You know the horse market is crazy when

[beowulf]

Right. There’s pros and cons for either, but one argument to be made for picking up the 10 y/o (or warhorse) is that you know it is a consummate professional. It has seen and done everything, is more seasoned and well-traveled than a show-horse of the same age, and from day one you know exactly who they are.

Both of mine were so uncomplicated to restart and SAFE as the day was long. The first one was my first OTTB, I had zero business at the time with one and he was always so sane and generous despite the idiot aboard. After I went as far as I could go with him he showed littles the ropes of eventing for years and was the classiest horse I ever owned. The second, the 11 y.o, came off the track a stud and was restarted by teens and is now being ridden regularly by a 70 y/o.

The youngins I’ve gotten from the track on the other hand… Some surprised me, but not all were easy.

[TheDBYC]

@beowulf

There’s pros and cons for either, but one argument to be made for picking up the 10 y/o (or warhorse) is that you know it is a consummate professional. It has seen and done everything, is

Except ponies & minis. And Appaloosas.

That last one is weird, I know. But I don’t make the master list of things to spook at horse rules. Lol

[OTTBs]

And donkeys. My first OTTBs were terrified of donkeys. They thought ponies were aliens.

[chestnutmarebeware]

And emus!

My first OTTB went straight from the track to my chosen boarding barn, which happened to have sightlines to the neighboring emu-breeding farm. There was a lot of dramatics in the first few weeks!

[beowulf]

You know, now that you mention it – one of my TBs is okay with everything, and I mean everything farm related – but he has one quirk. We had a hunter pace last year and part of the track went through the back of a farm. There was a huge horse-traffic jam there for the following reasons:

1. The road was narrow and raised over a brook that was loudly overflowing into the road
2. There was a large sail boat parked halfway up the road
3. At the end of the road was a bunch of free range goats
4. There were kids screaming and chasing the goats

My horse ended up being lead-pony to several competitors… he must have thought he was right back at home - we have goats, boats, and everything in between at his barn…

BUT.

After that gauntlet you went up this grassy hill between two landscaped pastures. In one of the pastures was black cows, in the other were two pintos.

My TB was fine with the cows, but saw the pintos and nearly sat on his butt and spun.

He does not like pintos… For whatever reason. Spotted cows? Okay. Spotted goats? Fine. Spotted horses? No thank you!

[TheDBYC]

@beowulf

My TB was fine with the cows, but saw the pintos and nearly sat on his butt and spun.

It extends to pintos, too!

In all seriousness, this reinforces what me & my teenager’s former trainer theorized – it may have something to do with how horses depth perception works. Ironically: 1) the OTTB hitting DEFCON 5 at the sight of a blanket appy quietly waiting its turn at the in gate was the trainer’s, being ridden by a college-aged student 2) Trainer is probably one of the best OTTB restarters on the east coast. This problem had somehow never come up before.

She and I pondered this over. The appy was fairly large by appy standards, so probably not a case of the famous OTTB versus pony freak out. It’s tail was classic appy, aka short & sparse, but OTTB field hunted & was used to seeing mud tails. Only thing trainer could think of was that he’d just never seen an appy before. Could it be the spots?

The horse I leased as a teenager was terrified of those long drains that run across the entire front of wash stalls & of crosswalks. Years later, a vet explained to me that it was likely the high-contrast light & dark pattern of both the drains & crosswalks that he objected to. Was it possible that the spots on the blanket appy’s rump looked like they were floating in a separate plane from the rest of him, making him appear to the OTTB like some nightmare of a horse as interpreted by Picasso? We concluded this was the most likely answer.

In perhaps the ultimate irony, drain & crosswalk adverse horse from my teenaged years was…wait for it…a leopard appaloosa!! Good thing he couldn’t see himself, I guess.

[Paint_Party]

@chestnutmarebeware

And emus!

Been in that movie. Had one horse— awesome in every other way— who could not “do” the emu that lived on a side street. Somehow the horse knew when we were headed in that direction, even from several streets away. Although he never totally relaxed around the emu, he did get to where he’d walk warily past it. But then that distrust transferred to chickens and guinea fowl, as if they were merely miniature emus.

[Bluey]

I think it is the spots.
Friend had two older roping horses that they trail rode during the year and turned out in the winters.
In the spring they would haul them to us to start for them for a couple weeks.

This one 18 year old I took out checking cattle one nice morning.
As we came to a water hole and cattle were laying around there, when the one odd very large black and white Holstein looking steer stood up, poor horse’s eyes bugged out and he was ready to bolt, sure that was a horse eating demon mixed with the steers.
Sure was a surprise to have that happen, silly old horse and yes, the spots were the most probable explanation, along with the huge size.

[Scribbler]

I have a Paint. I’ve been told she scares some horses. She was taken for live cover to a grey stud years ago who didn’t want to breed her, apparently they had to trick him into it with a teaser mare, he was well known for rejecting pintos.

On the other hand my Paint was very freaked by the Tennessee Walker we had at the barn for awhile. Even going slow his foot fall sounded chaotic and panicky to her. Only gaited horse she’s ever seen, they aren’t common here in Canada.

,

[TheDBYC]

@Paint_Party

But then that distrust transferred to chickens and guinea fowl, as if they were merely miniature emus.

