Shooting season - nearly the end ?

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canteron

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Anyone else horses all go ballistic when they shoot nearby. The farmer is a horse hating shooting mad type. The horses do over react (or not maybe - the guns would happily shoot anything that moves, if they could get away with it) and I am currently trying to work out a plan to get them used to it before next season!!!

Any ideas?
 
Yes, am pleased it's nearly the end of the season. I hd my first fall for about 10 years just before Christmas and broke my elbow as it was on tarmac. The problem is you don't necessarily get any warning. One minute hacking along quietly, the next all hell breaks loose behind the wood and my just backed 4yo has gone ballistic. Hence the broken elbow.
We did manage a nice sensible ride, on grass, yesterday with distant gun shots (again, unexpected or I wouldn't have actually ridden that way!) so she has been getting used to them. I think if you can somehow expose them to lots of distant gun fire, or at a low volume, it should make a big difference. I've owned several who couldn't care less so it does depend on the individual horse.
 
For a few years we had a shooting school for a neighbour. The ponies are great at going past shoots now... to a point. They are not too happy about pheasants dropping out of the sky like bricks.
 
I have a clay pigeon shoot very close and two shoots. They are very good about letting me know when they will be shooting and I avoid hacking out on those days. I'd get in touch before the next season and ask if you can have the shooting dates.
 
canteron said:
Anyone else horses all go ballistic when they shoot nearby. The farmer is a horse hating shooting mad type. The horses do over react (or not maybe - the guns would happily shoot anything that moves, if they could get away with it) and I am currently trying to work out a plan to get them used to it before next season!!!

Any ideas?
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yeah, shoot the farmer instead. Or, as a fan of Roald Dahl, drug the pheasants or the shots?
 
An estate we ride nearby has just been bought and shooting has started. Our yard owner shoots rabbits on the farm so the horses are used to gun shots at a reasonable distance. As we walked along the road one day the guns went off in the field right next to us. It felt like the guns were within meters. Our horses were amazing, both were nervous but didn't react. I shouted to a guy obviously with the shoot and asked if he could ask them to stop shooting to give us 5 mins to walk passed. He shouted and they all stopped immediately and moved off to another spot. They were very polite. I would have preferred notice they were in the area but they were very good when we asked them to stop.
 
My husband shoots and we live on an estate that shoot in the fields next to the horses and our house. So the horses and the dogs seem immune to guns now and that also helps with fireworks. I think it’s a case of the more they hear them the better they are, I get more freaked than the horses now. I was putting the bins out yesterday morning in my pjs and a group of men with their guns and gun dogs came out from the trees saying “lovely morning for it” Lol I could have died!! Xx
 
Dwyran_gold said:
My husband shoots and we live on an estate that shoot in the fields next to the horses and our house. So the horses and the dogs seem immune to guns now and that also helps with fireworks. I think it’s a case of the more they hear them the better they are, I get more freaked than the horses now. I was putting the bins out yesterday morning in my pjs and a group of men with their guns and gun dogs came out from the trees saying “lovely morning for it” Lol I could have died!! Xx
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I was at home yesterday and my OH was beating on the shoot next door, he rang to say ‘we’re just about to beat the garden, don’t walk around naked’!
 
Spotherisk said:
I was at home yesterday and my OH was beating on the shoot next door, he rang to say ‘we’re just about to beat the garden, don’t walk around naked’!
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haha love this! There was me thinking moving to the middle of no where one of the joys was to be able to walk around naked ??
 
Spotherisk said:
I was at home yesterday and my OH was beating on the shoot next door, he rang to say ‘we’re just about to beat the garden, don’t walk around naked’!
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I get this regularly...
“We’re coming up towards the house- for god sake woman please make sure you’re dressed, or if you’re having a wee- that the bathroom door is shut”
Yep... it happened ???
 
I'd ask around for details for the gamekeeper and ask if they can let you know the shoot dates, if you're polite they're generally very amenable, just be warned a few can lack people skills (obviously not all but it puts a lot of people off)

Luckily mine are really good as the shoot the field over the road weekly
 
We have a shoot in the fields next to mine, the horses now take no notice of the guns but I know which days they shoot and make sure they are turned out on the flat field not on the hill where they are more likely to get injured if they decide to have a jolly. They get more bothered by the beaters and dogs who go through the nearby wood which are much more exciting as they think it could possibly be hunting!
 
Our last yard had a shoot almost every weekend but they were good enough to let us know and gives dates in advance. The horses were kept in and it was up to us if we rode. Mine never ever really settled when they were on. We discovered though it was actually the groups of men he didn’t like(could hear and see them) and not actually the gun shots. Perhaps the first few times then he’d settle. But definitely not keen on the groups of men.
 
I've never tested my two (one a youngster) in or near a "Shoot" happening; but a neighbouring farmer a year or two back had some bird-scarers operating very close by in the field just across a narrow lane from where my two are turned out.

