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

A friend who used to ride him lots came to visit. She sat on the grooming box in his stable. He said hello, turned round to eat his tea, caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye, major spook.
 
Today a small bit of soil on the verge.

Best ever. A speed hump with faded white triangles on. Cue spooking and all sorts of stupid behaviour and the only way to get through this knightmare was to trot through as fast as possibly snorting as loud as possible to scare it away
 
Ive just gone from blonde to red/brown. This has resulted in the meltdown of all 4!

ETA - sorry 5, I have 5 horses. I don't need to keep that secret on here, just in real life...
 
Mine stands like a rock while arctic lorries go by, not bothered when the pig runs between his legs, has walked by a blazing fire, over motorway bridges and literally won't spook at the scariest thing you can think of. He stopped dead and froze because there was a strange bit of frost in the school last week. I couldn't figure out what the hell it was, but after investigating, there was a leaf with frost on and he didn't like it.
 
Old horse who should know better will still spook at his own shadow, if the sun is behind us he is very reluctant to go forwards! He also melts if I have Velcro gloves or cuffs. Young horse is pretty good but has been known to shoot forward if the horse behind him snorts/clears her nose. He did nearly collapse with fear when not long backed, riding in walk with my husband walking alongside, and there was a rabbit rustling in the hedge next to us. I realised I was getting closer to the ground, OH said 'his knees are giving way and his legs are shaking', we reassured him and he was fine!
 
Being patted...

Out on a hack on my old polo pony, first time over the motorway bridge crossing the M4... She went over absolutely fine, in front, just having a look but calm. We got to the other side and I patted her, she jumped out of her skin!
 
Mine has spooked at all of these-
A big rock
An upside down leaf
A tree stump
Rain

But not at-
Several men up trees with chainsaws next to the bridlepath
A dog pulling his tail
A grit lorry
A man flamboyantly opening a large map and laying it on his neck in order to show us directions (I'd got us lost!)
 
Grass. Well more precisely a tussock of grass that was a slightly different shade to the surrounding grass. Forgivable except she has just gone through a huge camp of soldiers on Afgan mobilisation exercise complete with tanks and armoured vehicles without batting an eyelid. Her risk assessment gene is seriously flawed.
 
Our sanest and most unflappable horse is a very large chestnut WBx. NOTHING fazes him except for the day he walked into the barn as a fly crawled across the feedbin just inside the door. I have no idea what he thought that fly would/could do to him but he gave a massive sideways spook and stood trembling until I chased said fly away. Crazy!
 
Had a old mare who ended up being known to all as 'Spooks'

Her list included:

Holly berries
Empty push chairs but ones with babies in were fine?

Shire horses, even if they weren't wearing harness, or anything that was black, cobby and had white socks.

Rocks

Feathers (the yard had chickens and ducks)

Her own tail, blowing in the wind

Other horses wearing rosettes but she could wear her's happily, even while doing a lap of honour. God forbid one of the others she was with would come back to the lorry wearing a clear round rosette, that was airs above the ground time.

Loudspeakers playing music but didn't mind them doing announcements.

She did settle after a year or so, and after five was a lovely steady mare.


I also had my Grandad's dog, who I walked twice a week and known since she was a pup, run barking and growling at me when I came out the bathroom in a dress and heels, ready for my school prom. Guess she thought I'd been abducted?!
 
Yesterday, a bit of road that was wet.

In the past, his own shadow and his own farts. And my instructor, when she's been standing in the same place talking for 15 minutes and he then suddenly decides she's terrifying.
 
The most recent was pretty silly. Was riding in the indoor on Friday - at one point, we got a bit close the the wall and my leg brushed a patch of dust off. Next time we went by, the bit of clean wall warranted a sideways jump and a snort... had lots of outside bend the next couple of times we went by :D

He also takes offence at the sound of velcro and stirrups being pulled down.

At old yard, a load of magpies would congregate in the fields in the morning. The group in the field we would walk by on the way to his field were clearly plotting his demise, but the ones in his own field were fine. And last summer (at new yard), a friend caught him in the field with a magpie sitting on his neck one morning.

Crows are always to be regarded with much suspicion. Especially when they are drinking from a puddle next to the outdoor school.

Oh, and announcements over loudspeakers. These are never OK :(
 
my mare did a 180 spin and legged it at the sight of a man walking down the road towards us. he had a big beard, a fluffy dog and a backpack. I have no idea which of these she objected to. I had to get off and drag her past and she still wasn't keen. I was so embarrassed.
 
His shadow, his own fart, me sneezing - oh and a shetland pony complete with fly mask and grazing muzzle - that meritted him cantering off down the road - on the other hand we are fine with heavy traffic, riding over and under motorways and railway lines, riding base noisy electricity pylons - it's the little things that get him!
 
To date with current pony, it was a lead rope which was hung on a fence post at the top of the school. He spooked at it on Saturday and I fell off.
It is his blummin' lead rope and he chews the bloody thing so god knows what he was thinking. Perhaps it's placement on the fence post irked him.
 
Thought of this thread today.

Took Orca for her first fully tacked up in-hand walk up the lane. She was 100% with bit, bridle and saddle, responded well to rein pressure for steering and stopping, took weight in the saddle and passed all sorts, including traffic. All fine!...

...then she spooked quite spectacularly at a pat on the shoulder as we reached her stable :D.
 
Ted used to be scared of his own rug and I used to have to follow him around the field with it until he gave up. Also used to hate having his rug taken off 🤔

Velcro used to send him shooting backwards when I'd undo his neck on rugs.

My sister dyed her hair back blonde after being brown/red for a year or so which resulted in Ted trying to chase her out do the field as he only saw her from the back and not the front as she went to see her mare who's his field mate I had to pull him aside and show him she's the same person as normal 😂😂 I think the residual smell of peroxide and the highlighter orange hair didn't help 😂

he has also apparently spooked at squeaky bike breaks which resulted in a runway Ted but luckily stopped when his name was yelled.

also when he was taken out on the roads for walkies where I originally had him he spooked at car driving on gravel but having a BMW driver come within millimetres of his back leg because the moron couldn't wait 2 second to drive into his drive was perfectly fine and he didn't even bat and eyelid 🙄
 
Jazz also nearly shot out from under me the first time I ever patted him while he was being ridden ... although that actually seems to be quite a common one!
 
Many of these have really made me chuckle to myself (I'm at work and shouldn't even be reading them LOL)

I have to add that Sam does spook at purple things but not exactly the same things in another colour.

His biggest spook thing though is people on foot on the tracks belonging to the yard where I keep him. People on foot off site or in the actual yards fine. People on foot at sponsored rides, hunter trials, shows, all fine (except the lady judging a WH class I entered last year who was wearing a fancy hat!). But people walking on HIS tracks must be the Weeping Angels from Dr Who as he won't take his eyes off them until they go out of sight. If they appear from behind a bank of trees though, I'm a gonner. He's bombproof with just about everything else though. Didn't even bat an eyelid when my wheelchair bound friend took her wheelchair right in to his box, bless him :)
 
A beer bottle lying in the middle the road. He'd just been on the main road and had a lorry, a jcb a double decker bus and an ambulance complete with sirens and lights go past without batting an eyelid. Turned off onto a very quiet lane and there was the monster. I was half turned round talking to my friend and nowhere near ready for it so ended up in the hedge.

My old boy regularly spooked at a house. It was a new one and while it was being built he never paid it, the scaffolding, the constant skips, all the builders and their vans, tools and cement mixers any attention. As soon as all that disappeared he would go past it sideways, snorting with his eyes on stalks. It was quite an ugly house though, he must have been a horse of discerning taste.
 
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