Strange things that scare your horse!

galaxy

galaxy

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Just wondering what bizarre things you've found that scare you horse and how you overcame them?

Found out over the weekend that the 4 yr old I currently breaking is scared of people running, hopping or jumping up and down! Even if it's only half a cm off the ground!! She totally freaks and runs away or sits down depending on if I'm holding her. She's genuinely very very scared!

So I'm currently bobbing about her all the time! (It's really tiring me out though, I'm really not fit enough! ha ha!)
 
my old horse used to spook at his own shadow!!! no joke!! i dont think he was all there
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My loan horse is pretty bombproof when it comes to tractors, combines, lorries, bags etc. But skidmarks on the road or oil marks noooooo we can't go past them.
 
I knew a horse once who was scared of her shadow. Her hacking buddy horse was scared of parked cars (was fine if they were moving!). Made our hacking really interesting as the route involved woods where the light shone through, and walking through a huge car park
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One horse I know spooks at phesants, but will walk past a combine harvester 20ft away with no problem
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Hehehe....my horse is fine with all manner of farm machinery, blazing muckheaps and traffic.....

......but if a crisp packet blows down the lane thats it.....all 4 legs off the ground at once...
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......also- there is a scary grey chicken that lives in the lane and he SHITS himself at that, despite being fine with the brown yard chickens running around the arena whilst he's in there schooling
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My boy is 99.9% bombproof but hates any parked car with the door open. I have no idea why an open door is more scary than a closed one but apparently it is the devil incarnate and out to get him. I can only think he's expecting someone to jump out of the car at him?
 
Actually we that that the lother day too! I lunged her in the evening, low sun, so different tree shadows in the school as well as her own looking different. I couldn't work out for about 5 minutes what she was doing!! But she got over it after a bit. But the jumping up and down thing really really taking time!!
 
I have a horse that is not scared of anything big, lorries, tractors etc but a different coloured leaf or patch of grass is so scary i think he thinks his life is coming to an end!! Strange things horses.
 
My newish steady eddy neddy is fine with most things, tractors, lorries, bags in hedges etc but he’s biggest fear is the little old man with his little dog on a mobility scooter, he hates it
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. He spots it from 200 yds, grows 2ft and walks on tip toe until we pass him.
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I’ve now started to stop and have a chat with the man, much to neds disgust, but gradually he is getting better.
Poor little old man, I think he takes it personally
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The washing on the line in our garden - not anybody elses washing when we are out hacking, mind you. We once went past a whole football team's eleven electric blue shirts flapping right next to the road with not a flicker. Lead them out the stables and through the garden and if there is washing on our line FB stops dead, head up, mad eyes, snorty snorty. He has to have nice, soothing cuddle before he can bring himself to carry on walking. I think it's beause it sneaks up on him from the other side of the house!
 
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I have a horse that is not scared of anything big, lorries, tractors etc but a different coloured leaf or patch of grass is so scary i think he thinks his life is coming to an end!! Strange things horses.

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my horse is exactly the same as this - changes in colours of grass freak her out - canter to snorting standstill and eyes on stalks!
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My horse is so bombproof hardly anything ever makes him jump or spook, in fact the last time he spooked properly was about 6 years ago
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. However - he does NOT like it when big white rocks get put either side of the bridleway to prevent people driving down there, we've been past them a million times and he still snorts at them... Wally!
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drains! For the life of me I have no idea why, but he absolutely hates them. I do shoulder in past them before he spots them, however if he spots them before I do I usually end up on top of the horse next to me!!

I'm doing some groundwork with him at the moment. Everytime he takes a step closer to one he gets rewarded... and we're finally getting to the point where he's not too bothered by them - but it still can sometimes cause an issue!
 
My horse is totally bombproof in terms of traffic (we've literally sqeezed past huge tractors and trailers that scared me), flapping plastic, people etc etc................... but his own shadow, grates and ***signs painted on the road!!!*** OMG! Total horse freak out!
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It once took me over 10 mins to negotiate 50 yards of road because the council had painted a new SLOW sign, three lots of triple stripes and a massive 30 on the road. I thought I was going to have to get off and jump on it to demonstrate to the daft ned that it wasn't a man trap.