The detonators were going off every 15 mins or so; two bangs about 30 seconds apart.

Horses just got thoroughly used to it and totally ignored it; meanwhile everyone hacking past was frightened out of their wits. Really think farmers ought to be made to put warning signs up if they're using these things; I tried to warn people when I could, but some sort of notice up would have been helpful.
 
I’m very fortunate that my horse came from a yard where there was a shoot. There was actually a peg in his paddock and apparently he used to try and move the gunman along! We have a shoot here on the farm and he’s not bothered.
Could you get some crow bangers and set them off periodically. They’re like firecrackers on a string which you light. OR get someone with a gun to come and fire off a few shots a couple of times a week. Desensitisation is the only way.
 
Nah, after 2 seasons of having regular chasse days in the woodland on the other side of the lane to us, my lot are so used to the horns and shooting and shouty, pissed up, idiotic Frenchmen that they barely lift their heads out of their hay! ?
 
kathantoinette said:
I’m very fortunate that my horse came from a yard where there was a shoot. There was actually a peg in his paddock and apparently he used to try and move the gunman along! We have a shoot here on the farm and he’s not bothered.
Could you get some crow bangers and set them off periodically. They’re like firecrackers on a string which you light. OR get someone with a gun to come and fire off a few shots a couple of times a week. Desensitisation is the only way.
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I think you are right time to dust offf the guns .... I have 8 months to practice - should be enough ?
 
We have so many shoots around here it makes for unpleasant hacking during the season. If we hear one I try to hack in a different direction but it isn't always possible. Pony is really pretty good but I hate having to ride past where they are shooting next to the road especially when there is traffic about. The beaters flags are often the biggest problem.
 
Mine have always been on or near shoots. They're fine with it in the field, they might stand and watch, or jump at a near shot if it's out of the blue, but no more than they would at a stray pigeon, so I don't worry about them. I don't like hacking if they're shooting because I don't want to walk into one and have pheasants rain down around me. Even the gun shy idiot is fine if I stick out of the way, or in an arena when I had one.
 
One of mine is genuinely terrified of guns and even having a shoot on a previous farm didn’t help that much. He is just as scared of fireworks.

I was out yesterday and saw a group of guns wearing kilts in honour of Burns night. They looked so smart and colourful but I did wonder whether they had thermal shorts on underneath.
 
We get more shooters in the summer months here because of the crops. We’ve befriended the main one and he’s very good about stopping when we want to ride.
Although there is someone who shoots at the little farm that borders ours and we get absolutely no warning. It’s been silent for months and a couple of days ago it was constant every few minutes. Typically they shoot behind the ‘scary lane and woods’ that runs alongside our farm tracks, which our horses are all terrified of anyway because it’s dark and the trees rustle. I just know that one day I’ll be riding round there and the gun will go off and that will be the end of me I’m sure. Polly is less bothered than Millie, but then again Millie’s frightened of her own farts so I don’t stand much chance there.
 
This reminds me of the time we were having a new roof on our cottage, the stables are only a few yards away and we had a pointer with a ligament problem in Every time the nail gun was used he would blink, like an involuntary twitch. Luckily they only used it for short periods of time.
 
We have a horse hating farmer that shoots round here, mine are generally ok until he decides to literally walk along my fence line shooting birds, I had birds going down in my field wildlife running for there lives through my garden, the dog was petrified hiding in the stable shaking the horses do gallop about in this situation, I did go out there and I admit I lost my temper with them, but they basically called me a liar when I said I had birds go down in my field, I fully appreciate they have the rights to shoot but a bit of common curtisey wouldn't go a miss, I have asked them to just let me know when they intend to shoot along my perimeter just so I can bring my horses in and jeep my dog in, but no they never do so personally I hate the shooting season and am glad when it's over.
 
Mads is genuinely terrified of shooting and nothing I can do will make her any less so. I do everything I can to avoid her encountering shot gun fire. We live on the edge of Salisbury Plain and she absolutely fine with heavy artillery (even the shake the foundation type) and automatic weapons.
 
People shoot around our yard and the horses couldn't care less about the bangs. What they do get a bit uppity about is people being in "their" lane. Archie in particular doesn't like strangers being somewhere they aren't normally. We asked one to talk to him once so he'd realise it was just a person as Arch seemed very confused and aggrieved by the whole thing. The man was lovely and gave the boys a pat which was enough to have them going on their way. He carries polos now and gives them to the horses when he sees us. Now they won't walk past for very different reasons :rolleyes:.
 
My first pony (the one that went on to do 10 years driving for RDA) took no notice of shooting, but the one thing in his entire life that stopped him dead in his tracks was a beaters lorry. It wasn't the lorry itself, but the voices coming from it.

He wouldn't go past until the beaters had come out of the back, so he could satisfy himself that it wasn't a talking lorry :D
 
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