Horse afraid of large broad flat leaves

Yes - my mare, sadly long gone - fearless with tractors, big lorries, etc but these dark green leaves (?with silvery grey underneath) always made her look.

Another story of strange spooks from many years ago. Friend used to ride on Hayling Island beach. Nuns from nearby religious order used to walk on beach. Pony terrified of them (at the time all nuns dressed a la Sister Wendy). Gradually, with cooperation from nuns, pony got closer and less spooked. One day, nuns got close enough to reach out and touch pony,s nose, whereupon the noonday gun fired at Portsmouth naval base. Exit hotfoot one pony forever convinced that if nuns touched him they went off bang.:)
 
Mine Too!!!

totally bombproof... used to use him to escort the the baby horses for 1st trips on roads when he was only 4 himself !!!
but those leaves... well anyone would think they were going to leap up & eat him !!!:D
 
Yup my mare is petrified of them too :rolleyes: and pigeons. She will see a pigeon, casually walking around, she will stare at it, and will anticipate it taking off, you can feel her muscles tensing, getting ready to jump. And then the second it flies off, she freaks out. It is really really annoying! :mad:
 
PeterNatt said:
My horse could be ridden by itself through central London and did not worry about anything, until one snowy Winters day it met a snowman. He was shivering and shaking and would not move for 10 minutes!
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Funny you should mention this too as the horse of mine who stares at the broad leaves also stares at large snowballs. Where I live we have a lot of snow during the winter. When it is plowed it obviously lies along the sides of the road in a mountain type bank. Once spring comes along it starts to melt randomly so you end up with snowmen without heads on them. I was riding this horse along a lane and he kept up this looking nonsense again so I actually did exactly the same with the snowballs as I did with the broad leaves because he just stared and stared at them (he doesn't spook or anything like that, just gawps at them as he's walking along) so I made him straddle every single one for about a mile. Once again, it cured him!
 
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I am so glad it's not just my boy! He nearly decked me over Big Leaves the other day! A hot air balloon lands in the field next to him.... No bother... Deadly ninja leaves wafting in he breeze and he turns himself inside out! :D
 
Because of my horses over the top reaction to these leaves I wondered whether the horse eye sees them as a more vibrant colour than just the plain green we see?
 
Yep, my horse has always been wary of those big round leaves. The other day he refused to go past some even though his mate had just gone past no bother. Got him past in the end but was a struggle. I feel sure it is something to do with how the horses eyes see them and ours don't, maybe UV reflection? I would be interested to know for sure.
 
This thread is hilarious!
I've never owned a horse with a fear of the big leaves, but my CB will always attempt a half pass with any large lump of snow. My late TB mare had a fear of random stones (not tractors, screaming teenagers, trains, etc though).
 
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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On my ride yesterday I saw that some of the big leaves had been flattened. At first I thought that they had laid down to die as they were so dry but part of me did wonder. So when I saw Simbacat I asked her ,and yes , she had managed to get her horse to trample over them!
 
yes! I rode over quite a few as directed!, she is definitely much much better now, but if a new bunch "attacks" her on an unfamiliar path she still has a bit of a gawk at them. Not much snorting anymore thank God, I hate the snorting!
 
JayBeVee said:
Yes - my mare, sadly long gone - fearless with tractors, big lorries, etc but these dark green leaves (?with silvery grey underneath) always made her look.

Another story of strange spooks from many years ago. Friend used to ride on Hayling Island beach. Nuns from nearby religious order used to walk on beach. Pony terrified of them (at the time all nuns dressed a la Sister Wendy). Gradually, with cooperation from nuns, pony got closer and less spooked. One day, nuns got close enough to reach out and touch pony,s nose, whereupon the noonday gun fired at Portsmouth naval base. Exit hotfoot one pony forever convinced that if nuns touched him they went off bang.:)
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we had a similar experience with two motorbikes on the lane. They were just behind us passing slowly and carefully. D was a little geed up and was cantering on the spot.:rolleyes: Just as they drew level a gun went off in the field behind the hedge. We haven't had a motor bike episode since to see if the capriole will be repeated every time.:eek:
However we went over the West Coast Main Line with a fast train going through and she looked at it over the parapet with interest - but no fear.:cool:
 
Those leaves have big sabre teeth for gobbling horses up and if it's windy they can even take off and fly at you with those monster teeth nashing away like a set of butchers knives - at least that's what the big fella I'm currently riding thinks . . .

. . . gave me the only spook I've had to really sit to when a bunch of those dratted leaves winked and smiled at him the other day . . . still I fared better than the person with me - she ended up with her heels higher than her head, haven't a clue how she managed to not fall off :confused:
 
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