As a farmer, can confirm horse’s suspicions. Lol. Seriously, though. Emu are legit scary. Some of the strongest legs of any land animals, can escape a 6’ fence, and run 30+ mph.

[foursocks]

There is a mom and daughter that trailer in their assorted spotty ponies/honies to our barn for lessons. We have a few pintos in the barn, but for some reason my WB finds the outsiders fascinating and terrifying. If they come in the ring while I’m riding he will screech to a halt and then he wants to stand and stare at them. Forever.

[Posting_Trot]

Minis have freaked out my horse, especially minis wearing blankets–with hoods! OMG!

Another source of freak-out is the pinto Newfoundland who lives down the street. Seriously, the dog is a Newfie but is white with a black saddle and a part-black head.

[Pokerface]

I love the direction this thread has taken .

My mare is crazy brave, she sees something scary and she marches right up to it. I feel 100% safe on her because not only is she brave, but she is a house, and she takes her rider with her, you never feel like you are going to fall off. But, she has her holes. One day, years ago, we were riding in a lesson. The farm owner had recently gotten a weanling mini, and when I say weanling, I mean, it was weaned that week. BO lead the mini up to the ring to watch the lesson, and the mini baby was whinnying the whole way to the ring and didn’t stop when they arrived. My mare had been getting distracted listening to that baby and when she finally saw it (the first mini she ever saw), she about lost her mind. Tail and head straight in the air, we were air-lifting around that ring, i could not get her to stand, walk, nothing. Just doing some otherwise impressive moves while being 95% out of control. My normally “just be calm, you can ride through anything” trainer told me to GET OFF and told BO to quickly remove that baby. I am not exaggerating when I say it took my mare a solid week to come back from that. I think the fact that it was also a baby who was whinnying for its mom was what threw her over the edge, she is a very hormonal lady who easily got pregnant on the first try even though we were a day late with the semen.

My gelding is just generally obsessed with small ponies. He particularly loves greys and if they have a more fun color like roan, or pinto, allllll the better. I don’t think hes met an appy yet, but i am sure that will be fun. Hes a giant, and loves to hover over them and smell them. When we hack with a pony he is, ahem, interested in, I frequently have to remind him that I am in fact steering this ship, we are not tracking the pony. I fear the day we encounter cows…

[chestnutmarebeware]

@Posting_Trot

Another source of freak-out is the pinto Newfoundland who lives down the street. Seriously, the dog is a Newfie but is white with a black saddle and a part-black head.

The black/white Newfies are called Landseers because the famous painter included one marked that way in one of his canvases.

[MrsFitzDarcy_amp_Feliks]

One of my OTTBs was terrified of cows. Occasionally the neighbors cows would escape into one of the pastures of ours. Nigel would blow violently through his nose at the mere smell of cow doodie.

[Horselove5]

My trainer’s black and white barn cats… Like not the ginger ones, the black and whites only! Why? Because last year one of them decided to hide inside the mounting block’s hole… And he saw it lurking there… I now have to walk to the other side of the arena and arrange the blocks in such a way that he doesn’t see the holes every single time, otherwise he freaks out

[yaya]

@Scribbler

On the other hand my Paint was very freaked by the Tennessee Walker we had at the barn for awhile. Even going slow his foot fall sounded chaotic and panicky to her. Only gaited horse she’s ever seen, they aren’t common here in Canada.

There was a Paso Fino show at a local facility the day before a schooling dressage show. Warmbloods who had arrived early for the dressage show were spooking right and left at the skittering little horses and their “ticka-ticka” gait noise, especially when they went over the wooden sounding board!

[quietann]

My mare was quite worried when she first saw a Fjord. I think she was worried its neck was being attacked by a black snake.

OTOH she is mostly fascinated by minis, even minis pulling carriages. She may think they are foals. She loves foals; she spent the first 9 years of her life mostly in a pasture with broodmares, young fillies, and foals.

But cows. No no cows. Or sheep or goats. Or pigs. The only time I came off her, it was because she was spooked by a sheep (the darn thing stood up and started walking towards us.) She backed into a cattle-strength electric fence and I had no chance of staying on.

[Paint_Party]

@quietann

But cows. No no cows.

So my good friend is a hunter trainer and every year she takes her clients to a big, year-end county show in October. The grand finale is a costume class and one year I decided to make a cow costume for her pony hunter. There were front and hind “pants” that the pony stepped into, a cow body (with a big pink udder and a tail) and a cow head with floppy ears and short horns. The only part of the pony you could see were her big pony eyes peering out of the eye holes.

My trainer friend dressed up as a farmer and when it was time for the costume class she led the cow/pony into the arena. All the other participating horses FREAKED OUT! People were dismounting, handlers were scrambling to control their horses, it was bedlam! And the poor pony— who’d won a bunch of ribbons during the show— was looking out her eye holes with the most confused and forlorn expression, like, “It’s just me! Why are you all running away from me?”

[MsM]

I remember going to a backyard show many years ago to support a friend. There was a trail class set up on the edge of the property - right next to a cow pasture. A number of horses freaked out over the cows. A few exhibitors complained bitterly. The judge just raised an eyebrow and said "Trail class! "
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