Ten Top Spooks

[horsecrazy333]

I forgot to add, insulation. It was piled up for garbage. Our 17hh warmblood almost dropped dead! Oh and lilypads. You'd think I was asking emma to cross the river jordan. We were 8 feet off shore!

[Sodapoppers]

Ok I was thinking of this on the way home. The big thing I can think about that Dream was unreasonable over was the sand swirls in the summer in the outdoor riding ring. It had rained the day before and there were different colored swirls in the sand. He did some nice crab stepping and some sudden pit stops to check them out mid-canter. lol That was pretty silly

[cadence]

Pigs - Those are absolutely, without fail, THE MOST terrifying thing to my guy... Especially pigs who are playing and come romping up to the fence to check you out (the nerve!)... My horse became a giraffe impressionist and shook - can you say instant sweat? 
I had to get off him to convince him we were not about to die.&nbsp; Who says a horse can't do passage with elevation and "expression" while in hand.&nbsp; He was suddenly very tall, highly arched&nbsp;with tail at full mast! <IMG src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0">

[sugar]

<IMG src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0">Our TB is definitely NOT afraid of cats.&nbsp; Our siamese/persian jumps in his feeder when we load it up with beetpulp and HFHF and the TB jumps with back arched and blows like he is hissing at the cat.&nbsp; Then the cat and him duke it out nose to paw for who gets to eat first.&nbsp; I gotta take some pictures of this it is hilarious!&nbsp; And the cat has NEVER scratched him, he does it with his nails in.&nbsp; Now when I am working with the horse with ole psycho cat around, I am the one that keeps jumping...<IMG src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">&nbsp; this is why:
<IMG src="smileys/smiley3.gif" border="0">That feline menace lands on you from nowhere just when your doing up a bridle or halter or saddling etc...&nbsp; <IMG src="http://forums.equestrianconnection.com/smileys/smiley16.gif" border="0">&nbsp; The TB just stands there...doing his best "we cool...we down wit' cats...what's your problem you silly human...

[jax]

My horse is funny in that the things that will freak out most horses, she doesn't care about.&nbsp; She'll look but as soon as she can figure them out, she's fine.&nbsp; Blowing plastic bags, construction, new piles of drainage tubing - all the stuff I figure that uh oh, here we go - she doesn't care about.&nbsp; It's the stupid things like the absolute nothingness in the northwest corner of the outdoor ring, or another horse farting that just sets her off.

[Gemina]

MacR, tell us your embarrassing meeting with a mailbox. Thought you would have been pestered to do this before now. <br /> <br />During the big garbage collection i.e. stoves, freezers, etc. it takes us a long time to get down the road. He is serious about this spook and takes me across the road almost into the ditch before I can convince him it's okay. <br /> <br />Horses are interesting?<img border="0" src="smileys/smiley3.gif" border="0">

[goldendryad]

<font color="magenta">My guy is also totally not bothered by cats. If you haven't noted it in the photo gallery, he's willing to be a sleeping spot for the resident barn cat, a white one at that. <br /> <br />He is also totally fine with dogs.

[Ruth]

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mine eats cats, really he hates them, and has paralysed one by grabbing it by the back and tossing it into a wall. He has a big sign on his door so that the barn staff remember to remove any cats from his stall before he goes in because he is a Pit Bull on hooves. He thinks even less of dogs and can't stand running children. <br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He is like Jax's horse in that things that bother other horses don't even faze him, but there is the odd thing that he'll spook at.

[Azalee]

The White Cat is only The White Cat of Death if it jumps out of the darkness into the brightly lit arena.&nbsp; <IMG src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">&nbsp; Otherwise, it's The White Cat Of Seeing How Far&nbsp;It Can Stick Its Head Up The Mare's Nostril.&nbsp; <IMG src="smileys/smiley5.gif" border="0">
And oh here's something I forgot...Az is completely terrified of llamas/alpacas.&nbsp; They're fuzzy, make weird noises, walk funny and spit dontchyaknow.&nbsp; Anyone have&nbsp;a horse&nbsp;with the same phobia?

[cadence]

[QUOTE=Ruth]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mine eats cats, really he hates them, and has paralysed one by grabbing it by the back and tossing it into a wall. He has a big sign on his door so that the barn staff remember to remove any cats from his stall before he goes in because he is a Pit Bull on hooves. He thinks even less of dogs and can't stand running children.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;He is like Jax's horse in that things that bother other horses don't even faze him, but there is the odd thing that he'll spook at.[/QUOTE]
Dogs - mine was fine until last summer an idiot left his bulldog unsecured in the yard and it charged at my horse with intent - - - ever since then, dogs are his mortal enemy and he will charge and kill any dog stupid enough to get close to him.&nbsp; Sad.&nbsp; He used to be great to ride with my dog and now even my dog is an object of hatred and rage.

