Offensive plants!

[Peglo]

On our hack yesterday we came across inconsiderate drivers, ducks splashing in puddles and cows charging at the fence but the only real threat (apparently) was very offensive purple flowers!! We had legs splayed, snorting and the panic of how we could possibly pass them. These are on our most used route too ?
Today we went passed them twice. We didn’t notice them on the way up ? but the way down we made sure to snort a warning and kept a close eye incase the pony eating flowers made their move.

anyone else come across anything offensive this week?

 

[CanteringCarrot]

Oh yes, a very offensive tale...

Yesterday I was soaking one of my horses hind hooves in a shallow rubber bucket due to an abscess. I turned my back for a second, which is usually fine, he just stands there, but for some reason he decided to step out of the bucket and managed to tip it over and the water went all over the hard standing of his paddock. He proceeded to be terrified of this raging river that he had just created and the now upside down bucket. Not paying attention to anything else, he then spooked into the electric fence (just grazed it), which caused him to snort spook (again), and do a panicked shuffle into his stable where he likely had a small panic attack. I walked in and he was a bit shaken, but came back out and placed his hoof back in the, now refilled, bucket. The rest of the soak was very non-dramatic.

I told him this was his own drama that he created, as usual ? this episode sums up my horse and his personality really well.

So bucket, water, fence, all offensive!

I should've kept closer watch but eh, he's fine now.

 

[Rumtytum]

The leaf that fell from a tree and landed close to the back of the saddle, I couldn’t see it but he knew it was the Fly From Hell. Trying to get rid of it he almost got rid of me ?

 

[CanteringCarrot]

My horse has been offended at unplanned (as in he didn't know about it before it took place) landscaping and gardening before. So when I walked into his stable today with a watering can he promptly spooked and exited (to his paddock). ?

Tbf, he gets even weirder when he doesn't have a job. He hasn't been ridden since last week and I couldn't be arsed to do groundwork in the heat today.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Ah, killer lupins! Anything new that appears on the ride, from pansies to a postbox gets the 'Oh no! That wasn't there last week' approach. Christmas used to be a riot - three weeks to get used to light up snowmen and herds of plastic reindeer, then another two weeks wondering where they had all gone. At least he's observant.

 

[southerncomfort]

Yes! Today we spooked at a very small shrub that had come in to flower since we last passed it. Apparently this was deeply suspicious behaviour on the part of the shrub.

 

[Pmf27]

I love all of these stories, please keep them coming ?

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

My now retired mare....sensibly and sedately past a coach load of screaming out the windows school kids on a very narrow country lane. Followed by 5 minutes snorting and arse'ing about because a white butterfly fluttered past her and landed on the grass at the side of the lane.

 

[mariew]

Mine was pretty bombproof but once she spooked at a sign that wasn't there anymore. She literally spooked at nothing.

 

[J&S]

They painted a white circle around a rather deep (and ofensive!) pothole, this caused severe body contortions and huge eyes and enormous fluttery nostrils. After that all the 20 pmh and 30 mph signs in the village which are painted on the ground became highly suspicious areas. They have never caused even a twitch before!

 

[crazyandme]

Old Welshie once leaped 6ft in the air mid canter because there was suspicious purple flower in the field next to the bridleway that hadn't been there the previous week. Same pony also refused to go anywhere near a cut down tree that appeared one day along one of our longer routes and arched around it with a good 2m between us and it everytime for months because it was "new"

 

[SilverLinings]

I have a horse who hasn't turned a hair at anything in the 7yrs I've owned him; fine with heavy machinery, gunfire, screaming children, balloons, fairgrounds etc. Last month one of the sheep in the field next to his had most of it's fleece hanging off, it had kind of peeled back from the front end and was trailing ~4ft behind it like the sheep was wearing some sort of Victorian christening gown. It took a week for the horse to relax in the field, he had to keep his eyes on it all the time, and for the first 48hrs he ran around his field every time the sheep came down to the fence line.

