Horses and Buses

Finn

Finn

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Hi everyone

I just have a quick question.

Would any of you say that if your horse is scared of buses, but you live and your yard is on the local bus route, take it out in hand for the first few times so they can get used to them?

My mare is fab with cars, push bikes etc but terrified of buses, don't know about lorries as we haven't met one yet. The last 6 months or so we have managed to keep to off road hacking but feel I want to now venture out and about a bit more which unfortunately will involve road work which will therefore involve meeting buses somewhere along the route as they run every 6 mins in my area.

Any advice/ help you could give me would be appreciated
 
Exactly how you approach this will depend on the personality of your horse, but if she is truly terrified then the process of desensitisation will take some time. If it was me I would take it in small steps. Can you take her somewhere where she will see, but not be too close to, a moving bus? A companion horse who is bombproof is a godsend when you are trying to get through this kind of issue.
 
I did this with my old pony who was terrified of anything bigger than a van. It worked wonders within a few sessions of doing this. I would strongly suggest you lead her with a bridle or a dually halter on so you can keep a hold of her if she does spook. I'd also suggest what Magnetic Sparrow suggested and see if you can ride out with a bombproof horse to show her that buses aren't going to kill her. Also if possible get her to have a look and a sniff at a parked bus, we did this with my cob with a log wagon which he used to hate, now after seeing one close up he never bats an eyelid at them :) hope this helps!
 
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It depends on your horse, whether they take more trust from you in hand or ridden and how extreme their response might be. My horse for example, if really turning himself inside out over something, will calm right down if I get off and lead him past. With traffic though, he is fine with me mounted if I stick his head into a hedge to eat!
 
amymay said:
I would never take the horse out in hand, no. Safer for all involved if you're on board.
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This!
My old mare was scared of push bikes, got off her one day to lead her past, she reared, ripped reins out of my hand and buggered off across a busy cross roads, luckily the road was quiet for once. Have never got off a horse in a sticky situation since, far easier to control from on top.
 
do you happen to know someone with a field on the bus, route right at the edge of the road? if so pop her in there for a bit, they will soon get us to them :)
 
Finn said:
Hi everyone

I just have a quick question.

Would any of you say that if your horse is scared of buses, but you live and your yard is on the local bus route, take it out in hand for the first few times so they can get used to them?

My mare is fab with cars, push bikes etc but terrified of buses, don't know about lorries as we haven't met one yet. The last 6 months or so we have managed to keep to off road hacking but feel I want to now venture out and about a bit more which unfortunately will involve road work which will therefore involve meeting buses somewhere along the route as they run every 6 mins in my area.

Any advice/ help you could give me would be appreciated
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What you can do is try to change the negative association with buses. To do that, arm yourself with something your horse likes to eat (pieces of carrot or polo mints work fine, even a couple of pony nuts are good). Walk your horse - in-hand- to somewhere that's safe, but where you can see and hear buses. Ideally you want somewhere near enough that your horse will see and respond slightly to a bus, but not so close that they're really worried.

Wait for a bus to arrive. Say "good girl" and feed a carrot. If horse is happy with this and buses are frequent, wait for another... and repeat.

Keep doing this until ideally, on seeing a bus, the horse looks to you for their carrot. At this point, you can approach a bit closer, still keeping it to the distance where the horse sees and is aware of the bus, but is not very worried.

You can then start doing this ridden - ride out a little way, wait for bus, "good girl" - offer reward.

I have used this approach with horses worried about tractors with great success - once the horse is perfectly fine with the scary thing, you can start to forget about offering rewards every time, and then gradually phase them out.

This is not "desensitisation" - where you try to change the horse's reaction to something, but is a more powerful approach where you change how the horse *feels* about something.
 
I used to ride a 17.2 horse in London that was absolutely terrified of double decker buses. (Fine with everything else.
I was never ever able to resolve the issue with him despite even taking him to the bus station. He was fine when they did not move but the second they started moving he just could not cope with them. Unfortunately we were never able to resolve the problem although I did end up in everyones front garden as a result of him trying to get away from the buses.
My personal opinion is that although some horses can get used to certain things that they do not like some will not.
The most important thing is that you are safe so always wear Hi-Viz when going out and go out with a bombproof companion.
If you are unable to resolve this issue and want to hack him out then sadly your only option is to sell him and find your self a nice bombproof/spookproof horse.
 
I feel I have way more control if I'm on board rather than In hand! Buses are kenny's Achilles heel as he got scared by one letting off its air brakes right behind him when he was a youngster in Ireland. I pull off the road onto the verge if I can and turn kenny to face the bus so he can see it coming. If he's calm I let him stand and watch it pass, if he starts to tense up, the second he does I give him a mint. It's a good distraction and it's positive association too
 
Hi everyone

Thankyou so much for replying to me and I'm sorry I haven't replied back sooner.

The time before last when we met a bus we ended up in the middle of the road prancing around then went down a ditch and ended up backwards through a hedge. How I managed to stay on I have no idea lol, but the last time we met one there was several of us out hacking together and they all kind of boxed her in when the bus came behind us and to be fair she didn't bat an eyelid. I was really proud of her and gave her loads of praise. I do have to say though that the bus drivers round our way are really good and do slow right down and also stop if needs be.

There's a bloke at our yard who is actually a bus driver so I have asked him , although a bit tongue in cheek, if he could bring his bus to the yard and just park it on the drive or something so we can walk past it building up to him driving it while she goes past it as I did wonder if that might help her but I also think some of it could be my nerves although I don't feel anxious or nervous at the time but I wonder if she's picking it up on me.

There are so many good responses been made though for me to work with so thankyou all for taking the time to offer help/advise.
 
OrangePepper said:
My personal opinion is that although some horses can get used to certain things that they do not like some will not.
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I have to agree with this. We used to have an Appy mare who was fine with any vehicle on wide road but hated to feel squashed. We took her out for years with a sensible companion, so long as the companion was between her and the bus all was well but she never did get good enough to stand on her own for them to go past on a narrow road.
 
amymay said:
I would never take the horse out in hand, no. Safer for all involved if you're on board.
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Me to ,I think it's crackers to try to lead a scared horse on the road the best way to help OP's issue is to ride the horse out in a group of well mannered traffic proof horses and it needs ideally to be done daily until the issue is solved.
The other thing I have seen done that worked very well is to find a paddock in a very noisy busy location where they see buses all day ever day.
 
Some horses don't react the same if you are on the ground though.

Mine was the spookiest most un-bombproof you could get, but was far easier for to control on the ground (bridle and lunge line) because he could use you to keep him safe- in his head anyway, like I say he isn't normal by a long stretch!
He wouldn't run over the top of you, or bog off, would just run on the spot, threaten to lay down or mini rear. He had serious issues with monsters, no reason for it, just his temperament, his dad was the same.
Ridden, he would carry you off to safety (again, in his eyes!) which was far more dangerous for everyone concerned.

He is absolutely the exception to the rule though, and hacked far enough so we could go off road, nothing more. He is bordering on imprinted to humans which is where the difference lies also.
 
I'm another for riding rather than leading out. The thought of having a panicking horse on a road and trying to control from the ground is a bit scary.
Another thing I try not to do is let them stand and look, I always try and keep them walking.
You do have to train yourself and go against your instinct to tighten up. Breathe from your stomach not your chest, lighten the reins, take a deep seat in the saddle and use your seat to keep moving forwards. The moment it goes well bend forward and give them a treat.
 
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