Let's Spook At EVERYTHING! Anyone else?

Yes my welsh D was doing that when we hacked alone today! :p
She is usually 98% fine hacking alone but today it was 'oo a blade of grass!' 'oo a man stood behind a van!' 'OMG two guys stood by their car!' 'PIGEONS!'
You get the idea...
 
Out peacefully hacking along hedged country lane both me and the lad happy in thoughts. Then for 100 yards or so pheasents flew every few steps from behind hedge. Resulting on all 4 feet airborne and me pogoing down road (in straight line)poor lad was a wreck eyes on stalks snorting all in a straight line. by end i was laughing so much trying to reassure poor sod. oh and a purple crisp packet was the devils spawn sod the big lorries that had passed us that crisp packet was death:)
 
webble said:
Not spooky but mine has been a lot more forward since she came in at night
Click to expand...

My boy too! Jiggly jogged all the way down to the field for my lesson this aft and then when we got there, just bucked on the spot for no apparent reason. Once I got into trot though, he settled down and worked really well.
 
Mine occasionally has days like this. I take him for a very long, very boring trot on the roads (where he has to actually trot and not stop and snort at stuff or try to canter) and it seems to do the trick :p
 
Had years of that brunt of many a laugh tried alsorts
went on for years good and bad behaviour laughs
tears bits lessons turned out to be cateracts.So
everything was like looking through a misty mirror.
Also old neck injury they think had been missed bad
bang to poll neck area .plus very ckecky and evasive
to boot.very hard to work out was was bothering him
and when but still was great fun.
 
Haha all your comments have made me laugh. Aren't horses just funny, all have their own little crazy thoughts about what will 'attack' them. Sometimes (depending on the day/weather/brain capacity of the moment), mine pretends to be scared of the postbox too. Little g*t!
 
There was an invisible monster in the C-M corner of the school yesterday. Absolutely terrifying for poor old Monty who bogged off down to A at top speed several times before I could persuade him to go anywhere near it :D

All good fun as far as I was concerned though! I've only been riding him a few weeks so now I know what his spooks feel like and it certainly made him a bit more lively than usual.
 
my new one at the weekend.... the bench he has walked past numerous times before but OMG FREEZE PANIC AND LEAP SIDEWAYS the grass around it has been cut and its turned into a horse eating ogre overnight!;)

Oh and i forgot to mention the killer pram in the woods lol. gotta love em x
 
Last edited:
Someones lost gloves which had been hung on the hedgerow!! This resulted in throwing himself sideways into the middle of the road and dont mention the balloons tied randomly to a sign post. Im sure he thougt those gloves had limbs attached x
 
Had some real success yesterday with a cap of Magic Calmer in my mare's feed :) did exactly what it says on the label, got my chilled out mare back and we had a lovely long hack together. Thanks again Polly and Cheshire Chestnut!
 
fattylumpkin said:
Had some real success yesterday with a cap of Magic Calmer in my mare's feed :) did exactly what it says on the label, got my chilled out mare back and we had a lovely long hack together. Thanks again Polly and Cheshire Chestnut!
Click to expand...

Excellent - great to hear!!! :) It is good stuff. Glad you got your hack again and it didn't go on for too long. I love a happy ending!

These posts are making me giggle, gloves in hedges are always a snort-tastic event for me too!
 
Where to start!

He has spooked at his own shadow in the school when the lights are on. A set of jump fillers which have literally been in the same spot since forever - they are sometimes to be feared and sometimes are fine. His own poo. The mounting block.

One of the most stupid things is when a friend was stood by the gate of the school watching our lesson. This was absolutely fine. When she went away to put a jumper on and came back and stood in the same spot, well, clearly she intended to murder him!

Turning him out at the weekend was a nightmare. There was a lorry parked outside of the barn. Scary. A woman was sitting in her car. Also scary. A trailer parked next to the walkway. Super scary! And another lady walking up to and getting into her car. OMG I'M GOING TO DIE!! It (usually) takes less than a minute to walk to the field. Wasn't impressed!!
 
