Most ridiculous thing your horse has spooked at?

[dopeysheep]

Today mine went all jelly legged and snorty becausea bunch of daddy long legs flew out of the hedge at his face height. Sigh.
A bit later on he sauntered past a lit up fire engine and some council workers in hi viz with petrol strimmers. Absolutely fine.

Dhorse will spook at anything, it doesn't matter if he's seen it before or not. White lines, road drains and dustbins are a given, random clumps of leaves, branches, stones, acorns falling out of trees, birds, rustling leaves - absolutely anything causes him either to swerve or leap sideways at speed. Sometimes I can tell that he's going to do it, others it's a last minute thing so I can never let my guard down. There are days when it is extremely annoying as it's so bad.

Dpony who is 12.2 was required to do pony rides at a local fete years ago which was fine. However what was not fine was that someone had decided that it would be great to have a shire horse pulling a dray as welld. The photographer wanted a picture of the cute white fluffy pony next to the monster horse - no way, not a chance. He was having none of it and we couldn't even do the rides in the same field. He spent the whole time trying to keep track of what the shire horse was doing and when we had to go past it to get home it took me about 10 minutes of pleading before he conceded that actually, it wasn't going to swallow him whole!

DMare has a problem with heavy horses too. We once met a team of Ardennes working the forest - she nearly lost her mind. It was as if she couldn't believe they were horse, or maybe thought they were zombie horses. Or aliens. Strange.

Aside from the usual tractors/combine harvesters/air-brakes on lorries, mine used to spook if he saw blades of grass growing through the tarmac on country roads.

Tractors/combines/air brakes/dustbin lorry - no problem, in fact the bigger and louder the less scary it is. Sneaky cyclists however, or keen walkers in rustling kit with walking poles - utterly terrifying! Yesterday 3 dogs came rushing at us barking and growling which was no problem, however getting past the house name sign took a lot of snorting, prancing and whipping round, likewise the still twirling flail hedge cutter and tractor was nothing, but the triangle warning sign was a whole different ballgame - I will never fathom what makes him tick out hacking.

My DD pony is lovely and generally sound. He likes to look at himself in cars as he walks past them bless him. But if someone has the audacity to spray a bit of paint on the floor, it freaks him out completely. He is fine with puddles on the yard and loves splashing though them but if he sees one on a hack, he gets terrified of the "other horse" ( his reflection). Odd chap that he is

DF was driven demented trying to school a horse that spoofed at everything except huge lane filling enormous yellow farm machines.

Recycling boxes and bin bags were terrifying and he went nuts because I'd propped a big black plant tray up against my gate. It didn't flap, it didn't make a sound, it wasn't on the road, but it was terrifying because it wasn't there yesterday.

Neither was the huge tractor, but that didn't seem to matter.

DH used to ride a moped and he found horses weren't very keen on that, possibly both the strange noise or the smell of two stroke. He said his motor bike bothered horses far less.

His own pee! Riding down a steepish hill, we stopped so he could have a wee and it ran down between his front legs - terrifying!

Riding near the Ridgeway a friend and I came across a group of about 10 walkers all with poles. The horses did full radar giraffe impressions, until I asked the walkers to put their poles behind their backs. All was then fine. Daft horses clearly thought the mad group of humans were going to beat them up

my horse is scared of nothing. i have not found a single thing that she spooks at. even when other horses have spooked and shyd she does not bat an eye lid. i love her!

At the grand old age of 13 elastahorse is completely unflappable. But it wasnt always that way.

As a youngster she was terrified of sheep and used to run backwards at the sight of them. During one such reversing spree I spun her round and she reversed 50 yards up a track past the flock of sheep looking rather confused. She was eventually cured when we moved to Derbyshire and she had to share a field with them

These are brilliant! I absolutely love Saki's "swerving sickness" and that's what I'm going to call it from now on.
"No he isn't spooking, he has Swerving Sickness."

