Something weird underfoot

Caol Ila

Caol Ila

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 January 2012
Messages
8,796
Location
Glasgow
Visit site
I took my horse, Gypsum, on a wee hack today, intending to ride into the forestry land near the yard, like we've done thousands of times. To get to the forestry, you ride through a village and there's a small dead end side street off the main road through the village and the forestry trail connects to the road at the dead end. Gypsum happily hacked out, as usual, went through the village, as usual, and then, when I turned onto the dead end side street, she started snorting at the ground and prancing and dancing about, like their was something uncomfortable or scary about the asphalt under her feet. Not like her, as she's generally not a very a spooky horse (though she has her moments, as they all do). When she worries about something, a little bit of leg, confidence, and encouragement gets her past it. So I put leg on and asked her to go forward, and she spun round and bolted in the opposite direction. Like a proper will-not-stop-for-love-nor-money bolt. After about twenty or twenty-five meters, she did stop. Also not like her. I've had her for thirteen years and never had her tank off quite like that. Anyway, I turned her around and went back to the scary spot. The snorting and prancing continued. It was pretty apparent to me that she was going to bolt again; the sort of absolute certainty you have when 1200lbs of Shire-X decides intransigently that she's not going to go somewhere and there's not a lot you can do about it. Also, it was all so out-of-character that I concluded there must be something really bizarre going on that was upsetting her and that I should listen to her. So I rode her out of the side road and headed off in a different direction along the main road, continuing our ride elsewhere. She was completely fine for the remainder of the ride.

Very strange. It was almost as if she was getting some kind of electric shock from the asphalt, the way she was snorting, dancing around, not wanting any foot on the ground, and then taking off. Can that happen? The closest she has ever come to acting that in this way was back in Colorado, when we rode past a spot where hunters had killed a deer and there was blood around but even then, she wasn't quite so determined to run away.
 
maybe she could sense something, drains under the road carrying more water than usual making more noise who knows?!

i was riding my big girl across the farm one day and asked her to go through a very green looking patch of grass, she stopped dead and back up and we had a bit of a disagreement about her going forward but i 'won' eventually, she walked forward and ended up nearly knee deep in boggy ground:o i apologised and got her back out quickly, she knew the footing wasn't good and tried to let me know bless her!
 
Sometimes you just have to trust that they know something you don't :D

Had a similar thing to IbbleBibble a few years ago, hacking along on a loose rein and came to a bit of the track that is always a bit boggy. My horse was leading; he stopped and then gingerly picked his way up the bank and around the little patch of mud on the track :confused: Found it amusing until the horse behind him carried straight on and ended up stuck to her belly in the clay mud where a water main had burst under the surface of the track. Needed fire brigade to get her out :eek:
 
Caol Ila said:
Very strange. It was almost as if she was getting some kind of electric shock from the asphalt, the way she was snorting, dancing around, not wanting any foot on the ground, and then taking off. Can that happen?
Click to expand...

Yes it can.
 
I think too sometimes they just know something isn't right. Mines done it a handful of times & everytime she has been right. If they're usually a sensible sort its better to just trust them sometimes.
 
That's a sad and scary news story. Makes me feel like I did the right thing today by listening to my horse when she bolted. First time in thirteen years she's ever bolted like that, so she must have known something I didn't. With all the big thunder storms we've had in the last week, who knows. While she's not a spooky horse, she is a very sensitive and aware horse. Later on the ride, about half a mile away from where Gypsum freaked out, I saw a tree that had been struck by lightening.
 
Last edited:
Horses’ feet act like amplifiers of the vibrations in the ground and with a concave sole that picks up ground vibrations. A person running will set them running, as that signifies to them that there is something they should be running from.

They can sense; changes in air pressure, and magnetic/electric fields. That’s how they know when a storm is coming, or how cold a winter will be, when they start growing extra hair in August you can know the winter will be a harsh one!!! They can sense where to dig under the snow for grass and clean water to drink.

So when they behave in an odd fashion they have a reason for doing so, they always have a good reason. They are fantastic animals - so tuned in to the world they live in :)
 
Yes, I considered phoning the council but I wasn't sure how seriously they would take: "My horse was spooky so you should check for fallen electrical cables." If you're not horsey, it sounds like a bit of a non-sequitur.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top