Silly things that scare your horse

Hullabaloo

Hullabaloo

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Was just thinking about Merlinsquests post where her boy got scared by a solo comb and wondered what silly things scare your horse.

Mine was sold to me as 16 hands, but I don't know for sure as he's terrified of the measuring stick. Even seeing someone holding it on the yard will have him dancing round in terror. We did try holding a whip out from his wither and doing it that way but he still wasn't happy and we came up with 14.3 and 17.1, both of which are a bit out!

The only other thing he really hates is clippers, but I can understand that one.
 
Daffodils when he's being ridden - fine when they wave at him in the field!

Oh and Kerilli's chickens - he hated them - so next job is to build chicken house and move some in
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Yesterday there was apparently a really scary section of 'air' in the school which meant we had to scoot along with our ass on the ground for 4 strides. And the bridle
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but that's because she had teeth problems so we're working on that one - hence why she's now ridden in a hackamore.

Funny thing about the measuring stick, my old boy is the most bomb proof irish TBx you could wish to meet. He never spooked, could have 2 year old children running underneath him, was just basically the easiest and most wonderful horse ever. HOWEVER, for some reason the measuring stick was actually a huge horse eating monster. Never did figure that one out.
 
Horse in my sig had no problem with inflatable santas or flashing Christmas lights when we went on our festive hacks.
But a slightly unusually-shaped tree? FREAK OUT!
Last week my friend's mount wigged out at one sheep in a field full of them. It wasn't even moving, it was just staring at us.
 
Two of mine aren't scared of anything. The third is scared of the sound of people blowing raspberries, and will run away as if wolves are after her. She used to be very frightened of the sound of velcro, but I trained her out of it as it was impractical so now she doesn't bother.
I know I need to train her out of the raspberry phobia (so easy to do), but it's too funny....
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S
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[ QUOTE ]
Was just thinking about Merlinsquests post where her boy got scared by a solo comb and wondered what silly things scare your horse.

Mine was sold to me as 16 hands, but I don't know for sure as he's terrified of the measuring stick. Even seeing someone holding it on the yard will have him dancing round in terror. We did try holding a whip out from his wither and doing it that way but he still wasn't happy and we came up with 14.3 and 17.1, both of which are a bit out!

The only other thing he really hates is clippers, but I can understand that one.

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We've only used the measuring stick on Blue, Holly, Saf, Monty and Saracen and Monty and Saracen are terrified of it!
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You can't get near them to measure them. The other 3 are not bothered AT ALL!
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The third is scared of the sound of people blowing raspberries, and will run away as if wolves are after her.

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The imagination boggles at how you discovered that.
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There's a huge long list - a few features are:

logs on the ground in the woods - monsters obviously
the measuring stick
anything that's black and yellow
mice

Strange because the things he's not scared of include:

motorbikes or quads right up his arse when out hacking
cyclists in full on flourescent gear - unless it's black and yellow
lorries and tractors and idiots in cars going through puddles at the side of him and soaking us both
 
PF is scared of anything that wasn't there the previous time we went past a spot. This doesn't apply if we go somewhere new.
She's scared of bags too.
I had a mare that was scared of the noise of velcro and a rawhide headcollar I bought for her out here. Fortunately she learned to accept both
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my sisters horse Tom is seriously wierd and is not scared of anything, ever.... he actively goes over to look inside plastic bags in hegdes (well there might be a sandwich in it...) and he puts his face onto the clippers if you're not careful cos he loves having his head clipped (i told you he was wierd) and he plays with anything he can get hold of even when my Ron is running away! He drags my sister over to things he wants to look at, and is a bit obsessive really.
Ron however, is quite different. He's pretty bombproof with traffic, and isnt' really bothered by the sort of stuff you would expect him to be bothered by.... but sheep? pigs? white lines? all terrifying! he's not entirely sure what to do with fallen down trees - he eyes them up as if he's not sure whether to jump it or run away cos whatever made a tree fall over will obviously want to eat him! Silage bales are a bit hit and miss, green ones especially!
 
On Saturday Misty found a random lump of concrete the sacriest thing ever! And then there's wheelie bins and the blue pipe that is lying everywhere at min on the roads, she thinks it's a special type of pony eating snake.

Of course at 28 years old she knows none of this is really that scary, but were would the fun be in behaving?
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[ QUOTE ]
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The third is scared of the sound of people blowing raspberries, and will run away as if wolves are after her.