Can you just see me, jumping up and down in the middle of the road, holding an ex-racehorse, shouting 'Look you idiot! Its solid!!'
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Oh, and did I tell you about the horse eating Troll that lives behind a big rock on the bridlepath?
 
Depends what day it is - sometimes the painted road markings are the scariest thing ever! Other times he trit trots over them like they're not there.
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Bet one ever was dried bird poo on the road, the girl I was with said he just went vertical! I love him but sometime's he's a green, scaredy gimp!!!
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He's never dangerous with it though, it would take far too much energy to spin and try to run away!
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ha ha ha you lot make me laff....
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horses are sooo funny....my boy has been known to jump at his own shadow....twit!! he also has brief moments with the white road markings, yet a tractor and huge trailer can pass and he doesn't care less....certainly makes hacking interesting
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Ours are scared of..

The squirrels in the park that apparantly weild machine guns
Big red london buses - only when they go "psht and move off"
The daffodils that will just jump out and eat them up!
Roller bladers
Random ski-blader things!
The man that paints on the corner
Yappy dogs - not big ones though
Pigeons but not geese
shadows
The dark
The white plastic horses name tag in each feed bowl
When people walk out of the subway
The bag full of gravel that the park attendants left
The mountain of sand to spread on the tracks - but not the sand they already walk on!
the list is endles...
 
... military fitness groups in the park
and yet these horses ride at all ceremonial events, ride out with band noise and in busy london traffic!
 
One of my horse's is teriffied of ducks! She is fine with any other type of bird, she didnt even mind when a phesant flew into her. but if she sees or hears a duck, we depart at very high speed in the opposite direction! I wonder if it is the quacking she doesn't like
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! There is also a very scary fruit stall in my village that my 4yo thinks is going to eat him if he walks past. He doesnt mind the major roadworks with cranes and diggers, nor the major railway up to scotland, but that fruit stall............
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Minnie is as safe as house's at all times..your totally dream childs pony, except when you have to make her walk past those horse and pony eating drains on the ground....her eyes pop out of her head, and will just look at them....she will go over or should I say just around the pony eating bit of metal on ground.....everything else like lorries, buses, dogs barking at fences, diggers you name it - phah she doesn't batter an eyelid at all......crazy pony!!! LOL...why I love her to bits she's just a real pony in a million.
 
On the plus side, thanks to being caught in the mother of all downpours earlier in the year Bob is now no longer scared of umbrellas!

I think the pair of them were that p*ssed off and just wanted to go home (typically we were at the furthest point from the farm) they just decided to ignore any more umbrellas.
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The list is odd and endless!

People moving about whilst in the saddle
Being fed by hand - seriously
Neck covers
Me tripping/sneezing/coughing whilst leading him
Tractors/quads
People flapping their arms
'strangers' talking to him
etc etc etc
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I couldnt even begin to list all the strange things my pony is scared of!!
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Possibly the most terrifying tho is walking past a gate which is open as you go past one way but when you go back the other the other direction and its shut...........scary!!!
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Big London busses - no problem. Farm machinery - no problem. Dogs - no problem. Quadbikes - no problem.

Harley Davidsons (and ONLY those) - turn & run for you life!
I sort of agree with him though, being a Triumph girl myself ;-)
 
My generally spook-proof pony totally flipped out at the smell of pig poo a few weeks ago. Other than that he has only once properly spooked - and that was at my YO spraying weeds with one of those rocket packs on his back!!
 
he's welsh so the list is quite long
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:
shadow
bird
tree
plants
flowers (dependent on colour sometimes)
unattended bicycles and mopeds
the cat (only when I am trying to school)
gangs of lambs
cows
ducks
spitting llama (though I actually think he wants to just go give it a good kicking!)
the worst thing recently was when instructor had a rug hung up on barn and wind wasn't blowing.
and of course the non existant monster only he can see.


the following are fine
double deckers
skip lorries
hedge cutters
trains
low flying jets
camel

you get the idea, basically anything that could kill us is fine, everything else maybe not, my quietest rides are to be had if I ride through the village on the A38.
 
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