What's the stupidest thing your horse spooks at?

Well mine loves pigs and is very bombroof and doesnt really spook, however when the vet gave me some new stuff for her anemia she spooked at horses in fields as we went past. Guess not too bad owning her for 2 years before her first ever spook with me.
 
It varies and is random depending on his mood...one day it can be something like a new mounting block that another yard put up outside their gate, then it's tandems we meet on the bridleway, or those kid karts you get that are attached behind a bike, anything on someone's back when they're cycling (ie, rucksacks) or hanging from the handlebars, few weeks ago we had an issue with 2 wood pigeons paddling in a puddle...

And while he doesn't really spook at it he just goes into meltdown...Network Rail staff on the railway line near us in their orange boilersuits and white hard hats as they walk along checking the line...I have no idea what it is about them but he cannot stand them and almost wets himself when they appear :D
 
Boulders. That's about it. But boulders are very scary.

On the ground he's rock solid with everything too, but don't try to get cotton wool near his face.

Dear boy!!
 
The mare i ride often spookes at her shadow, she has recently taken to spooking at long blades of grass, and last winter had a hissy fit at a snow man!!!
 
Big leaves especially if sunlit - last time I coaxed him to sniff one after lots of snorting and carrying on he realised it was edible and ate it!

Absolutely anything that wasn't there last time we went past

A clipboard the physiotherapist put down at the side of his stable it was there at least half an hour before he suddenly noticed it

A new salt lick left him cowering in the corner

The judges box especially the blue castles at Hickstead
 
o god well comet is just one of those spooky horses who will never not spook at anything, thats what my instructer said! its just in his head :/
we were riding today and he spooked at a man in the audience. He always those that, he spooked at the metal rail thing, he spooked at a lad walking up to the bathrooms, he spooked when a girl entered the arena, he spooked when he saw a flippin bush!

but i gota love him :)

well done for staying on, if that was me i would be a goner! haha x
 
My daughters cob hates space chickens (aka guinea fowl). Hacking in the New Forest can be quite an adventure with various livestock at large. He can put up with all that but just takes exception to these birds.
 
Twice in the three years I've owned my mare she has peed while being ridden & both times has spooked as it has ran back past her lol! She is fine with white lines on the road, unless they are new, but slow or school signs are definatley going to eat her feet! Today she had an episode over a very angry sounding squirrel in a tree above a scary slow sign, bless her! And white painted rocks??? Her spooks are very amusing though as she doesnt really do anything! Love her!
 
My horse is really bombproof, she doesn't care about large lorries, speeding motorbikes, busy motorway bridges, fire engines, etc...

But riding her in the field today, she decided that a lowly tree stump was gonna kill her.
 
His own shadow...trees people.....bikes....leaves.....wood...water in his bucket lol....the list goes on...hes a very silly horse lol....he even shyed wen he swished his tailnit hit his bucket lol.....although hes gettn better wink wink xx
 
Maiden is 99.9% bombproof as far as I can tell - she won't even flinch at a tractor and bouncing trailer speeding past her, for example. She does sometimes jump at things, but never properly spooks, and she does snort when she can smell a dead animal in the woods and need a little encouragement to go past - but honestly, nothing that even a total nervous novice couldn't cope with.

She has only spooked properly with me at two things, and this was when she was fitter than she'd ever been and on stupid amounts of high-energy feed. On the same hack (she was having a bad day!) she firstly decided that sheep were the scariest things she'd ever seen and that they require passaging past... then further up the road, she spotted one of those bags that builders put things in (like scalpings etc)... and she stopped, snorted, turned tail and bolted back towards the sheep! That's as lively as she's ever been - once I managed to stop her trotting down the road doing an impression of a demented (and rather heavyweight) arab, I got her past with much encouragement and many piaffe-passage-piaffe transitions. Once she was past she turned into the dope-on-a-rope and has stayed like that ever since.

Odd beast :p
 
Not spook as such, but I know my horse will always "look" at show jumps and cross country fences if he's just passing them - BUT if he's jumping them then he's absolutely fine. Very weird I think.

I had a warmblood who was terrified of rocks. He was fun to hack...!
 
a huge rhubarb plant in the middle of a bridle path - he went to the left, i went to the right, and ended up sitting in the middle of said rhubarb plant. Who the hell put that there anyway :rolleyes: sm x
 
looby007 said:
Grass!! Not just any grass but if a clump of grass is a different shade of green to the rest of the field she'll give it a wide berth unless she can follow another horse through it...
Click to expand...

YES! i fell off my "hardy new forest" passing a terrifying mound of grass, it was harbouring every scary thing inside it (was a good 10 metres away on the other side of a huge ditch) so the best idea was to ditch me (poodling on the buckle, not happening again XD) and head straight across a ploughed field XD
 
ok imagine a double gated field..............pass by one gate and as you approach second gate 1 cow puts their head over, cue a spin of 180........................in the mean time another cow has its head over the first gate, cue a spin of 180.................................first cow is still there...........spin................second cow is still there ...................spin

yep it was the story of two cows.............eventually got past :)

also i met a herd of lycra joggers once..........about 20, on a bridle pathway, lead jogger shouted out who is going to let the other past,.....................cue horse doing rearing stallion impression including wavy front feet...................suddlenly 20 lyrca stop and move quitely to the side :) as i rode past i said i guess you lot are
 
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Signs. He did a major spook at a post with a tiny 3 inch diameter circular green/white walking man sign which shows walkers where to go. Cooper just disappeared from under me off to the right and I hit the deck.

He also spooked at the sign name for the stables which is on a metal gate as we walk back into the yard. Silly horse.
 
used signs in the menage for filler practice, had a "beware of horses" sign propped up against the wing, he spooked going past it to another fence but jumped the signed fence itself first time XD
 
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