Horse afraid of large broad flat leaves

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Simbacat

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Yes that's right leaves :rolleyes: recently these large clumps of really big flat leaves have sprung up everywhere and my girl thinks they are trying to kill her. Anyone else suffering from this?
 
We used to have a horse that was petrified of "big leaves" and gladioli....so yes, I know what you mean!


Bless them!
 
Yep- although a Murphy spook is not like I imagine your mare spooks- he sort of snorts at them and keeps his ear locked on them as we pass just incase they have designes on him - old pony Spencer used to curtsey to them. Do you mean the ones the far side of Tytings in particular?
 
I had a lovely Anglo Arab mare who I had from a 3 year old. She was scared of the big flat leaves .
I was beginning to get her to walk past them with just a couple of side steps when........
riding back one day from a lovely hack the heavens opened and as we rounded a corner 3 boy scouts from a summer camp nearby strolled towards us each using an enormous leaf as an umbrella.
Well she knew they were scary and now she knew why .
She was always suspicious after that and gave them a wide birth for the rest of her life!!!!
 
Oh yes, my mare has had a big leaf phobia all her life, and at 17 they are still as scary as they were when she was 5 :)
 
Yes Teasle, exactly! there are loads of them past Tylings, she snorts and stares and makes a fuss, and I'm thinking leaves? how can a horse be scared of leaves, so great to hear it's not just my mare that suspects them of harbouring demons
 
Me too - Arabians know all about these leaves - killers, every one! That's why you have to curtsey to them - or grow to 18hh and stare them down! They whisper threats and menaces at you as you scuttle past, only Very Clever Horses know this . . .
 
Think it may be that they grow so quickley that they make a familiar place look different causing suspicion!
 
The Dreaded Triffids!!!!! Yep! That was the first time I came off Sarah-lee. I looked up at some buzzards and she looked down at the triffids then did a 360 degree turn, dumped me and looked down as if to say what on earth are you doing down there!? I got back on and a few yards later a grassnake went between her feet and she didn't even look!!!!
When then grow their burs later the mules eat them :D
 
My horse casually stamped on a grass snake in Blackheath, but is terrified of all those snake shaped twigs on the path
 
Hmmm, very good point, maybe its a horse conspiracy to dupe us poor riders into thinking our horses are genuinely frightened of them
 
I have a horse who used to *LOOK* at broad leaves. It didn't really bother me for a while but then one day he just kept looking and looking at them that it started to irritate me a bit so I decided to cure him! I rode him over the top of them. Every single one I found I would take a detour just to make him walk right over the top of them. By the end of that ride he was just fine with them :)
 
Good idea, the ones I am thinking of tend to hug the edge, do you think if i got off and tore some out and put them on the path and jumped on them myself, then rode her over them it would help? When the council installed 6 bright new manhole covers beside where we canter, i got off and jumped on them to demonstrate they really weren't life threatening.
 
Simbacat said:
Good idea, the ones I am thinking of tend to hug the edge, do you think if i got off and tore some out and put them on the path and jumped on them myself, then rode her over them it would help? When the council installed 6 bright new manhole covers beside where we canter, i got off and jumped on them to demonstrate they really weren't life threatening.
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My old beastie wasn't scared of anything that looked remotely edible, WATER however!! I tried the above method in the puddle of a stream at the bottom of his field. He watched with polite interest (clearly thinking "what a pillock") and refused to have anything to do with the nasty wet stuff or it's attending crocodiles!
 
Simbacat said:
Good idea, the ones I am thinking of tend to hug the edge, do you think if i got off and tore some out and put them on the path and jumped on them myself, then rode her over them it would help? When the council installed 6 bright new manhole covers beside where we canter, i got off and jumped on them to demonstrate they really weren't life threatening.
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Umn- that might be entertaining- should I be stalking you next time I see you ride witha camera?
 
Yes, big leaves and purple flowers are the devil himself. A building site, tractor and pig farm are all fine though, strange brains!
 
My old boy was the original Bombpoof horse, nothing but nothing could ever faze him; until he caught sight of some evil looking stuff in someone's garden as we were riding through the village.

Thereafter it was the Dreaded Weed; he'd look over the hedge just to make sure it was still there, and then curl himself up onto his toes and tiptoe past, poor lad.

I don't think he ever thought it was totally safe to go past there from that day on.
 
Leave are very dangerous parts of nature and they rustle and move and are GREEN (mostly)!!

We had a bush chase us out hacking today... Ky tried to grab a snack on the way home but got more than she bargained for when half the shrub started following us!!
 
My pony does not like wild rhubarb leaves - he is 11 now and every year for the past 5 years he goes past the same plants in the same places and he still spooks at them.

My friend reckons it is not the leaves themselves but that something might be hiding beneath them and because they are large and broad they can't see what it might be so best avoid them!
 
One of my horses (arab,,had to be didn't it?) is terrified of sycamore leaves in the autumn, you know when the leaves have fallen, dried up all curly and then skitter across the road like hands?

Well it made me think, a lot of those BIG leaves look like paws or claws, it's the shape of them and the way they move in a breeze. Something in it maybe?
 
Simbacat said:
Good idea, the ones I am thinking of tend to hug the edge, do you think if i got off and tore some out and put them on the path and jumped on them myself, then rode her over them it would help? When the council installed 6 bright new manhole covers beside where we canter, i got off and jumped on them to demonstrate they really weren't life threatening.
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Simbacat said:
or am I losing the plot a bit...:confused:
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No, but it made me laugh at the thought :) At the end of the day you do whatever it takes to get the horse to do what you ask of it, and if you have to resort to doing things which other people might think you mad of, then so be it :) I don't really care what others think; what I expect from my horses is very well behaved animals and if I have to do something 'odd' to get there then that's just fine by me :)
 
RiderLizzie said:
Leave are very dangerous parts of nature and they rustle and move and are GREEN (mostly)!!

We had a bush chase us out hacking today... Ky tried to grab a snack on the way home but got more than she bargained for when half the shrub started following us!!
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I find that pretty funny. Has she lernt its not a snack-a-hack?
 
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