Strange things in outdoor schools

PaddyMonty

PaddyMonty

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Well last night was a first. Trundled over to friends to use their outdor school for a bit of jump practice with Zed (which was awesome but thats another story). Went in to set course up prior to getting him out the box and noticed what I thought was some chicken feathers in the school. On closer investigation the feathers were an entire chicken (minus head) partially buried in the surface.
Mr Fox had been busy the night before. :mad:
 
Oh yes, we once had a deer's leg buried in ours. YUCK! Mr. Fox must have been rather put out when he came back and discovered it gone. It was horrible.
 
Seems I got away lightly with just a chicken.
As for womens knickers, not even going to think about that one but does perhaps lend a different slant of jump schooling :eek:
 
yep, seriously! they were right in the middle as well!! Wierd thing is the school backed onto loads of fields so either she/they walked over loads of fields or walked through the yard to get to the school! very odd.
 
Hmm lets see...

Wallbies and goanna's (passing through).

A large diamond python - so large that I was going to use him as a trotting pole till I got closer and realised it was a bit of an odd shape at the ends....instead tested my handbrake.

Saddle, bridle, and hard hat on the fence a strange horse first thing in the morning on a private yard.
Turned out the neighbours had bought a new horse been hacking it home and got stuck crossing the ditch at the back of our property so when it got dark rather than go round the roads left it in our arena.

Packs from 5 pack mules but no mules in sight.

Seen a few strange things :)
 
Very flat, squashed hedgehog. Not sure whether horse stamped on it or rolled on it and squashed it but if he'd rolled on it, I think he would have had a bit of a shock!!
 
I once found a corn snake in the middle of my arena! I live in Yorkshire so it is hardly snake country, and not what I was expecting. I was just riding around, and noticed what I thought was a random bit of hose in the arena, had a look and suddenly it moved! It was a lovely hot sunny day (another rarity in Yorkshire!) so I think it was sunbathing, and wasn't too happy it was nearly stood on by a horse. Turned out it had escaped from one of the houses in the village (1/2 mile away!!!!!).
 
Lmao, my friend once pulled a pheasant tail feather that was half-buried in the surface, and was very surprised when it turned out to still be attached to the pheasant ...
 
Entire family of turkeys, who stayed until the chicks were flying (well, as much as turkeys can fly - it was entertaining to watch them learn); a large number of desiccated toads, frogs and snakes that didn't make it across the whole outdoor sand ring; a fully tacked up strange horse; lots of sandpiper nests complete with angry sandpiper mother faking a broken wing and having a hissy fit; dead rabbit from the neighbours left by a barn cat that reconsidered its plan to drag it home across an acre, cross country skiers!!; and, perhaps most terrifying of all, enormous flies that came out of holes in the sand, sounding like buzz saws, and attacked the horses so badly they ran screaming!
 
The stud I worked on failed to put their chickens away one night. Following morning the entire flock had been killed and buried in the arena :(
 
Do live geese count? We don't have an arena yet, it is still being built as my yard has only been open two weeks! We school in a flat grass field with the aforementioned geese, chickens, odd bits of farm machinery round the side and one side is a big ditch, perfect for XC schooling :D
 
I had two ducks making a nest in the school the other night. Phesants often wander through.

The yard cat also uses the school as his sunbathing/eating spot, and might bring his freshly caught rabbit to join you. He fully expects you to avoid him and rather than run if you ride at him, he fluffs up and hisses!

The chickens don't go in the school, but I have had eggs laid in my stable.
 
Couldn't use the school at one yard for a day as a family of swans spent the day marching around. Mummy and Daddy swan were ferociously protective of the 6 signets and no one dared to try to evict them
 
Me too. Swan crash landed in the school and couldn't get out. I had to grab him, run down the road with him tucked under my arm (got a few strange looks) and let him go on the water on the other side of our fence.

SwaninschoolOct09006.jpg
 
Cows! We had about 12 cows that escaped from their field (next to the arena), they went into the yard (left their evidence!) and tried to get back to their field through the arena (and failed).
Herding commenced, their extended canter across the arena was worthy of an 8 I'd say!!
 
Ooh, we had a hawk trapped in the indoor school once! It kept diving out of the rafters and giving the horses heart attacks! Its mate kept watch outside, calling for it, but it took us two days to convince it to go back out the door it came in through.

Racoons are so standard in indoor rings in Canada they hardly count as "strange" but usually you only see their little faces looking down. I've had some walk right through, though - they're hysterical because they "freeze" if they think you've seen them and then try to creep forward verrrrrrry slowly, which isn't very effective in front of a light coloured wall. :)

As far as odd animals in the yard, I'd nominate a llama and a bison! (Not together, although the bison brought his cow friends.) Not in the school though, so they don't really count.
 
TarrSteps said:
Racoons are so standard in indoor rings in Canada they hardly count as "strange" but usually you only see their little faces looking down. I've had some walk right through, though - they're hysterical because they "freeze" if they think you've seen them and then try to creep forward verrrrrrry slowly, which isn't very effective in front of a light coloured wall. :)
Click to expand...

Aawwwwww I have the mental image of all these little racoons tucked up in the rafters peeping down and marking your riding, how cute. And I love their 'stay very still and noone will notice us' attitude. Can you send some to the UK they sound funny!

Most exotic we have on our yard are the odd 'pet partridge' who has dodged the shoot all winter so we think he deserves to hide out by the haylage, and house martins in Jack and Soap's boxes who do 'fly bys' v near to my ears when I go in and out! :)
 
A yard I used to work at.

Botton jump paddock next to local very nice pub.
I paddock one sunday morning - a plie of vomit and some false teeth. They were nere claimed!
 
Thistle said:
A yard I used to work at.

Botton jump paddock next to local very nice pub.
I paddock one sunday morning - a plie of vomit and some false teeth. They were nere claimed!
Click to expand...

Urgggggggggggggggggh Thistle that's gross! Did you return the teeth to the pub?... tee hee

Not in the arena but one morning we arrived at the yard to find an ifor williams trailer parked in the front yard....puzzled....asked all liveries if they had brought up a trailer and forgotten to mention it....nope....phoned police and quoted chassis number. Turned out it had been nicked from near Salisbury that night, and they think it was stolen to order, but delivered to the wrong yard by mistake!!!! Was collected by it's owner later that day
 
I'm racking my brains but have nothing to add - other than the odd spitting cobra when I was in Singapore but snakes are quite frankly soooo page 1 on this thread - but just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying everyone else's weird experiences :)
 
We regularly have checkens, turkeys, and geese, once the goat got out of her pen and wandered into the school, cats often use as a litter tray, and we also have Rheas on the yard (slightly smaller white version of an ostrich), one of them got into the school once having escaped from its field. They are a nightmare to herd tho as ignore you for ages and then suddenly freak out and bolt in random directions! Also often have dead things, rabbits, bits of pheasants, as there are loads of red kites in the area and they drop things - they nest in the woods by the school. Silliest thing is my 14 year old thinks the jumps stored by the side of the school are much scarier than any of these things!
 
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