Horse suddenly taken a dislike to lorries coming towards her!

[lhotse]

I have had my little arab mare since march, she has been fantastic on the roads and has met all sorts of traffic in that time. She is only 6 and was backed last year. On thursday, we met a pantecnican (sp), I had the oppertunity to ride on a verge so did as the vehicle was very large, but I kept walking and apart from a little side step she took pretty much no notice. Afterwards she had a little strop though, and was told off as she will nap sometimes, this was with the voice and she responded by going forwards happily.
On friday, a cement lorry came from behind and let his airbrakes off at the bottom of the hill, she jumped a bit but didn't worry about it coming past. We then met another coming towards us and she got scared, she seemed to be looking at the back which wasn't moving at that point. There must have been building work going on as this was the trend for the ride, the next one stopped and we rode past ok so thought that was the matter sorted.
However, today a mid sized lorry, which she has never even looked at before, came towards us doing about 30 and she freaked again, only for a moment, and she settled straight away. We then had a double decker bus come past us from behind which she ignored completely!! Tractors galore on the rest of the ride, again fine.
I'm hoping that this is just a blip in her confidence, but I don't want her to think that every lorry is scary and I know that I'm going to tense up when I see one coming towards her. I have been so confident with her on the roads, so not sure if this is genuine feer or just her taking the mick a bit, although her reaction today was a proper jump rather than a nap.
Please tell me she isn't about to become a nightmare with lorries and I can work through this!!

 

[rhodes1029]

My pony does this... she is a mare and with her i think it is a mare thing and she knows what she can get away with with me!!! I can put a child on her and anything can pass when on the road, i can get on her and she can be the same but if she is in a spooky mood and that way out then all larger vehicles are scary!!! She is never particularly out of control, i don't tense up and just sit there and now i just take it as that it is her and she will always be like this! The problem with some is that they just dont slow down quick enough!!

 

[lhotse]

My last mare was not good with lorries, but she would run backwards and try to spin, Ruby isn't doing that, she is still maintaining forward motion, or on the spot as she did today. I think I will just have to ask them to slow right down until she gets her confidence back, although I'm not sure what made her lose it. I suppose friday was the first time she had come face to face with a moving cement lorry though. Trouble is, I have to ride up and down a hill out of the yard and it's not always easy to get lorries to slow in such places.
Aside from that, we had a brilliant ride today, lots of new places, through a campsite as well!!

 

[Suelin]

Just be ready to reassure her, I'm sure she will work it out. Arabs usually do. It sounds to me as if she just had a bit of a worry and then settled down again. I always slow large vehicles down and they are usually very obliging.