[tbbrat]

A few years ago, I took Teddy to school over some X-country jumps at a farm north of Hamilton - can't remember the name but sure somebody here does!&nbsp; Anyway, they have a landing strip for ultralight planes and some pens with various exotic birds.&nbsp; Teddy was perfectly fine with the planes landing and taking off beside him - but oh, those sandhill cranes lurking behind the bushes!! <IMG src="smileys/smiley3.gif" border="0">&nbsp; Horse-eating monsters for sure! <IMG src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0">
Dogs are not normally a problem - toddlers on tricycles are pretty scary though!

[horsecrazy333]

We used to have 2 little boys that would wait at the end of the driveway for the school bus. Now Emma has seen them, they've played with her in the field the whole thing. They put those backpacks on and stand at the end of the driveway with lunch in hand and she snorts, backs up, paws the ground. I'm like what the? She just can't handle them. Now tell me that's not wierd.

[Ruth]

Sometimes horses don't recognize people as people if they have a growth (ie knapsack), usually once they speak the horse will realize it's a person and not the creature from the Black Lagoon.

[tbbrat]

People in full motorcycle leathers and helmet - standing quietly beside their motorbikes <IMG src="smileys/smiley3.gif" border="0">&nbsp;- definitely alien creatures! <IMG src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">

[Judy F]

My little mare was a very sensible horse, crossed bridges, loaded on trailers, no problem. But my coach liked to sit by the side of the dressage ring in one of aluminum chairs. No way could she handle THAT!!! Strange 4-legged creature that turned into a human!!! Human standing by a chair was okay, human sitting, forget it!!<img border="0" src="smileys/smiley3.gif" border="0"> <br /> <br />And then there was the lady in the hot pink hot pants outfit. Betcha didn't horses have fashion sense<img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0"> <edited><editID>Judy F</editID><editDate>38398.7295486111</editDate></edited>

[tbbrat]

Ooh, ooh, jump-judge sitting cross-legged in the <EM>grass</EM> wearing a voluminous white and yellow T-shirt - at our first event.&nbsp;<IMG src="smileys/smiley3.gif" border="0"> Can you say run-out?&nbsp; He wasn't scared of the <strong>fence</strong>.<IMG src="smileys/smiley5.gif" border="0">&nbsp; People in chairs are fine.&nbsp; Dressage judges - he wants to stop and say "howya doin?" <IMG src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0">

[Megan Ball]

Boulders are Rocky terror alert! He used to be afraid of cows(he literally crapped himself the first time he saw one next door, He gets the runs when he gets excited) but they are his neighbors now and he's fine with them. Kenzie on the other hand is a wild ride for the first 5 mins or so and then she calms down. I'm getting her used to facing down the dogs on the road that are defending their front yard.

[Sheba]

Birds!!!<IMG src="smileys/smiley4.gif" border="0">&nbsp; Flying, sitting, hopping...anything!

[raven03]

LMAO love it! should add snow falling off of a metal arena roof, barn cats that are the same color as your arena dirt (LOL!) we have one at work) dirt on the arena mirrors or snow by the arena door. LOL

[amadeo]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Cows. A horse I used to ride (though, thankfully, I wasn't riding her at the time) just hated cows. Then again, that one fateful day, she hadn't seen one before. So that could to it, too. But she went into the ditch at about ninety miles an hour... Liam went OVER the ditch at about a hundred-and-fifty. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries, and the horse came back. #ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#&nbsp;#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Another horse is DEATHLY afraid of... ducks. Not geese, not cranes, not herons, no other birds.. Just.. ducks. He's 17.1hh, a Spanish-Norman, and he's terrified of them. How he can tell the difference between a duck and a goose, I don't know, but he manages, and he hates them.#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#&nbsp;#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#And then Hannah is the absolute most bombproof pony I've ever ridden. She's only three, but she just doesn't spook. Unless you happen to say "Wow, I have never seen that pony even bat an eyelash at anything." Then, she decides she'd like to turn 180 degrees and go barreling off into the distance for absolutely no reason. That's the only time she ever spooked. There was nothing there, we had been there a thousand times, everything was the same as normal, but the second my riding partner finished saying that, we were off like a shot. Good old Hannah.#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#