I suppose to the horse it looked like some kind of monstrous sheep/centipede hybrid, but I was amazed that he took so long to accept it as I had started to think that he was incapable of feeling fear!

ETA the other horses were equally bothered, but I expected that reaction from them as they are a little more suspicious in general

 

[SashaBabe]

I was feeling a little bit down this afternoon, but these stories have made me smile and have definitely lifted my spirits.

 

[Peglo]

I was feeling a little bit down this afternoon, but these stories have made me smile and have definitely lifted my spirits.

so glad your feeling a bit better

 

[Gloi]

Hand over your lupins!

 

[SEL]

We have a very beautiful maple tree on a hacking route. It dares to turn yellow in autumn. It becomes the monster that cannot be passed.

 

[w1bbler]

My mare was literally bombproof, happy with the heaviest of traffic, didn't bat an eyelid at the fairground we rode past, or when they left town & the variety of scary looking vehicles drove past her, not even an ear flicked.
Regularly ride past a firing range, no that's not scary, no reaction.
Everyone called her Mrs perfect.
The object that eventually got her stopping dead, 180 turn & running for home, anyone want to guess....


A snowman fgs, I couldn't do anything for laughing ????

 

[k1994]

Oh yes some kids had drawn some pictures on the pavement with chalk which activated welsh dragon mode, it was obviously about to come to life and eat us at any moment, lucky we made it past alive!

think she’s watched that SpongeBob eppisode ?

 

[CanteringCarrot]

My mare was literally bombproof, happy with the heaviest of traffic, didn't bat an eyelid at the fairground we rode past, or when they left town & the variety of scary looking vehicles drove past her, not even an ear flicked.
Regularly ride past a firing range, no that's not scary, no reaction.
Everyone called her Mrs perfect.
The object that eventually got her stopping dead, 180 turn & running for home, anyone want to guess....


A snowman fgs, I couldn't do anything for laughing ????

Ah yes, my horse was once caught off guard and offended by a snowman.

 

[DirectorFury]

A rock.

Not all rocks, just this one specific rock.

Normally she just gives it a wide berth while eyeing it suspiciously but last time we were out in company she decided to strike out at it. She was most confused and quite put-out when the rock didn't react.

 

[Highmileagecob]

And if you have to ride home past the said object, you get the drama all over again when they spot it with the other eye - apparently a horse's left and right brain work independently!

 

[Pmf27]

And if you have to ride home past the said object, you get the drama all over again when they spot it with the other eye - apparently a horse's left and right brain work independently!

??? Love this

 

[Tarragon]

I had a pony that didn't like any tarmac of a different colour to the rest of the road. If it crossed the road completely, she would jump it.

 

[cindars]

A pile of ash on the bridleways,had to go another way round. Wild rhubarb has big leaves which often shimmer but passed a field that had a raging fine in the days when stubble burning was allowed.

 

[maya2008]

I had a Welsh pony once who was terrified of purple flowers. Spinning, rearing, leaping, complete hysterics if asked to go past them. Spent a summer desensitising her to them because otherwise nothing could get done!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Giant Dock leaves freaks one of mine out

 

[meggymoo]

A wet manhole cover. It was fine in dry weather but once it got wet....!
Oh, and a daffodil - just the one!

 

[Pippity]

We were hacking with someone else yesterday, and the other horse reacted very badly to a puddle - spinning, teleporting sideways, etc.

Blue then peered suspiciously in the bushes as she happily stomped through the puddle. There must have been SOMETHING scary to make F react like that, but it clearly couldn't be the puddle, so she wasn't sure what it was.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

We were hacking with someone else yesterday, and the other horse reacted very badly to a puddle - spinning, teleporting sideways, etc.

Blue then peered suspiciously in the bushes as she happily stomped through the puddle. There must have been SOMETHING scary to make F react like that, but it clearly couldn't be the puddle, so she wasn't sure what it was.

Aww, Blue sounds like such a sweetie!