Mine yesterday when jumping under the floodlights - jumped beautifully, then skidded to a halt straight after the jump. Why? He was refusing the step on the shadow that the jump made on the ground. Next time round, he jumped it as a bounce...

Today, literally 20 pheasants flew out te undergrowth at once. This involved snorting but was otherwise well behaved about it. However three small Falabellas in the field at the end of the road, whom he has passed a million times, resulted in sideways passage down the road...
 
Embo said:
Where to start!

He has spooked at his own shadow in the school when the lights are on. A set of jump fillers which have literally been in the same spot since forever - they are sometimes to be feared and sometimes are fine. His own poo. The mounting block.

One of the most stupid things is when a friend was stood by the gate of the school watching our lesson. This was absolutely fine. When she went away to put a jumper on and came back and stood in the same spot, well, clearly she intended to murder him!

Turning him out at the weekend was a nightmare. There was a lorry parked outside of the barn. Scary. A woman was sitting in her car. Also scary. A trailer parked next to the walkway. Super scary! And another lady walking up to and getting into her car. OMG I'M GOING TO DIE!! It (usually) takes less than a minute to walk to the field. Wasn't impressed!!
Click to expand...

Everyone knows people in jumpers murder horses ;)
 
Mine has gone the other way. Moved yard and she has her big girl brave pants on! Apparently a white van half hidden behind a barn, with three workmen chucking metal in the back of it and an angle grider with sparks on the go don't even warrant a snort.

At the old yard she used to drop a shoulder and spin and the sound of a horse sneezing behind the hedge!
 
My old boy was a rock and never spooked. For months we went past a building site down the road from the yard with cement mixers, cranes, men on scaffolding, lorries back and fore and nothing - just head down and kept on walking by. Then all the building paraphenalia got taken away to reveal a beautiful new house....It took six months before he stopped walking past it sideways, snorting with his eyes on stalks. I never worked out what was so bad about it.
 
annagain said:
My old boy was a rock and never spooked. For months we went past a building site down the road from the yard with cement mixers, cranes, men on scaffolding, lorries back and fore and nothing - just head down and kept on walking by. Then all the building paraphenalia got taken away to reveal a beautiful new house....It took six months before he stopped walking past it sideways, snorting with his eyes on stalks. I never worked out what was so bad about it.
Click to expand...

Maybe it was haunted?! ;)
 
was it the Naf one??? Im thinking about trying something with my chap who cant seem to do one session without multiple spooks at normal objects.
fattylumpkin said:
Had some real success yesterday with a cap of Magic Calmer in my mare's feed :) did exactly what it says on the label, got my chilled out mare back and we had a lovely long hack together. Thanks again Polly and Cheshire Chestnut!
Click to expand...
 
A new one for yesterday... jumping a small course in the school at home and I put a small jump up on one side using a hanging plank - one he's never seen before. It was only about a foot high to start with, it had zig zags on it and in his little Welshie brain it looked like teeth wanting to bite his hooves so he jumped it as if it was 5ft!! Pinged over it like we were tackling a 5 bar gate, the crazy bean!!! :D
 
My D is generally quite spooky - different coloured grass, leaves, etc but as with others, cars and other traffic doesn't seem to cause a problem. One of the best was a few years ago - a friend and I had turned the horses out and were chatting by the field. My lad wandered over to sample some haylage that has been put out for them. So he picks up a few strands and the breeze picked up the opposite end, making it kind of float in mid air. Well he spotted this out of the corner of his eye and off he went, careering around the field as if his tail was on fire - still with the haylage in his mouth, and therefore still being pursued by this floating monster wherever he went! That didn't half make us giggle!
Another time he locked on to the sight of a big water sprinkler out on a hack and instantly started sweating and shaking. Wouldn't take his eyes off it and grew to about 18hh before spinning and bolting in the opposite direction. It was a proper bolt as well - when I managed to slow him down he went up on his back legs and then took off again in a blind panic. That was a scary day but we just about survived!
 
