Nutty trolley man!

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Amys_Babies

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Yesterday took my 9 year old lad out on hack hes a bit of a jumpy lad anyway. Hadnt done much work with over summer and was just slowly bringing him back in work.

We had bit of scary moment going up a quiet lane there was a man with one those material shopping bag/trolley things that you usually see old ladies pushing when shopping. I have never seen anyone walk so quick but he was coming down the lane full speed with this trolley thing infront of him making a right racket and my poor boy nearly had a heart attack.

His legs do the most maddest things when he gets scared he never runs off just has a bit of a wobbly on the spot. His legs went everywhere and as the man got closer tommys bum was two inches to the floor and the man just said sorry and was going to carry on until i shouted at him to stop.

Luckily i werent hurt and tommy was fine but i just cant believe the man he obviously saw tommy was upset (not as though a horse sits on floor everyday) and to say sorry but intend to carry on pushing that thing past the horse was just crazy.

Am glad he stopped in the end though!

Pointless post really just had to have a rant about it.
 
the man probably just didn't realise what he was doing. Most nonhorsey people dont understand that simple things like their trolleys can spook horseys
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I agree - very scary but don't be too hard on him. I used to ride on a bridleway which was a favourite for yummy-mummy's to push their tots around in pushchairs etc. They couldn't understand why my horse was terrified, it was only a pushchair!

My lad is also terrified of plastic bags - if he sees someone walking up the road with one he freaks out. How many people would think that their sainsbury's shopping bag was the thing making my three-quaters-of-a-tonne grown up horse lose his marbles!
 
May be i did think a bit to badly about it. I forget sometimes how people who arent horsey think about things. Where as when your up there your always aware of what will or might scare your horse. Supose least when i asked him to stop he did as dont think tom would have coped if it had come past him.
 
I once shouted at a man on a golf course (our bridle path runs alongside it) after he picked up his huge umbrella and Dylan levitated 3 feet up and 6 feet sideways - ending up on the estate road - the man was watching me and I'd JUST managed to coax Dylan back onto the bridle path, when he thought he'd help by folding the umbrella ... thereby setting Dylan off again.

I felt quite bad afterwards as he clearly didn't realise
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Most non - horsey people are utterly clueless like this. Its just a fact of life.
Try desensitising your horse at home.
Feed him out of a plastic bag and groom him with one. That works, takes time but done the right way it works.
Introduce umberellas and pushchairs, in a safe environment. Let you horse know that you are with him and allow him to look, turn away then encourage him back and past it.
Do all this on the ground first.
My horse is very nervous of all sorts of silly nonsense but he no longer spins annd charges off. It may be "Up periscope" and stand and look but I have trained him out of having a really dangerous reaction, over time by giving him confidence in my decisions.
All sounds a bit Parelli I know but its not - it my way. I couldn't risk riding a horse that reacts the way some peoples horse appear to do on this forum.
I would never put my foot in the stirrup of a horse that didn't trust me enough to hack it out safely.

But then I'm an old lady, and had enough accidents when I was young with flighty horses!
 
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