[Ink]

Sometimes I wonder what's going on in my horse's head. The barn owner and her daughter have two rather large dogs between them. Every now and then they'll come trotting through the arena while I'm riding, and Dublin doesn't so much as bat an eyelash at them. But heaven forbid there be a cat in there! The other day I was riding one of the barn cats darted across several feet in front of us. Dublin, in a move worthy of a champion cutting horse, dropped down a good foot, did a 180 turn and was half way to the other end of the arena before I had quite figured out what happened. Silly pony. Apparently she thinks our barn is infested with a particularly vicious variety of flesh eating felines :lol:

Share your stories of the most ridiculous things your horse has spooked at!

 

[With Grace]

Poor kitty, probably scared him just as much!

I ride a TB...the latest spook has been an arena door that was moving ever so slightly in the breeze. She spooked about 20 times over that door until she finally realized there was no horse eating monster on the other side trying to come in. She also spooks at birds flying around the arena...can't wait for spring when all the birds return!

 

[PaintLover17]

Amber doesn't usually spook at anything, but in one corner of the arena there are jump standards sitting when not being used that she apparently thinks want to eat her. The silliest spook was one day a few months ago. There was a ladder set up a few feet outside the arena that she kept shying away from. It took about fifteen minutes for her to decide it wasn't scary. Later that same day there was a coyote in the field next to the arena, just a few feet away from us. Amber looked straight at it and never even batted an eye. I was sure that she would be more scared of a coyote than a ladder!
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[Delfina]

Hmmm..... with a bubble-headed, dingbat, the question would be what hasn't my horse found scary?

I got a phone call from my BO last Winter, seems that he was cold so she spent a bit of time and worked him through putting an oh so scary blanket on. Very pleased that she was able to blanket him without too much of a fuss, she put him in turnout and found that numbskull was busy spooking at his tail flap! He would quietly be munching hay, the wind would blow and ruffle his tail flap and he would take off bucking and galloping, trying to get away from the horse-eating tail flap! It took him 3 MONTHS to figure out that tail flaps really don't eat horses.

Then nimwit managed to bruise his back foot so I called the farrier out and we decided to put shoes on to keep him comfortable while it grew out. Farrier put the shoes on and all of a sudden he was dancing and trying to run while in the cross ties. Yup, scared to death of his new shoes. Put him in the round pen (figured it was the safest place with the softest footing) and he galloped around trying to shake those shoes OFF his feet! Yup, scary horse-eating shoes! Thankfully he got tired after a few hours and gave up being scared, spent a few days picking up each hind foot and trying to shake them off though!

 

[Evansk]

haha thats a good one.. I was on a charity trail ride one year on my mare Buttermilk, and there was a flower pot on a post as a marker for the trail.. heaven forbid.. that flower pot was going to eat all the horses.. all the horses spooked at this little flower pot.. included my old faithful mount haha. Or an piece of plywood against a tree.. im sure she thought it was goin to eat her too.

yep.. harmless flower pots and plywood. haha

 

[FlyGap]

I got a new saddle saturday and it's shiny black, TOTALLY freaked out my gelding. I've had him in a dark oil one and a tan/dark brown nylon one for months. I was super excited to get it on him but he acted like a wild beast pulling and rolling his eyes at it! So I threw it in the grass beside him, groomed him and put him up. I didn't feel like a doing a training session that day and the vet was coming out. That was the first time he's ever "spooked" at anything! ATV's, dirtbikes, dogs, waterfalls, baseballs, fireworks, guns, racing cars on dirt roads, you name it he's a champ... shiny black saddles... not so much.

 

[Speed Racer]

Casper freaks at round bales. Yes, really.

 

[kait18]

bailey recently spooked at his own tail ... and denny spooked at our 3 hens all within this last week... i have some seriously weird horses :?

 

[Ink]

Casper freaks at round bales. Yes, really.

Hehe that's funny. Dublin doesn't mind then when they're in the field, but the ones that are all congregated by the barn she finds awfully suspicious.

