My Gracie:

 "the other day when I was riding my cat"

  oops hehe, bad me....I really need to read before I post.... My cat is fairly large, but I don't fit her very well....

I forgot to even mention Ta'ceyewi, my colt.  He is not scared of anything at all, except my pig....When it started it was just funny to see my colt running away from my pig, but now it isn't.  She spends quite a bit of time in the pasture, and Ta'c will let her walk up to him with no issues, but if I am in the pasture, or he is near the barn, he flips out.  One day he spooked, ran into me, and literally knocked me down and ran over me.  I was sooooo lucky, I had hoof marks on one thigh and my wrist, but that was it. I can't even tell you how many times he has smacked his head in the barn spinning to run away from Harley.  It is bad, and we are working on him getting over it....but still, I can lead him around, on a windy day, under a flapping flag he has never seen before, with squirrels running amok and nothing.  If Harley (who he sees every day all day) is out then he is going to DIE!!!! RUN AWAY!!!

Last week it was the concrete. Yes, alas my horse is afraid of the ground he walks on. You'd think I had asked him to step off the edge of the Grand Canyon! After much huffing, snorting, sighing and neck turns, he put one foot on it. And then I think we somehow teleported back to the barn because one minute I was looking at the driveway, and then next I was looking at the barn. And they are about 200 ft apart.

Last night a leaf with murderous intentions blew across the arena during our free lunge session, resulting in some piaffes and pirouttes to rival top competition!

Who know's what tonight's ride will bring? Great topic!!!

 

 

 My 21 year old Arab always has and still does "spook" when he gets bored. My sister was riding him in the front arena for me one day. There was a wet circle on the ground from where a barrel had sat and been moved. They must have ridden by it at least five times and then when my sister turned her head to say something to me Ghazal just jumped it out of the blue. (My sister hates to ride my horse!) 

 But for real spooks miniature donkeys are terrifying. I was in a parade and the horses were being followed by a team of about six mini-donkeys pulling this big red trolley looking thing. That is a day I will never forget, luckily no one was hurt, although a few yards that we passed were probably never quite the same. 

Also to add, my horse spooked at a Shetland pony neighing (hello?!!!) and trotting over to greet him...maybe the pony spoke with a brogue?

Sadly, Toby has spooked at almost everything listed here: other horses, dogs, poop...everything.  The most memorable spook was the other day, though.  He was being SO good for me, when he just decided that a certain white rock, (that we'd ridden by a million times), was out to eat him.  We stopped.  Side-passed, (isn't it amazing the things horses can do on their own, but never on cue?!), spun, stopped.  Finally we walked past the evil rock, and Toby started dancing as soon as he was past it.  Couldn't get away fast enough.... 

 

I forgot to mention Cows.  The most terrifying thing on earth to my mare.  She sees a cow grazing and all heck breaks loose - I can't believe she can't recognize another herbivore.  Sheesh.  That and the "Black Squirrel of Death" that lives behind the arena.  Other squirrels are ok... that black one though - hold on because we're outta here!

I was out in the pasture on my leased gelding one day, enjoying the sun and warmth, when all of a sudden oof I was on my back, wind knocked out of me, horse calmly cropping grass a few feet away.  The bright, white towel I'd just seen moments ago and hoped wouldn't upset Remi apparently had done just that.  My very first fall.  How ignominious. 

Then this year I was on my horse Lucy up in the woods on a little trail at the barn where we board.  She'd been acting kind of squirrely outside all day and in retrospect I guess I should've gone back to the pasture or the arena.  Anyway, she'd successfully stepped over a log that had fallen across the trail.  We get to another log and she takes off like a bat out of hell, dumping me, and chugging back to the barn.  So the next weekend we go on the trail and come across the first log she'd successfully stepped over, only to find it had been sawn apart into stump-like pieces which were sitting on both sides of the trail.  No way.  Not me.  That lumber is going to kill me!  She starts backing up as fast as she can, thank you Clinton Anderson for one-rein stops, snorting and fretting all the way.  Crazy animal.  We sat and looked at the tree remnants for a bit and finally with a lot of encouragement and dammit-I'm-going-to-kill-you-you-crazy-animal thoughts, she walked past them.  Good girl!  I wonder what's next, I swear sometimes she looks for things to freak out at!

asharri:

My 21 year old Arab always has and still does "spook" when he gets bored. My sister was riding him in the front arena for me one day. There was a wet circle on the ground from where a barrel had sat and been moved. They must have ridden by it at least five times and then when my sister turned her head to say something to me Ghazal just jumped it out of the blue. (My sister hates to ride my horse!) 

