let us both see if someone was there before we were surprised.)
Not my horse, but at my home. I was awakened late one night by the sound of a helicopter flying very low. Then searchlights started sweeping the area and I could see police lights on the ground a little ways off. I was particularly freaked as this was less than a year post 9/11 and I live near military bases and a nuclear power plant! As it turned out, it was a Lifestar helicopter looking to land at the school down the road to pick up a car accident victim.
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I found it was very advantageous being on a corner lot when it came to desensitizing. My hotter than hot Hackney pony was fine with pickup trucks, rickety trailers, 18 wheelers (and their air horns), trash trucks running the trash crusher, fire truck running with lights and sirens (and also putting out a training fire at a nearby house that we went by), road graders. He would walk quietly and calmly past all of the above. But mailboxes? OMG they must eat ponies. Black trash bags? Yep, those eat ponies, too (but the white ones don’t). Hackney brains are the strangest thing.
Rebecca
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Ha! My SO (and ex-DH) and I were just discussing our now deceased OTTB gelding and the funny things that would set him off. We were out in the middle of the SE AZ desert for many years and one of the ranches on the little maze of dirt roads always left their large green trash container out on the road. If it was in its normal place, no problem. But heaven forbid if the trash man emptied it and put it a few feet away from its normal place. Then it became a horse-eating monster with a special taste for TBs. Apparently. 
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