Sometimes I really don't understand horses.

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Holding

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Has anybody ever had a horse be absolutely terrified of an innocuous object? I bought my horse a pair of sheepskin overreach boots a while back, which he did not appreciate. I brought them into his stable and it was as if I had walked in with a severed head. He was so desperate to get away that he fell over, wouldn't let anybody near him and spent literally the rest of the night even after I took them away rearing up and trying to climb over his stable wall. The next day his stable was a mess, but he had calmed down. A month or so later I brought them out again to the exact same reaction. If it wasn't so traumatic for him I would film it, because I have honestly never seen a horse react so vehemently to anything in my life.

So I decided that if he hated them that much, I wouldn't make him wear them, and gave them away to a friend. Problem solved. Except tonight she put them on her horse, and mine freaked out again. Her horse was two stables away and mine couldn't see them, but he somehow figured out they were there, and had a fit about it. When I took him out to lunge him she was lunging hers wearing said boots, and he couldn't concentrate because he wouldn't take his eyes off this other horse. He also kept spooking violently every time the other horse came near.

So. I had planned to just ignore it, but how can I take him out and about knowing that the sight of a fluffy overreach boot makes him swoon like a Victorian lady? And how can I desensitise him to something that he isn't just scared of, but that actively traumatises him? He has never had a bad experience with them, and I have already tried the usual things - has anybody experienced anything like this before, or is it only my strange idiot of a horse?
 
That's very strange, I wonder if there is a weird smell in the sheepskin which is freaking him out?

I have a very reactive pony who causes mayhem with new rugs, halters, anything which he hasn't worn before. He won't let them touch him without a fuss. Having had the mad one for a good few years I now rub anything new on his rugs or his friend's rugs before taking them in his stable which seems to be quite effective and calms things down. Perhaps you could rub the boots in something of his, sweaty numnah or dirty smelly rug? Might be worth a try.
 
Funny you should bring this up. My friend bought a new sheepskin girth sleeve recently and her horse went nuts at the sight of it and wouldn't have it anywhere near him. My pony (a generally totally laid back highland) had a silly snorting and backing off fit at the sight of it as well. I wonder if it is something to do with the "sheepy" smell of new sheepskin?

Whatever it is, you're not the only one with a horse which has a sheepskin phobia.
 
I suppose it could be the smell - it is after all a dead sheep. I might try him with a different sheepskin thing and see whether its the overreach boots specifically or sheepskin in general. Bloody horse. :rolleyes:
 
Yes! Lunge line on the floor. I can wave it in his face and hold it above the floor, but as soon as it hits the ground - IT WILL KILL HIM!!!!

I can walk him over tarp, flags, spinny garden things, scary Halloween masks etc etc...but lunge line on the floor? NO!
 
Samba didn't like her new mattes numnah. She kept jumping backwards trembling!!!

Friend rode her horse in it and then samba was fine, must have been the smell. She also has an irrational fear of hoof oil, as in proper oil the solid stuff is fine. Open hood oil near her. Blind panic.
 
Someone on our yard bought a Curly Bashkir horse - perfect for her as her family were all allergic to ordinary horses, but these are apparently hypoallergenic...which is great, but they smell more like wet dog than horse. It was in the stable behind mine....mine came in from the field, walked into his stable, and then freaked - cue me standing in front of the door for the next TWO hours to stop 17hh warmblood jumping out over it.
He is also excessively upset by a Witney striped rug. Luminous yellow exercise rug is fine, but stripes are out, apparently.
Also, take his own rug off and put it on the floor in front of him and it is suddenly A MONSTER!
He is also suspicious if you leave his bed up, so the floor is exposed....
In fact, overall he's just a bit.....special?
:confused::D
 
No sympathy, I am afraid - I have a 14 year old that I have owned since he was 4 years, and I ride him out on similar routes most days - and every Spring he has a hissy fit at some Red Campion, growing in the hedgerows............nightmare horse, lovely horse who won five point-to-points for me (no wild flowers in the 18 fences he had to jump, clearly) but I sooooo hate riding him in his everyday fitness work - but take him racing / hunting / pleasure rides - he is fantastic - For this horse, if I was rich, I would invest in a horse walker, to do all the fittening work.......and just jump on his back fpr the fun days.
 
When I first got stanley he absolutely could not take his eyes off two horses in the next field who were wearing fly masks (the type that cover the whole face). He didn't exactly panic but he was snorting and prancing along with a v suspicious look on his face. He looked at them everytime he was turned out for about 2 months. It even distracted him from grazing which is really unlike Stanley!!
 
The woman next door (there is a small valley running between us so we can see her fields) uses the rambo dust buster rugs in the summer to help with the flies.. well you would think my two had thought the world is about to end! Careering about the field, snorting dragon impessions the lot! But will they let me catch them to avail their escape from this 'thing'? Nooooooo... they need to keep eyeballing it throughout the prancing, galloping and wall of death worthy laps of the field!!!
 
kinnygirl1 said:
When I first got stanley he absolutely could not take his eyes off two horses in the next field who were wearing fly masks (the type that cover the whole face). He didn't exactly panic but he was snorting and prancing along with a v suspicious look on his face. He looked at them everytime he was turned out for about 2 months. It even distracted him from grazing which is really unlike Stanley!!
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Blooming heck - another Stanley!! Our Stanley we bought at June Ascot sales 2011, we saw him in his box, at the back of the box, covered in scrapes and bruises and said this would be the last horse we would ever bid for - reg name Sleeping Soundly. i was looking for a horse for my 14 year old son to have some fun on. I ended up buying the worst horse in the sale for £400 min bid, Bought him home and Sleeping Soundly was wide awake and terribly nasty when I tried to bond with him far later that night - what had I done? And what were we going to call this horse as well? The boy said Stanley, and bonded wih the quirky difficult animal straight away, Two years on they are an impresssive item, somehow (despite them both being uneduacated), being placed at hunter trials / SJ et al. Stan still hates me, but adores his rider, odd really.....but posssibly the best £400 I have invested for a long time. bring on the Stanley's ......
 
Glad it's not just mine - my mare nearly killed me due to some sheepskin (no exaggeration!!)
She'd always worn a black sheepskin girth cover but it had got a bit tatty so I went to buy another - unfortunately they only had white ones (impractical :rolleyes:) so I had to get one of those. I went to put it on her in the stable, showed it to her "just in case" - she was fine. But then she glanced behind her and caught sight of it and went into full blown panic like I've never seen a horse panic before!! She started kicking out with all her legs, rearing, throwing herself to the wall and started trying to jump the door (with me stuck between her and it) - she narrowly missed my head with her hooves so many times - I was definitely being watched over :eek:. Somehow the kick bolt had fallen back over and trapped us in - was very scary. In the end she broke the door off the hinges, sent me flying and ran for the hills.

Weirdly, she's always been fine with white sheepskin fluffy boots, the white fluffy bit on her grackle noseband, the white sheepskin on her breastplate..... But that girth sleeve was a big no no!! Unfortunately since that incident, everything white is potentially dangerous.

She also has huge paranoia about a house nearby which has horse head sculptures on top of the gate posts - cant blame her for not being keen though!
 
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