Trail skills you never see in a trail course

dead bicycles. upright bicycles being ridden or held by a human are fine! bicycles lying on flat on the ground? not so much.

I trained the pony that humans on wheels were good things by having DH ride his dirt bike and feed treats. This inadvertently taught the pony to want to follow humans on wheels trying to get more treats!!

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I did the same with my Haflinger mare, she got to where she would nicker at anybody approaching her on a bicycle. She would look so confused when they didn’t stop so I kept treats in my pocket to give to her.

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My very compliant trail horse refused to clamber up a stream bank once. Just refused, and backed up a few steps to emphasize. Another horse went first then, and the bank completely collapsed, landing the horse and rider in the stream. Nobody hurt, but I gave him some heartfelt pats on the neck.

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I worked at a summer camp in the Poconos that has 9 acres of wild blueberries. We would take the kids on blueberry runs with the horses. We would pick loads of them and bring them to the lunch ladies who would make blueberry muffins, pancakes or crumb cakes. I would always take our draft horse Bud so I could get the top of the bushes. Fun Times!!

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One of my favorite scenes in my favorite horse book has the girls and their ponies out gathering mushrooms for camp breakfast when they come upon some blackberry bushes. They stop to eat them “because the blackberries won’t travel well with the mushrooms in the rucksack” and of course offer some of the berries to their ponies. Only the half-Arab one will eat them, the others ignore them or slobber and drop them or blow them off the rider’s palm. The half-Arab pony loves them and of course he is the grey, and of course his lips turn purple from the juice …
The Midnight Horse, by Monica Edwards

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Ground bees.

Enough said.

(Didn’t read all replies in case this is a duplicate)

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This will only work for a trail class held in an indoor arena (yeah, I know) and when all horses are working the obstacles at the same time. All the lights need to go out causing total darkness at the same time a simulated thunderbolt hits the indoor roof. Bonus points will be awarded if all horses involved are TBs. (Probably the closest I ever got to getting killed on a horse).

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Wow, smart horse!

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That’s so tipically haffie LOL, they are so vocal and opinionated

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No accident happened but DH and I were riding along a power right of way and it was very rocky and not fun. I looked around and spotted a road on top of a bank that looked like it paralleled the power line and picked out a way to get up to it. Without any input from me, my horse spotted the same thing and went to the spot I mentally picked out and clambered up the bank to the road. We were definitely on the same wave length that day.

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I had that happen years ago at large barn with a very large area for 3 covered arenas. Lightning hit the transformer at the barn so it was flash bang and total darkness. My lovely horse just froze and let me jump off.

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Definitely you had a lovely horse. Mine, and the other 3 in the arena at the time, bolted. All I could hear as I tried to regain control of my mare were the sounds of galloping hooves and my friends saying whoa to their own bolting horses. Luckily, no one ran into anyone else, and the barn had emergency lighting that came on at the 60 second mark. The longest 60 seconds of my life.

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It was pandemonium in the other two arenas… I had just said to my trainer that I wanted to call it a day pretty soon because lightning was moving in and she had pishtoshed me. It was still far away. It did take a little bit to get mine in her stall. Spooky. I was shaky too.

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I don’t remember why this happened (storm or whatever), but I do remember the lights going out during a nighttime indoor lesson, too. I think most of the horses were ok with it, but the star was the saint my friend was on. They were 2/3 down a jump line when it happened. Good old lesson horse just cantered the last step (2?), jumped the out and halted. Trying to stop him would have been worse. Our instructor had to drive her car into the indoor so we could see to get out and untack by headlight in the barn. Power was out for miles every direction.

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Ground bees. Ran into them in a group trail ride in the mountains near our boarding barn. There was no no way back that avoided the bees, so we carefully plotted our return. My little half-Arab could be counted on to keep going no matter what, so I was selected to lead the charge (we figured that high speed was the best approach). The others were arranged behind in order of allergic-ness to be stings.

Success! In that nobody got stung or fell off, but it was certainly an exciting time for a while. :grimacing:

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Not ground bees but wasps had taken up residence in a rotted stump right next to the trail. A whole group of us were on a work party ride and had to go by the nest. The first few riders got through and then the call went out “bees!” and we all took off down the trail to outrun them. One horse, however, did not get running and ended up with over 240 separate stings. Luckily he was a big horse so pulled through with a few doses of benadryl. Going back, we staggered the riders so there was a gap between people not just one big group.

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This is a skill I’ve always admired:

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Especially as we age!

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Absolutely!

There’s another skill I’ve heard of that male fox hunters can learn. I’ve never seen it demonstrated – I don’t have the equipment for it anyway! :rofl:

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Bonus point for the skunk.
And I don’t blame the dog either

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