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The imagination boggles at how you discovered that.
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Oddly, she's only scared of lip-blown raspberries, if you get my drift. Just as well, or it could be dangerous when I come to break her
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S
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Bicycles, people sitting down (ie having picnic), pigs, different coloured bracken from normal, anything that wasn't like that yesterday! Fine with helicopters at 100ft, shotguns and rifles.
 
Blue lines/arrows on the road.... any other colour is fine, but there was some building works and some blue arrows had been painted on the road, we had backwards sideways etc!

My old horse was petrified of Milk floats... wether they were moving or still... wouldnt walk past them for love nor money!
 
My horse doesn't like white foam!

Basically when someone has washed something - like a car or a horse and is rinsing it and it leaves white foam on the floor - it doesn't have to be moving - he just snorts at it - which i find amusing as he will happily walk over hose pipes and through water - but got forbid it has foam in it!!

He's generally ok with traffic - but is wary of farm animals particulary cows - they are ok if they are still and not looking at him - but i hacked out once and went past a field full and one looked at him - we then proceeded to jog until we were out of the way of the evil glare!! hehe

He is good though - his reactions are never silly and on the whole is sensible... especially when we had to walk through a impromptu motor cross course on our bridle way with about 100 bikes - wasn't bothered in the slightest!
 
I am not convinced that Spring is genuinely scared of anything - she likes to pretend that she is though! Cows and sheep are potentially horse-eating monsters and flappy plastic and flags may just fall on your head and suffocate you, so it's best to scoot past and give them a good snort.
 
Well you never know with my lad...could be anything really! Last night I walked through his field with a haynet and he kept trying to take bites from it so I held it for him to bite at and it moved as he grabbed it...well he freaked after it happened for a second time! Went charging off round the field bucking and snorting...got himself right wound up and sweaty and there was no telling him either! He was huffing and puffing by the time I got him calm enough to approach! Daft bat!
 
Minor changes in his environment freak Ronnie out, for instance if I take my mobile out of my pocket halfway through a schooling session and leave it on the side in the school, we'll have to give it a 15 metre-wide berth. Stationary farm machinery fightens him, but it's ok if it's moving, even clanking and rattling is ok. He's ok with motorbikes, lorries etc, but shocked by cyclists (more shocked than scared, I think he just doesn't understand them). And when I got him he was scared of puddles but now he loves splashing through them.

He's also scared of very small ponies.
 
we used to have a CBxTB who was scared of babies, in prams, being carried in the backpack kinda things or even just held.
he was also only scared of tractors if the driver waved....

obviously people shouldn't have 2 heads, and if a monster has eaten a person alive then it might well eat him!
 
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Oddly, she's only scared of lip-blown raspberries, if you get my drift. Just as well, or it could be dangerous when I come to break he

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Useful to know but I'm sort of getting a picture in my head now of a horse training session which is NOT covered in any IH seminar.

"OK everybody, we're now going to fart loudly next to this horse and see what happens"
 
Cows. At our last yard in the UK, some cows from the neighbouring field got in with our geldings and jack was attacked
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He came off worse
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Aaaaaaaaaaand....

Tea cups / Coffee cups.

Ive no idea why. He hates the sound they make if they clink together (you know when you collect them up and they make that clink?). He absolutly freaks out. He soon worked out the clink came from the cups and now hes terrified of them. It caused endless amusement to my trainer who always had constant tea and coffee while she taught. She only had to pick her cup up to drink and jack and i would be off at turbo speed
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Hes also not keen on ponies.
 
Someone mentioned markings on the road! I used to have the most bombproof mare imaginable. She was the most crazily hyper thing to sit on. She couldnt walk anywhere, her trot was usually with the hind legs cantering; she'd literally be 3 steps forwards and 5 back but she WAS bombproof.

She was the only horse ive ever hacked a lot but she didnt like the white lines on the road. She'd not do anything, but she would have to hop over them and give them a good foot.

I remember hacking once on some lanes and coming to the end of a particularly windy lane and there were full white lines, a circle and the big word STOP in white letters. It was so comical because Ruby slamed the breaks on and stuck her head down to the ground almost as if she was reading it
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She went over it after; never around, always quite literally, with a huge leap over
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Water troughs!! They are fine in her fields, but see one out hacking and we have to give it a nice wide berth! Other than that she is almost bombproof
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