Why are "normal" horses afraid of Shetlands?

Caol Ila

Caol Ila

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There's a Shetland pony stud a couple miles from my livery yard and I tried to ride past it today, but a group of Shetlands were right by the road, munching away at a round bale. My horse thought they were monsters and had a bit of a meltdown. I circled her around, practiced some passage and some high speed half pass, and when she was better (not altogether calm, but I pushed the issue far enough to make my point, but not so far as to incite a massive blow up as I wasn't in the mood for that today), I turned around and went back the way we'd come. We were going to turn around about twenty yards past the Shetlands anyway.

I was just wondering what theories you all had on why some horses freak out when they see Shetlands or minis. I've seen others do it before; it's not uncommon. I wonder if they recognise them as horses, or think they're horribly deformed and don't want that to happen to them!
 
No idea :) my old pony was terrified of them, but current boy loves them. My previous yard had loads of minis and he adored all of them, perhaps he liked the novelty value ;)
 
Because they have hidden sabre teeth, clearly :p


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:p
 
I don't think all are, just more older horses that haven't seen them around. I was once told its because from a distance they confuse them with deer, so they react the same. Not sure how true it is, but I've noticed less horses react when the shetland is mounted, rather than just being led from another.
 
On my usual hack route there is a field of around 4 or 5 Shetlands. The hedge round their field is really high - even me on a 15.2 has to crane my neck to see over, and the mare I ride past KNOWS they are there. She lifts her head up trying to see over the hedge while prancing and snorting all over the road and making a huge deal out of these Shetlands that she can't actually see but KNOWS they are there... it's highly amusing. I might borrow one and sneak it into her field :p
 
It didn't help that one of them was obviously a stallion and he started pawing and snorting and acting studdy. That sort of behaviour had my mare convinced they were most certainly dragons. If anyone was watching, I'm sure they would have p i ssed themselves laughing. Teeny weeny Shetland pawing the ground while 16.1hh horse tries her damndest to tank off in the opposite direction. Ridiculous.
 
I must have never known a "normal" horse in my life then as its the first I've heard of it!

I would have thought most normal horses would have met a Shetland, maybe its just your highfalutin types who have not!
 
FfionWinnie said:
I must have never known a "normal" horse in my life then as its the first I've heard of it!

I would have thought most normal horses would have met a Shetland, maybe its just your highfalutin types who have not!
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Baby coblets first encounter with little Tottlington, was 110% positive it was a raptor in there...As Tottlington is a mini runt, he was busily tied grazing in the long grass just further down and just wanted to come out and say hello to Sparks, who was just having a spin around near by....

Baby coblet, saw nothing else other than the long grass moving [due to mini being shorter than the grass] and heading in a very 'his' direction....

Definite raptor attack.... ;)

Till Tottie popped his head out and whinnied at him and best of friends since ;) :p
 
JennyNZ said:
I have one word for you all :eek: *ALPACAS*. :eek:
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Weirdly, there was a llama farm about a mile away from a yard I used to keep her at and we never had half as many histrionics with the bloody llamas.

I think I shall have to ride out there whenever I have enough time and daylight to do so. And maybe nick one and chuck it into the field with her.:D
 
My little pony (Exmoor) totally freaked out a big warmblood type in the warm up once at BD - the owner apologised and said he had never seen nothing so small so goodness knows what had happened if I had been on a Shetland (I do have a Shetland also! :p )
 
Years ago I went to a talk by Temple Grandin, where she said that horses are very attuned to specific stimuli in their environment but, relatively speaking, very poor at generalising. In other words, they don't see the forest, just lots of trees. They are more sensitive to differences rather than similarities. So I wonder if horses who spook at Shetlands don't compute that it's another horse, as it looks different enough. I wonder if a person had been riding one, it would have looked more horse-like to her.
 
I think it must be the hair! Our Connie was terrified of them but fine with Sec A's. Now own Shetty X which drives, we cause our fair share of mayhem at times:D
 
According to my two mares, Shetlands must be treated with caution but are ok. Donkeys on the other hand.... well they are the work of the Devil - never to be trusted and when they bray... well that's the Devil calling for their souls...
 
Christmas Sparkles those photos are hilarious! :D

When we had a Shetland introduced to our field at first many horses were really freaked but after awhile they began to covet the shetland and used to get quite protective of him. There used to be a bit of argy bargy over which horse "owned" the shetland you could see them saying "he's mine" ...." no he's not he's mine" :D
 
My mare likes shetlands, she has had a couple of best mates that were shetlands at various points :D

JennyNZ said:
I have one word for you all :eek: *ALPACAS*. :eek:
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Ours were at a yard where they could see Alpacas at one point, my 13.3 is fine with them and the day we brought our new mare back she went out in the same field as the 13.3. She was fine with them, until they started spitting at each other and then she had a meltdown whilst my 13.3 merely pricked her ears forward and carried on grazing! My favourite picture of when she was spooking at them spitting:
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:D:D:D
 
I find it the other way round up here. You can lead a shetland past a line of hunters but if you ride that very same shetland past all hell breaks loose!

The looks on the faces of my TB's when I brought them home was priceless! Kyle dived straight in and tried playing with them. Jeff looked at them and then ignored them. Laurel danced and pranced sideways and ran away every time one went near him. And Gray? Well! He was utterly ridiculous! Completey petrified of them! All of them are used to them now and Gray has taken an extra special love of the damned things - until I tack one up :D
 
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