 

[FirstLightFarm]

Cats are really scary when they move. Which is weird, because almost every horse I know likes barn cats. They love kitteh face rubs; they let kittehs nestle on their backs and lie in their food troughs. But something about the way cats move sets off a reflex equine OMG:shock: reaction. Go figure.

 

[arrowsaway]

I enjoy stories where the horses in question spook at their own farts...
I've yet to experience the hilarity but I look forward to it.

 

[Tianimalz]

Wet boxes.

Indie will stand perfectly still for trailers, flapping tarps, dogs, cats, (we're iffy on llamas LOL), most moterbikes, hurricane weather... all that good stuff.

But every time we see the SAME wet box that has slowly been decaying on the side of the rode for the better part of a year she just freaks out. It hasn't moved at all, and is in for the most part the same shape. But that wet box is just the scariest thing she's ever laid eyes on. She holds her head up, snorts like a dragon, and prances like a parade pony with her tail high in the air ready to bolt at a single moments notice.

Oh.. and scary black trash bags. Not the ones that move... the ones filled with trash that just sit there and stare at us menacingly.

Indie swears they want to eat her soul. :lol:

 

[PaintCowgirl]

my draft spooked at a beer bottle on the ground the other day and about ran me over trying to get away from it. i had come home from a long days work and grabbed a beer and headed to get her and groom her... i sat the bottle down and was grooming her and she looked over at the beer bottle and bolted...mind you it had been there 15mins...when i got her to calm down i made her come back to it and she picked it up between her lips. crazy horse!

another thing is she gets scared when my mini bull bellows. all my animals including my bulls and cattle are hand fed babies. she is in the pasture with my mini bull and one of my heifers. he doesnt make a lot of noise and they are fine, but when he sees me coming with a feed bucket he bellows....and she jumps out of her skin everytime. its actually funny. this has been going on for over a month now. you'd think she'd realize its her buddy that she snuggles up with at night....

 

[caseymyhorserocks]

My friend used to have this horse with navicular that would spook all the time..

In the same day, he spooked at a horse blanket, but then.. There was a plastic bag, and it blew across the path. He was totally fine! He just flicked a ear at it..

 

[MyBoyPuck]

A few years ago, we were trail riding past a large murky pond. We were almost past it, when a bullfrog croaked. My horse jumped a few feet straight up, came down, and walked calmly on as if nothing happened. It was pretty funny.

 

[Walkamile]

Walka jumped 6 feet sideways at a horse eating stump. Very embarrassed when he sorted out what it was.

T use to spook in place at round hay bales, but now that I put them in the front field after the grass is gone, she is over it.

 

[DraftyAiresMum]

My big fearless gelding is terrified of goats. Swears they're going to eat him.

He spooked the other day at his reflection in a puddle. My friend and I were walking up to the front of the barn to groom our boys and we walked by this tiny (not even a foot across) puddle. The sun caught it just right and all of a sudden Aires was on my other side acting like he'd just seen the Loch Ness monster in that puddle. I wasn't paying attention really, so I didn't see what he spooked at, but my friend was behind us and couldn't stop laughing. Yeah, she got her come-uppance when her gelding spooked at the exact same thing when they walked by!

 

[Skipsfirstspike]

Spike is great with large dogs, many times we have ridden by a house where a big dog comes running out at us. Once we were chased by a pack of 5 big husky types, no prob. He is also great about cats slinking around, even rabbits suddenly running out from underfoot.
But he just about came undone the day a tiny white chiuahua came running out from a garage yapping its head off at us! lol

 

[cowgirlupintexas]

Their shadows. Seriously. They see them day in and day out in their turn out. But when I take them out walking and they see that black devil stuck to their feet, I had better be holding on tight because they suddenly think that they can fly!

 

[Horselover1215]

My steed loves to spoke at lamp posts. Also he spooks at the muck heap and when he farts,LOL! But he's perfectly fine when the guy who owns the barn revs the engine of the tractor at him. and me and my friends even play chicken with our horses and he's completely fine! He sure is my special goon!