Follow on from the hacking out on the roads thread / nervouse riders etc.............

Devonshire dumpling

Devonshire dumpling

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Our now 5 year old was professionally broken, ridden through a busy town with lorries and tractors, we rode him on from a 4yr old and he was very good in traffic until a forage harvester squeezed past us, the underside of the harvester was actually higher than my saddle, the horse freaked I had no option but to smack his bottom to avoid reversing backwards under the bleedin trailor, it was being driven by a European contractor.

Now in hindsight I should have either 1) asked him to turn off his engine and ridden back past him or ridden in the middle of the road until I deemed it safe for him to pass, either way we were both to blame.

The result was a scared horse with large farm machinery,over the past year we have continued to ride the roads and have done a cradled baby action to drivers of vans etc and gradually his confidence has returned.

Thought I would offer some advice on how we did this and if anyone else would like to add some advice for me or other ppl would be a good idea, only positive ideas please.


1) We practiced driving behind him with our own car and tooting in the distance until we could happily toot our horn while he waited for us to pass!

2) We drive the tractor and trailor (empty so its bouncy) around him, again start off a distance away until he is dreaming about tractor and trailors bouncing around and he is fine for us to drive close by

3) We drive the quad on hacks with him, sometimes we go through the woods with it revving like mad and with a trailor on the back with the kids in it shouting and screaming

He went hunting for the first time in March and he had a quad come flying up behind him with a man and a woman on it, the woman said to her husband, don't go too close to him he has a green ribbon in his tail hes a baby, and the bloke said ahhh get out with you he has to learn some day ( did make me laugh cos the horse is fine with quads) but could have been hairy if he was scared.


I truly believe a horse won't be good until its experiences these things and its much better to have a cat hooting etc with your husband behind the wheel someone who loves you and will look after you, than expect your horse to be good by taking it out green

XX
 
Very true, DD!
My share girls mum is always telling me stories of how her and her friend got Kelly and her daughter life experience by taking them out when the bins were due, when they'd spotted barges on the canal, on sunny Sat mornings when lawn mowers were likely to be out in force etc etc.
I ride Kelly (when she's better!) and her daughter now and they are very alike, but very good!
K x
 
We drive in our field all the time, quad, Landrover, vans flying about, trailers, we never trap the horses or herd them, but they have to deal with it, we don't pussy foot about. The old boy has always been brill in any traffic, the four year old is pretty good too, not that we've met anything big yet (we did have a 'hidden' quad behind a hedge driving 230 cattle one day, that wasn't too scary).

The youngsters made me laugh earlier this week though - we are very rural, think one vehicle every couple of hours past the field. Recycle lorry comes along and stops by the gate (20 feet is the closest the horses can get to it), loads up A LOT of bottles from the farm wedding party at the weekend, clank clank clank, 'Oooooh!!!' went the four year old, 'I want a piece of that!!!!' zooms off to crane her head as close as possible, followed by the two year old. With that, the whole side of the lorry lifts up about eight feet higher than the top, turns over and throws what sounded like a skip load of bottles into the cavarnous echoing depths! I don't actually think they were frightened at all, they just needed an excuse for a gallop!
 
Spot_the_Risk said:
We drive in our field all the time, quad, Landrover, vans flying about, trailers, we never trap the horses or herd them, but they have to deal with it, we don't pussy foot about. The old boy has always been brill in any traffic, the four year old is pretty good too, not that we've met anything big yet (we did have a 'hidden' quad behind a hedge driving 230 cattle one day, that wasn't too scary).

The youngsters made me laugh earlier this week though - we are very rural, think one vehicle every couple of hours past the field. Recycle lorry comes along and stops by the gate (20 feet is the closest the horses can get to it), loads up A LOT of bottles from the farm wedding party at the weekend, clank clank clank, 'Oooooh!!!' went the four year old, 'I want a piece of that!!!!' zooms off to crane her head as close as possible, followed by the two year old. With that, the whole side of the lorry lifts up about eight feet higher than the top, turns over and throws what sounded like a skip load of bottles into the cavarnous echoing depths! I don't actually think they were frightened at all, they just needed an excuse for a gallop!
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I bet all the p heads tell the recycling lorry people they had a party hahahahahaha.