Too true! My stepmom is a dressage trainer and about 5 years ago she purchased a super nice arabian gelding- he's 15 now- as a dressage horse.. Only to discover that he is deathly afraid of dressage letters! He'll walk on a loose rein on the trail all day long, but in the arena, NO WAY! Its an Arab thing, lol. Such a shame because he is a lovely dressage horse, apart from the leaping sideways and whatnot, lol. She took him to desensitization classes and everything, FORGET it. No dressage letters. Whatever, I love him and am going to ride him in some arab shows (not dressage tests!) and he is also my polo pony .

asharri:

But for real spooks miniature donkeys are terrifying. I was in a parade and the horses were being followed by a team of about six mini-donkeys pulling this big red trolley looking thing. That is a day I will never forget, luckily no one was hurt, although a few yards that we passed were probably never quite the same.

 

Oh yeah, that reminds me, my horse does think that other horses in harness are pretty scary. All those jingly things! Not that she would care if they were on HER (I've ridden her in rhythm beads and bunny ears), but on other horses, omigod!! I think she thinks they're being tortured.

 

 My horse spooks at anything that he thinks has changed.  Like if youmove the dresage letter over and inch or the wind is blowing and it rattles.  If the letter had been rattling when he first swa it he swould be fine. Of course the reality is like most males he does not like change.  I can see his point but sometimes it is ridiculous.  He will even spook at hisshadow if the sun has not been out and then it suddenly comes out.  Most of the time it is just a kind of shudder but sometimes he gets a little sideways.  He also rarely spooks when I am working him hard..just during cooldown or warm up.

I have an older gelding that has been shown extensivly, trail rides and is not spooky.  However, recently, my teenagers took the horses to Ag day at school.  As we were walking down to the area we were suppose to be, our mare was in front and walked right down the path.  My gelding saw the stone bear mascot of the school and started dancing sideways, snorting, acting a total fool.  I finally got him to go over and sniff the stone bear but it took a while.  I could do nothing but laugh.

Oh thanks Dlawton, that reminded me of one!  Every year we have this thing called Hog Eye Festival (the little town was originally founded as Hog Eye, it's now Elgin, TX) and they have this paper mache pig as the mascot:

 and it has it's own float in the parade and every year we're either right behind it or near it.  Anyways, my App just hates that pig!  He snorts at it and turns his butt to it if I try to take him over to it.  He's like "really Mom, I'm so way above the pig, I'm not even going to lower myself to look at it!"  So he doesn't necessarily shy away from it, but he keeps a wide berth around it, and it's hilarious.

I have a turtle story for you though. A friend and I were out riding in a couple hundred acre patch of ground. It had open spots, trees, just a nice place to ride and has trails mowed through it. We were both on bareback and riding along blabbering back and forth. We'd been cantering along and I held up my hand to signal her to stop. There was a good sized rock in the path that had never been there before. We slow to a walk and I'm in front. I get up closer to it and realize it's a turtle. I get my horse next to it and realize it's a snapping turtle. It turned towards my horse and hissed. My horse all the sudden had this big ole arch in his back around where that turtle was. I get past with no problems, my friend however... her little mare's worst fears were confirmed. ROCKS WILL IN FACT EAT YOU.... Just as her horse was about to step around it, the turtle turned towards her and hissed again. That mare's front end stopped and started back all the while her rear end kept going forward. In about a half a second she was about two feet from ears to tail. Took my friend a couple minutes to get her horse past that hissing "rock". Me, I'm up ahead about to fall off my horse from That poor little mare hasn't looked at a rock the same since. Don't worry, the friend was to all the while she was trying to get her horse past the turtle. 

LOL, yeah, I've been on board for some major turtle meltdowns.. Here in Fla we have those giant gopher turtles that will attempt to "scurry" when they see you coming, but they weigh like 40 or 50 pounds, so the horses go nuts. I had forgotten all about that, since I moved away from all the nice trails ...

 My mustang isn't afraid of ANYTHING! I mean quite literally, children can hang from his belly while I stand in the saddle shooting off a .45 pistol... then the other day the winter weather was rolling in and I pulled out a simple nylon sheet to throw on him (meanwhile is is totally cool with tarps, blankets, you name it) and figured it was no big leap to toss on a sheet.  It is a closed front so I put it on over his head (he didn't bat an eye) and just as I pulled it over his rump he all of a sudden noticed what whas happening and took off like a bat out of hell and a dead run for 3 loops around the pasture before he came back, stood next to me like he had never left and let me finish attaching the buckles. ROFL!