Cantering up a field edge this morning dhorse slammed the brakes on for an emergency stop because there was........a clump of leaves which was definitely, without a doubt, no question going to swallow him up. I ended up hanging round his neck but didn't hit the deck whilst he pranced and snorted and said he couldn't possibly go past it.

I take all this as an encouraging sign that he's recovered from his surgery and is feeling very well again!

Rocks are the scariest thing on the planet!

I used to ride with a lady who, if her horse did an unexpected shy sideways swerve would call out in ringing tones "just a little bit of dressage" .

Yesterday, while being schooled IN A RIDING SCHOOL WHERE HE SEE'S CHILDREN EVERY DAY decided to spook at...yes you've guessed it...CHILDREN!

Following on from Pixel's 'just a little bit of dressage', I used to school another of my horses in the evenings, there was often a rather novice rider waiting for her lesson. My horse was (and still is on occasion) a nut-case, he would spin and spook at everything. Found out after some weeks that lady watching thought DHorse was highly trained in dressage and we were doing all the crazy sideways spinning on purpose!

My horse was eventuallypretty bomb proof, but did occasionally spook at random stuff. A flappy leaf , when all the other leaves on the hedge were still. that sort of thing. A particular corner would always worry her - I never worked out what in particular was scary.

One of the funniest things I ever saw though was a police horse who had won the 'Bombproof Police Horse' class at Windsor Horse show, FREAKING out at the rosette that was being handed to the policeman on top.

I used to ride a polo pony that was terrified of butterflies if we saw one he'd just pirouette on his back legs and go full pelt in the opposite direction! :)
My mare on the other hand sometimes decides she's scared off the speed bumps on the road outside our yard. I have my suspicions though as she only does this with the young girl that part loans her while I'm pregnant never with me

horse I sometimes ride - plastic bags and puddles ...although show him a pond or lake and all he wants to do is lie down ...with you on his back

Cars, lorries, tractors, buses driving along the road = fine

Parked car = monster, must be given very wide berth

Our old cob spooked at nothing and I mean nothing.
Until the day a man popped out from a manhole when I was merrily hacking along the road, as relaxed as you please, reins on the buckle. He went from 0-60, with sparks flying off his feet and I think we ground to a halt about half a mile down the road. And I can't say I blamed him either

Current ridden mare spooks at everything, but the most notable was the time that I was schooling and she objected to two pheasants getting down and dirty behind the muck heap and I very nearly hit the deck

And the only thing that oldie (31yo, ex childhood) pony has ever objected to was a pig!

Our old cob spooked at nothing and I mean nothing.
Until the day a man popped out from a manhole when I was merrily hacking along the road, as relaxed as you please, reins on the buckle. He went from 0-60, with sparks flying off his feet and I think we ground to a halt about half a mile down the road. And I can't say I blamed him either

Current ridden mare spooks at everything, but the most notable was the time that I was schooling and she objected to two pheasants getting down and dirty behind the muck heap and I very nearly hit the deck

And the only thing that oldie (31yo, ex childhood) pony has ever objected to was a pig!

Love all these. My mare would jump over sunbeams. But completely ignore an inflatable house being blown up in front of her.

Schooling, my lesson was always followed by a rider who every week would pop up unexpectedly at the gate (despite being repeatedly asked not to). I lost count of the number of times I swooped across the school on different horses. She was the amazing popping up woman. Even the most bombproof would end up with springs on their feet.

Another Donkey fearer here. Absolute, jelly legged terror followed by the "I'm big and bad, I am, I am" act with nostrils like saucers and dramatic snorting.

This from the horse who watched, with an expression of speculative disinterest, a British Army Chinook sweep in overhead about 20 feet up, land just inside the next field and deposit a large number of camouflaged men clutching rifles. Twin rotored helicopters are apparently ten a penny whereas little grey donkeys are beset by demons.

We had a hot air balloon crash-land in our field once, the horses weren't all that bothered considering. A stray child's balloon (one of those metallic character ones) caused chaos .