Our normally quite chilled ISH gave my OH a run for his money last night, had a bit of an impromptu rodeo session..... think she's a tad fresh! :D
 
My boy isn't more spooky recently as he is in horsepital, but in the past he has scared himself witless by farting....required high speed evasive action and the shadow of a speed limit sign on the road required catleaping over...he cleared it by about 4 foot....a bit scary as we were going down a steep hill and it came out of the blue whilst walking on a long rein!
But what can I expect...he is an orange tb!
 
My 4 yo Welsh Sec D has throughout the year been pretty good. He's the stand still look, snort, look again then decide if he needs to leg it. That at least gives me time to remind him not to be a complete kn*b. We have met a horse and cart, vintage steam roller and plenty of other scary things and he's dealt with them ok.
That was until Sunday...... Ponies tacked up, he's tacked up and ready to go out when a friend appeared on her black & white cob :eek: It took five minutes to get on him so ponies and cob walked around the paddock. I thought better join them and calm him before we go out on the road, well Olympic Gold Medal here for dressage :p
Not only did we go diagonal, we went sideways first one way then the other. We passaged forwards, on the spot and backwards, managed a superb pirouette and then did something that is quite new to dressage, a jump on the spot, all four hooves leaving and touching the ground together!
The black & white cob was gobsmacked, rolled his eyes, squinted and muttered "WTF are YOU doing" My daughter commented how fab he looked which didn't really make me feel any better. "OK" I said "Wagons roll, lets get out of here" The switch turned off and he was back to his normal self.
My conclusion is that I don't need years of training for the dressage arena, just bring out a piebald :D
 
cambrica said:
My 4 yo Welsh Sec D has throughout the year been pretty good. He's the stand still look, snort, look again then decide if he needs to leg it. That at least gives me time to remind him not to be a complete kn*b. We have met a horse and cart, vintage steam roller and plenty of other scary things and he's dealt with them ok.
That was until Sunday...... Ponies tacked up, he's tacked up and ready to go out when a friend appeared on her black & white cob :eek: It took five minutes to get on him so ponies and cob walked around the paddock. I thought better join them and calm him before we go out on the road, well Olympic Gold Medal here for dressage :p
Not only did we go diagonal, we went sideways first one way then the other. We passaged forwards, on the spot and backwards, managed a superb pirouette and then did something that is quite new to dressage, a jump on the spot, all four hooves leaving and touching the ground together!
The black & white cob was gobsmacked, rolled his eyes, squinted and muttered "WTF are YOU doing" My daughter commented how fab he looked which didn't really make me feel any better. "OK" I said "Wagons roll, lets get out of here" The switch turned off and he was back to his normal self.
My conclusion is that I don't need years of training for the dressage arena, just bring out a piebald :D
Click to expand...

Haha that made me laugh so much!! Funny :D

My Sec D is like a plod most days but the other day I took him on hack and someone went past us wearing a white BASEBALL CAP!! Arrrghhhhh! We also demonstrated the most fantastic dressage in the middle of the road to the tune of a sideways snorting canter. Ears pricked as far forward as possible of course, I was told he looked lovely. Same I couldn't EVER make him do it in the school *sigh*
 
Cheshire Chestnut said:
Haha that made me laugh so much!! Funny :D

My Sec D is like a plod most days but the other day I took him on hack and someone went past us wearing a white BASEBALL CAP!! Arrrghhhhh! We also demonstrated the most fantastic dressage in the middle of the road to the tune of a sideways snorting canter. Ears pricked as far forward as possible of course, I was told he looked lovely. Same I couldn't EVER make him do it in the school *sigh*
Click to expand...
LOL yes, white baseball caps and blue crosses painted on drains by the waterboard!
Think I will download Gangham style on my phone and play it to his dressage moves!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top