A group of little kids running towards you yelling,“Horsey!” It turned out fine. I got them to slow down (parents were clueless) and stay ahead of my stirrups. Good old horse of mine planted her feet when I gave her the “stand” command.
Then, there was the angry llama. Normal llama is good. Angry llama is diabolical.
I rode this morning, and my horse was acting like he was suspicious that there were things hiding behind every tree, and it reminded me of this.
A group of 7 of us were riding in a state park we had ridden in many times before. It was not unusual to encounter hikers or mountain bikers, or even just people out walking with their children.
It was fall, and there was a fair amount of leaves on the ground. We come around a curve in the trail, and the first couple riders continue on when someone notices a guy on the ground in the leaves, about 5-6 feet off the trail. In full camouflage, buried in the leaves. Just lying there. Not moving and watching us.
One of us finally asked him if he was okay, and then explained to him he might not want to lie that close to the trail like that in camouflage, as if a horse spooked and landed on him it might not end so well for him.
Honestly, it was kinda weird and creepy!
I have told this before on here but I almost got sent to an early grave by an angry llama once. The way they run is downright spidery!
I was reminded of this thread this weekend. There is a dead doe just 10 feet off of our bridle path which borders our ring. It was probably dragged there from the road by coyotes as there are animals actively visiting it… but the smell is very strong. My normally chill dude worked sensibly in the ring but every time we came to that corner I could feel his body tense ever so slightly. Definitely something you hopefully wouldn’t see in the ring! Even the filly, who is turned out in the grass paddock, wants nothing to do with that corner of the ring this week.
I’m dying at some of these. Live chicken in a mailbox hahahahaha
How about a loose emu, from who knows where, trotting down the trail towards you. My horse did not pass the test but my daughter’s horse just stood there acting like it was an every day sight on the trails. No one ever claimed the emu and he eventually found a new home with one of the farms along the trail. He loved to come over to the fence to watch you ride by. My poor gelding never got comfortable with that emu and my daughter’s horse never batted an eye at the thing, seemed to enjoy seeing it.
We once stopped along the trail for some reason, possibly a pee break, did all our usual chatting and sat there doing what we did for a few minutes and suddenly realized there was a bow hunter in total camo just sitting on a rock right next to us. None of us had any idea until we noticed one of the horses looking at him, calmly. I always remember exactly what he looked like at that moment, we all looked at each other and he just says “hi.” We were “oh hi…” and we all parted ways. Such a weird encounter.
Pack llamas being led by well-meaning folks trying to hide in the underbrush so they didn’t scare the horses caused well, lots of fear in the horses. We had to ask the hikers to please speak and stand up and identify as humans so our horses could calm down. lol
Backpackers with packs on, all good. Backpackers with SKIS on their packs, whole different deal.
Mountain bikers running at high speeds with squeaky brakes at 100 mph up the tail end of your last horse in the string is exciting stuff.
A bucking pack horse holding a garage sale all the way through the string was a test… some passed, some joined the discount rack.
We once had an elk calf get spooked up out of his hiding spot and ran in terror right at us and did a fine job of pole bending through our string of horses, who were all too tired to respond much.
A fisherman at a back country lake in a day glo white sunblock type shirt caused my horse to exit stage right, right off the steep trail, a couple summers ago. That shirt was so white it made him look like a ghost in the dark shade right there, I have to admit he looked weird in the millisecond that I saw him standing on the uphill side of the narrow trail as we came around the bend. I could hear him the whole time my horse was scrambling back up onto the trail “I"M SORRY!” lol
A tree once fell in the woods right along side the trail we were on, completely parallel to all of us. That was a waker upper. Have seen them fall from a distance too, some of the horses don’t like that the scenery is changing in such a weird, slow start crescendo to big bang/dust. Some horses consider it a snack break.
