WHat's the daftest thing your horse has spooked at ?

Her paddock water bucket, to the extent she refuses to use it. It's the exact same as her stable water bucket, except a different colour.
 
My normally very sensible highland hates things which move round his feet. Hose pipes, clipper wires etc. He is perfectly happy to let me wash his tail but spooks at the stream of resulting foam as I rinse it off. He also spooks at bits of his own hair blowing about when he's being clipped....


.... sigh!! ....
 
Two weeks ago a pair of RAF Chinook helicopters flew overhead and Stanley did not blink. Moments later a man in a hi viz jacket with a wheel barrow emerged from between two cottages and he jumped out of his skin.
 
Aircraft.. fine. Hot air balloons..fine. Tractors..ditto.

But last summer OH went to turn them out and they got to the gate and refused to go further. Both on high alert looking as if a major attack was imminent. Why? A bit of plastic in the grass two fields away. Once it was removed and suitably euthanased they were fine again.
 
A naked trio making love in the middle of a woodlands path. He reared and spun as I almost laughed myself out of the saddle. The trio took a beeline to the nearest field and left their underwear behind.
 
Where do I start?!

Bomb proof with anything man made.

Will quiver with fear if nature approaches...blackbirds are hidden assassins, squirrels are out to get him and the nastiest, most evil thing out to eat ginger horses... Wet logs. Not too bad when dry, but when wet they are evil.
 
His own over reach boots - when he put his head down to take a drink out of the river...

The damp patch in the school where he had just done a wee and carried on, even after it had dried to a normal shade!
 
A bench. We pass many, many benches on our rides and all of them are absolutely fine. I can even use them as impromptu mounting blocks if need be. However, the Bench of Doom is definitely planning some sort of attack and must be jogged past whilst glaring at it and snorting loudly.

Also Daffodils are not to be trusted. Ever.

Our other pony dislikes children's bikes with stabilisers on. Not sure what it is about stabilisers that bothers her but she absolutely freaks out.
 
southerncomfort said:
A bench. We pass many, many benches on our rides and all of them are absolutely fine. I can even use them as impromptu mounting blocks if need be. However, the Bench of Doom is definitely planning some sort of attack and must be jogged past whilst glaring at it and snorting
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When henry was younger he was horrified at a certain bench in our route and spooked at it every time .
One day someone had took the bench away , he had a major meltdown at the gap where spooky bench had once been !
 
My loan TB, a double buggy covered in a plastic see through cover. I had to steer her into some random garden away from the terrifying object.

My old gelding, yellow lines on the road, opposite side of the road had nothing so off he went, down the wrong side of the road!

Current horse, Shetlands, despite having passed a man up a tree with a very noisy electric saw, the first ever Shetlands he'd ever seen were terrifying and continued to terrify him whilst at that yard.

Also a cat, a bog standard normal size cat at the far end of the yard as we came in, clearly it was a massive tiger, just far away. :rolleyes3:

And the other week, me: I put my head over the door, he went two feet sideways. Jeez.
 
The pink pair, one frosty morning's hack, 2nd horse snorted, 1st horse jumped, so 2nd horse leaped in the air, both riders nearly fell off, they were laugh so hard!

Clydesdale, who once got in the middle of a Charity bed push without turning a hair, leaped out of her skin when I opened the Velcro on my glove on a hack, goodness knows what she thought was happening.

One of the most sensible R&D cobs you could find, turned into a snorting, jogging loony when a garden bench appeared on a path we used regularly

Absolutely bombproof Westphalian, stopped dead across the road to prevent her companion moving forwards, neither rider could see/hear anything untoward and other horse obviously thought she had gone mad. When we investigated later, we found clothes pegs lurking on a washing line behind a garden hedge!

I sometimes wonder what happens to bombproof horses when they come here!
 
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mid canter was Kelsey fav time to spook! on one canter, we spooked sideways at a butterfly that was fluttering next to us! then as we got almost to the end of the track, her brakes came on and I hit my face on her neck, because she spooked at a horse poo!!

My friends mare, totally lost the plot at a field full of cows! she ended up backing up into a ditch! but what makes this more funny is, she was turned out with cows at the time!

Sam hasn't really done anything silly, yet! he was scared by a chopped down tree, but that is understandable! but he's quite unflappable really!
 
Parcel tape and me touching him.

First was the only time that he has spooked sufficiently that I have not been able to hang on, he proceeded to gallop down the drive and stand in front of the gate, having a meltdown because he'd gone the wrong side of the sensors and it wasn't opening...

Second, he was in the stable - I thought that he had seen me - and I was nattering away to my yard owner who was in the next stable, put my hand on his quarters as I went around and he had a full scale meltdown
 
My welshie did get an awful shock one day when I had been to a wedding and was in a dress and walked out the field to check on them he took one look at me snorted and galloped as far away from as he could. He obviously doesn't approve of dresses. I am with him there. Lol
 
Haha loving this thread, im constantly amazed by what startles my girl 😀 just a few that spring to mind:

Slightly different coloured patch of concrete on the track - cue immediate halt, lowered head, snort, then stag leap over it, every single time
Grey section A's in neighbouring paddock - must dash past these sinister albino midgets
Pink watering can (used for dampening feed!) - bolt across field and stand snorting
Stationary cars - moving ones are fine but stationary ones are dodgy
Empty muck trailer - if theyre not weighed down with poo then theyre apparently more stealth like
Yellow hay soaking tub, fine for the first 4 days, airs above ground on the 5th
Flag posts in a field - fine, flappy flags on posts - fine, chap on ride on mower under the flags - fine, but the fact the grass has been mown - really not fine
Rug laid over a fence - jumps in the air, when reminded she is currently wearing a rug herself, looks round at her own bum and jumps in the air again!

I fear she may be a tad special lol 😁
 
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We were out hacking and could see only someone's head bobbing along on the other side of a large hedge as they were walking along. He was petrified!
 
My friend's TB is mortally afraid of daffodils. Not good as the driveway is lined with the yellow perils all waving at him in a threatening manner at the moment. Young cob is not phased by much - he likes to run his nose through them as we go along.
 
His own farts....leaves......damp patches on the road.....dry patches on the road.....and sheep - a bit difficult around here in deepest darkest North Devon. makes for an exciting hack!
 
The fire hydrant would cause daily anguish. There it would sit, in the same place, totally motionless, minding its own business. On the way out to the field, in for a ride, out afterwards, and back in for dinner, my little nutter would have a complete and utter meltdown at the sight of it. I used to have to stick and old t shirt over her head four times a day because of that fire hydrant.

The bane of my warmblood's existence was the Appaloosa. Heaven forbid a horse should have spots. Appaloosas and pigs were grounds to attempt suicide.
 
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