Stupid stuff your horse is scared of?

[Ellybellyboo]

What weird stuff is your horse scared of?

DD’s horse - 15hh, 18 year old cob. Usually pretty bombproof and gentle.

DD was riding her in the indoor school last night. Did a few laps absolutely fine, then DD changed the rein. Got 3/4s of the way round when she stopped dead, snorting and poncing about. DD got her going again, but was trotting sideways and wouldn’t go near the corner. I peer over the fence to see what the problem is - a bright pink poo picker. Exactly the same bright pink poo picker that we own and use in her stable pretty much every day.

The yard tractor - but only when it’s been driven into its parking space. Yard owner drives it around, it beeps when being reversed, he drives it pretty much into the barn when moving straw and hay around and not a murmur. Drive it into its parking space and it’s out to kill her.

DD was out hacking a couple of weeks ago - we go along a bridle way for a bit then come to a road which you have to cross before rejoining the bridleway. We’ve done this hack a million times before. She’s mooching along, DD stops at the road, all clear so sets off again, except horse won’t move, snorts and ponces about and tries to turn back. DD gets her going again only for horse to execute a perfect jump - over a set of double yellow lines. Not fussed about the double yellow lines on the other side of the road, just these ones.

And our yard owner when he’s not wearing his woolly hat - he has one of those hats with ear flaps and strings and looks like a penguin. Loves him when he’s wearing his hat, thinks he’s some kind of horse murderer when he’s not

Don't tell me that's ziggy??

No, Charlie. I've ridden him on a trip with Ziggy though, and we commented on how similar they looked!

I need to work on my prospective self-guided companions. I'll tell them we'll be fine because I met a stranger on the internet who's done it and she's going to come too and make sure we don't get lost and are never heard from again

Ahahahah. Deal!!

Honestly, if you've done the week ride a self guided is nothing. The directions are soo detailed you cannot get lost. And if you do it is easier to correct.

I felt like a cowgirl in a ranch in Montana .

End if highjack.

His own wee - riding downhill on road, stopped for a wee which ran downhill between his front legs.

Sitting on a weeing spooking horse is interesting.

A corner. Choose any corner of any school randomly, be scared of it and try to shy away, spin round and leg it. Be made to do a few small circles on each rein in scary corner and ta da, magically cured. Until next time when you can choose another scary corner.......

Scared of a car in the corner of the indoor school. Fair enough, (even though it’s a car he’s perfectly happy with outside...) it’s not usually there. Eventually persuaded that maybe it’s not out to get him and maybe he could get over himself and do some work.

Later that day, car gone. Scared of the corner of the school where it no longer is.

Mine is a steady Irish cob and is bombproof with tractors and lorries etc but doesn't like the word SLOW painted on the road. He is also scared of joggers and not too keen on parked cars. He's fine with horses in fields but I dread meeting another ridden horse when we are out and about as he goes into meltdown and I have to get off. I've only had him for 9 months so fingers crossed he will get better.

I agree with everyone else they are weird creatures but I wouldn't be without one.

How do horses ‘see’? I can understand noisy/ moving things are scary but why lines on the road?? What does it look like to them?

A snake is the first thing that comes to Mind but it would be too easy

Sheep . Big horse cannot he his head round them . At all . He is convinced they are not any old sheep , round here they are all Ninja Assassin sheep , that will creep up behind him when his back is turned ( to be fair , they do , I think they’ve got him totally sussed ) , so he just doesn’t turn his back on them . Ever . He spent the three weeks that we had some grazing next door , charging up and down the fence line , snorting thunderously , and herding his two girls away from the fence , Just In Case .

Then the sheep got moved , and the other field next door had the silage cut and baled in the palest green (almost white ) and black plastic bales . Just as bad . I’m sure he thought they were Sheep
Eggs , black and white as applicable , and he wouldn’t take his eye off those either . Meanwhile the girls are rolling their eyes at him , being a complete diva .

Oh, and flags . And buckets in a mounted games capacity . Total total hysteria from this warmblood dressage schoolmaster, who can do flying changes every stride , execute a perfect half pass to order , and then demonstrates the exemplary Spin and Bugger Off with Tail in Air if asked to go within three feet of bucket elimination . Pillock .

On the whole, mine are pretty lifeproofed. Not much bothers them - but I do spend a lot of time making sure they're that way when they're young - we do a lot of bombproofing work.

But I had one pony once who was sound about everything, and I was poo picking in the field, and turned around to watch her shoot 6 foot up in the air, and straight over the field fence in horror at something behind me - I turned around and my small daughter was hula hooping. Weird, as this pony was bombproof on the roads, in every way - just an illogical fear of hula hoops?

Often it's my ponies causing the problem - I have some shetlands that I take out walking on the roads. It's usually the bigger horses that turn tail and run when they see us coming. And god forbid we have the harness bells on, or the carriage attached!

Eve you reminded me that I had a horse scared of his own wee too! He often used to hold it in and go in the warm up arena. He would wee normally then as he finished he would panic about the wee and plunge forward! Made for entertaining warm up sessions!

Rocks

Mine’s a very sensible (mostly!!) highland. He’s great with pretty much anything and lives on a farm with lots of resident sheep, but woe betide you if you approach with anything made of wool or sheepskin. This will result in a lot of rapid reversing, snorting and general silliness. Our yard manager went in to hi. The other day wearing a lovely pair of woollen gloves which someone gave her for Christmas..... he was having none of it. We came to the conclusion it’s the sleepy/lanolin type smell. Crazy beast .........

My mare is very Welshy she snorts/ looks etc but has never done anything silly or has tried to dump me. I know her very well and with a squeeze and a scratch she will carry on.

Few weeks ago- on a regular hack- she went absolutely ape at a new post on a gate!!! She was planting/ snorting/ crow hopping even with a lead horse and shes normally the one up front. First time in 7 years had to get off her to get her past.

No idea what she thought she saw.

Mine was distressed by a stick on the road last week. But once it was explained was very happy to carry it in their mouth like a dog.

We’ve just had 2 shetlands move into our barn so we can add those to the list

She is hilariously terrified of them.

We have to walk past their stable to get in and out of the barn so we have to keep a very firm eye on their stable door (despite the fact you can’t actually see them anyway) to the point that we are reversing ourself into our own stable.

The shetlands are escape artists and all the big horses in the barn are freaking out every time they get out