Once had a dozy black bear wandering down the trail to water nearly have a head-on collision with my husband who was turned around talking to us. His mare wasn’t about to lose that game of chicken and kept on marching up the trail right at it and it was only the kids and I yelling “BEAR!!!” to my deaf husband that finally alerted the bear who took off like a crashing bowl full of jelly just as my husband turned around. He never did see that bear lol
So many things…
On a trail, heading downhill, my horse randomly stops. I ask him to go forward; he does, about 2 steps, and stops. I pause, ask him to go forward; he ignores me. We stand there for another 3-5 seconds, and then this tall tree falls about 50 feet in front of us. I guess he must have heard or sensed it was coming down. He started walking forward again after it fell.
My mare did this once. I was really impressed. I don’t take her out in the forest on windy days because she’s too anxious about things falling.
I had a similar experience once. I was walking up a hill in the desert at dusk that I had been up many times before. My mare stopped and refused to take another step. I thought she was just being lazy, but then I noticed we were surrounded by three coyotes. We promptly turned around and headed the other way!
Had another one today - a group of boy scouts in bright colors and full packs hiking down the gravel road we were on. My OTTB had a meltdown and I decided dismounting was a very good option. I led her past them and we walked until she settled and I could remount.
This is one from long ago. An “air bather” running naked in the woods near where I boarded. Freaked out the teenagers more than the horse’s. I saw his truck and filed a report. Trooper said the guy was one sad puppy who he told to find another place for his hobby.
Was hiding camo guy maybe a nut waiting to snag an unsuspecting jogger or hiker? That’s very odd
We weren’t sure. Since there were at least 6 women and 1 man in our group, I doubt he would have tried anything with us. It was a fairly active area in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, with plenty of hikers and walkers.
I do remember we said something to a woman we saw very regularly there, who frequently rode alone. She never has any issues when riding there, as we continued to see her for years afterwards.
I will say, as someone who rides alone 95% now, it probably would have wigged me out had I been alone.
Yeah I don’t think he would go after anyone in a group or on a horse but he might make a grab at a woman alone . That’s very odd
Oh man, this happened to me once, but to be honest, those bow hunters were way more scared than my horse because they knew they should not be where they were, and they knew my badass barn owner and her ex-military MP husband would be paying them a visit about trespassing while armed. I was actually pleasantly surprised that my horse didn’t really react at all- though in retrospect, it made us wonder if the horses had seen those guys before (her turnout was at the very far end of the property, right near the woods/trail head).
New one: at the river, a whole group of inner-tubers (I think those are tractor tire tubes, they’re enormous) landing and heading up to the trail head.
My horse failed the March of the Giant Inner Tubes test.
If you do Trail Trials pretty much any of these can show up, though they are not necessarily scored obstacles. They often go through picnic areas/birthday parties, you never know what you’ll encounter!
My last one went through a frisbee golf course. We also had to mount from a hay bale, of course the nicest, leafiest alfalfa you can imagine - we lost a few points there because my horse was definitely interested in trying to grab a bite!
I had a horse do something like this once.
My good trail mare, asked her to walk down a steep-ish, slightly rocky path. But nothing extreme or notable about it, no different than ones we had done 100x before. She refused, flat refused and urgently told me no. I turned to my companion and said we need to go another way. He rolled his eyes at me and made his horse go down it, and about 2 steps in, the trail collapsed, both of them fell, it was very scary (ultimately they were OK).
I read a term, “intelligent disobedience” where they know what to do but refuse, and it makes me think of that situation as that is what it was. She was the best trail horse I ever have had in all these many years of horse ownership.
When I was riding my old tb, practically walked on top of a turkey hiding out in the tall grass at night. At least I think it was a turkey. It was so dark I couldn’t really see it. I felt the feathers brush past my body and face when it flew up and horse was shuffling his feet around. Scared the crap out of me!
Another was riding the same tb and finding ourselves within 10-15’ of the deer at night. Can’t really see them in the dark, they stand so still and don’t move! My horse was incredibly good about stuff like that.
I hope you never sold her.
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