My horse recently inspired me to write this topic.  I was wondering what stupid stuff your horse has spooked at.  My horse spooked at horse poop the other day.  It wasn't like it was something that caught from the corner of her eye because after she jumped and we continued walking by, she kept giving it the evil eye waiting for it to jump at us.  I thought it was hilarious and was laughing as this whole thing was happening.  Does anyone else have any good stories??

Mine has spooked at hearing a duck quack -  nothing to see, we heard it quack and she was off.  I teased her about Killer Ducks for quite a while.  She also walked over a hose twice, then spooked when we passed by it the 3rd time - thought it was one of those "death snakes"

her stable mate spooked like crazy when I dropped an apple in his bucket - you'd have thought I'd shot him.

Wow, nice topic!!

I have had Rascal for 12yrs, he is now 24, but it hasn't slowed him down much at all! I could write for several hours and still have tons of stories left about things he has spooked at.  He is little (only 14 hands) and he is a Morab (equals-lots of energy- he runs more than my 8 month old colt (who, admittedly, is lazy...))  and to top it off he spooks like no other horse I have ever seen.  He jumps like a cat when something scares him.  Needless to say, I had to learn how to stick in a saddle riding him.  Golf carts symbolized the worst evil for awhile, and after my neighbor got a golf cart a few years ago I was seriously scared he would drop dead of a heart attack before he adjusted to it.  One of my most memorable moments riding him was several years ago when we had been full out galloping around a field for quite awhile, when we went over one of his (deadly, evil, HORRIBLE) hoof prints.  I am telling you that print grew teeth and was going to eat him! We went from a full gallop to a dead stop, then straight up in the air, turning, and landed, went sideways again, snorted, spun, and then continued on our way.  This wasn't even a weird encounter with Rascal, just a normal ride...

Bailey, my new mare, isn't too spooky, but the other day when I was riding my cat walked across the yard, and Bails started snorting and 'evil eyeing' her.  That mean kitty was about to turn into a terrible cougar and eat her.  I laughed and we continued on her way, then she gave a tiny little spook at my boyfriend, who had been laying on the ground for our entire ride, but evidently had just materialized there.

Horses are great! 

Solo spooks at horses on the trail.  Need I say more??  How can you be afraid of your own species???!

Solaris:

Solo spooks at horses on the trail.  Need I say more??  How can you be afraid of your own species???!

lol. My horse did that the other day too.  I would like you to know that we also encountered a deer and some turkeys  on the same ride and she hardly looked twice at them.

Blue Herons flying out of the pond are coming to eat black and white ponies. I have that on good authority from my four year old paint. He SWEARS they are coming to eat him. Though the worst he'll do is jump sideways. He's stopped the spin and FLEE spooks thankfully. My husband will do all he can to try to get him to spook. He's thrown his straw hat at us, he's kicked plastic pool balls to us, he'll swing his rope and throw it at us... so far all he's gotten are some dirty looks from both me and my pony... we don't know what he'll come up with next to try to get us. :) 

Ropin, you need to have him throw Blue Herons at you so your horse gets over that fear.  ROFL

 A friend and I used to ride every morning.  It was all roads, one of which was dirt.  There is a short stretch that has guard railing along one side.  There is a very short spot that has guard rail on both sides.  It didn't matter if we walked, trotted or cantered, our horses would both spook at that darn guard rail when it was on both sides and slam our knees together.  The schnits.  Mind you, we rode that same 5 mile loop 6 days a week.  It didn't matter if we started out the horses on opposite sides of the road.  They ended up together before we got through that short stretch of road. 

I think the best spook I've had was just this last spring on Mother's day.  Friend and I loaded up and went to a nice little facility close by that has lots of trails.  My gelding, my big tough search & rescue, not scared of emergency vehicles, will walk right into the house, gelding about crapped himself when a tree stump tried to kill him.   We're walking along a nice little trail and he got all tense, REALLY tense.  I"m looking around to see what's got him so alarmed.  He all the sudden decided what ever it was was really going to eat him and he spun and started up a steep hill.  I of course get him stopped about 2 strides up the hill.  He turns around and snorts, that high pitched scream/snort they do when they are scared.  The gal I was with busts out laughing and about that time I realize that he's got lazer eyes going on at that poor wittle stump.  Took a minute to convince him that it really wasn't going to eat him.  Finally got him to step up on it then all was good. 

 Hour later, three deer bust across the path in front of us and he wanted to chase them.  Dumb horse. lol

 "the other day when I was riding my cat"

 I think my horse would spook at that.  

Really, she doesn't spook at much, which is why I'm so grateful to her. Her one nemesis is clear plastic bags. No matter how much I try to despook her with them, it doesn't seem to take. She'll take food out of one, but without the food it's a clear plastic panther. Recently my barn owner got a bunch of clear plastic bins from Walmart to put the school horses' bridles and pads in, one bin for each horse. A few were stacked outside the tack room. Gracie made it plain that clear plastic was clear plastic, even if this stuff made no noise and didn't blow in the wind. It was still a carnivorous monster. "I can't go near that, don't make me, AAAAAH!" This from a horse that will walk across a blue tarp and didn't even flinch when the wind blew down a jump standard right beside her as she was trotting by.

JG -Seriously! :) Wonder if we painted pink flamingos blue???

Pheonix does not like Armadillos.  He pops straight up in the air when they bounce, LOL.

And Missy is my spooky girl.  She is deathly afraid of .................................... SQUIRRELS, LOL.  But she thinks she loves skunks and will try and follow the when we see them on the trail.

Solaris:

Solo spooks at horses on the trail.  Need I say more??  How can you be afraid of your own species???!

My friend Amanda and I were out riding at a horse park not too terribly far from me. She was on Cheyenne and I was on Calista. There were two horses ahead on the trail, coming our way. Chey and Cali noticed them right away, were watching them the whole time we approached. Then, about half way, I think it was Cali, flipped out spooking over them! LOL

There's a dead cactus and dead tree skeleton at a trail area down the road from me that Harley thinks is out to get him ;) Oh yeah, and when we went on the cattle drive, there was big rock that he and the person who puts on the drives horse thought would eat them!

Braveheart is scared of two spots in the arena. One, just outside the arena there are barrels, jump poles and standards, ect. Those appearently will eat him when they're out of the arena... but not when they're IN it ;) I have yet to figure out what it is that spooks him outside of the arena on the other spot lol Oh and there are dressage letters around the arena, every once in awhile one or two will be scary haha

Sparrows are the bringers of death for Squeaker.  Bear in mind that she is pasture kept and should be fairly familiar with the little things, but apparently they're terrifying.  This is the same horse who came within literally inches of stepping on the stupid pigeon that lives in the arena last winter, and barely noticed when he flushed from right under her feet, but I guess sparrows are different.

Squeaksmom:

Sparrows are the bringers of death for Squeaker.  Bear in mind that she is pasture kept and should be fairly familiar with the little things, but apparently they're terrifying.  This is the same horse who came within literally inches of stepping on the stupid pigeon that lives in the arena last winter, and barely noticed when he flushed from right under her feet, but I guess sparrows are different.

 Haha, reminds me of another horse I had.  Out riding through a field one day he about stepped on a rabbit.  It takes off running and he drops his head to look at it.  Nothing.  A short while later a bird flies up and hits him in the chin, literlly, flies off, he sees it.  Nothing.  About ten minutes later a dog comes busting through the weeds at the ditch (has done this before) and BAM, that horse was heading for him.  Thank heaven's I managed to stick with home. 

Side note, I cured the dog later on.  It was terrible about chasing horses that rode by.  Owners HAVE horses and would just laugh when it chased other people.