Pussy footing around is no good at all, you can't expect your horses to be good in traffic unless you teach them. Surprising how many ppl break a horse ride it up a road, see a tractor then expect the horse to stand still.......
 
Another vote for exposure here
we drive tractors/trailers/toppers through horse fields, OH takes his digger in to do stuff
Our stables are down one side of a big barn, OH uses other side for chain sawing,woodchipping and drives ride on mower in and out on regular basis. They all just stand and watch with interest!
Does help as 5yr old happily stood and watched as a skip lorry bumped down a country lane towards us with skip banging on back (of course the stray leaves and hideously scarey moths that we had encountered on the way were another matter :D)
 
My mare was sold to me as 100 percent in traffic but before I got to test that out the tractor was ploughing right next to her field and the next day on a hack we had to move over to let the same tractor pass and she tried to follow it at great speed up the road! I think she was quite attached to it bless her :-)
 
That reminds me actually of a time we were out hacking, me on Kelly and Kelly's owner on her other mare and we were walking past a pick up truck with the back covered with tarpaulin - without hesitation, Kelly marched over to this truck (ignoring me tugging the reins!) and stuck her nose straight under this tarpaulin to have a nosey - the guys in the truck couldn't stop laughing!! :o:o:o:o:o:o
K x
 
This reminded me of the first time I sat on Che. He was living on a working farm and after watching his owner ride him and me having a little pootle round the school she asked if Id like to ride him through the village and up to a bigger field to test his safety in open fields! As I was walking him up the farm drive her Dad was driving back down in a humungous tractor with a trailer load of big round bales, followed by an even bigger machine with the round baler on the back. Both men were waving and smiling at us, Emma looked completely unconcerned and I just froze, convinced the little TB would throw a fit. Not a bit of it, he couldnt have been less bothered. Filled with confidence we carried on to the big field and proceeded to have a trot and canter round, heard a roar in the distance and next thing I know the neighbour was landing his helicopter!!! Again, no reaction from Che and by this time Im obviously looking incredulous at such a sensible horse. "Oh, hes used to helicopers and jets, the military often fly low over the field hes turned out in" says Emma. Yes, letting them experience things is obviously the way to go. Just one thing though, despite being turned out with cows on this farm, he is scared of he bullocks in the next door field where he lives now. Ironic isnt it!!
 
Devonshire dumpling said:
HEHE Bullocks can be scary things!! xx
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Yes for my cob they are horse eating Bullocks but sisters mare lived happily in a field of them as youngster and has no issues..........completely agree with exposure exposure...or the desensitisation of horses....little and often.

My boy hated quads so when I got one I would go gingerly over to himVERY SLOWLY now I bomb around and lucky if he looks up .
 
sorry met scariest thing tonight - a hose across bridleway- ok ok it was a snake to lad but we had a chat lol and i convinced him it was harmelss but still tip toed over it lol - little murph spooks all time and you just sit and laugh hes gorgeous - ears pricked eyes bright and happy - omg hes fun as never side wards or running of but poop off all four lol then walks on as if to say "gotcha" - wot a pony :)
 
OMG a giant snake on a bridleway!!!!! The scariest thing that happened to me on a bridleway through a woods was I was ambling along with my husband and had a massive hangover, actually think i was still drunk my balance was all over the place.....

Suddenly from around the bend 2 riders were galloping in our direction, our 2 horses thought OMG what are they running away from and turned on the spot and tried to bolt, thing was hubbies horses bridle scraped along my stirrup, no idea how i stayed on!!! Imagine if we were galloping and not walking lol! xx
 
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