Trust: It can go way too far!
Nov 13 2009
Just another typical low-end breeder sale ad, although I will say that this is a nicer filly than I usually see with small children hanging off of it like a set of monkey bars.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/grd/1462265705.html
“We have a BEAUTIFUL Kind and sweet 2yr olf Filly. Full American Paint Horse Assoc Registered. She is currently riden around bareback by my 5yr & 7yr old girls. They have played around all over her. She’s even great with kids walking her around just the 2 of them. She’s been valued over $1000 filly due to her bloodlines and potential. On a scale of 1-10 shes a gentle 1. She’s the type of filly when she turns 3yrs you can just throw a saddle on her and teach directional turns and GO. Imprinted from Birth. Sire has Passed away this last March but Mare is still on the property.
Great Christmas Surprise Gift!!! We will hold for Christmas and take payments until then too. $600″
You’ve heard me rant about this kind of thing a million times:
1. Your children should not be used as marketing materials to sell your green horse. I mean, look at the logic here – “Damn, she’s SO quiet she’s NOT killing my kids!” Uh, no one is comfortable with that. No one thinks “wow, what a nice filly.” We just skip right to “Wow, what a bad parent!” It actually distracts significantly from your filly that small children are underneath her. Anyone with a modicum of good judgment is way too focused on the risk to the child to look at the horse.
2. There is no such thing as bomb proof. Much like “asymptomatic HYPP positive horse,” there is just a horse who has not blown up YET. Now, that horse may not encounter the set of conditions/outside stimuli that cause him to blow up – perhaps not ever. But, intrinsically, they’re ALL prey animals and their response to true fear is to get the Hell out of Dodge at a fast clip, sometimes with airs above the ground involved.
So today, let’s hear your stories about the time Old Faithful lost it. Some experiences from my own life:
- I was riding a twenty-something polo pony that I routinely rode in a halter, bareback. This old girl had been there and done that and was actually older than I was at the time. One day, I was wearing a windbreaker and got the bright idea to drop my reins and zip it up. She blew three feet in the air at the zipping/crackly windbreaker noise that came from her back and I nearly went off. Of course the no-reins thing just contributed to the potential wreck that was averted only by the luck of the young and velcro-butted. (Now, I’d wind up in traction!)Â
- My friend, a police officer, was patrolling our state fair on his twenty-something been there, done that horse. This horse had patrolled many such public events and had no problem with parades, fireworks, drunken yahoos and everything else that you’d encounter there.  They were standing there watching things proceed, totally relaxed, when someone used a helium tank to inflate a balloon. Old Faithful heard the hissing noise, reared straight up and went over backwards on the asphalt. Holy crap. Miraculously, no one was hurt. The horse had never done anything remotely like that. He was only on his second owner and had always been praised for his amazingly calm nature. The hissing tank was the first thing he’d encountered in 25 years of life that scared him badly enough to react like that.
My own four year old, who does not blink at things like a loose bull, huge inflatable holiday decorations (he tried to eat those), fireworks, etc. absolutely and totally lost it when he encountered a donkey that had been left in a stock trailer and was braying up a storm and pawing. Suddenly, my normally semi-catatonic horse was literally bolting in circles around me. I don’t know to this day if it was the smell of the donkey or the fact that it could be heard but not seen, so that it appeared the stock trailer itself was possessed, but it’s another good example of that one thing that scares an ordinarily calm horse into a flight response.
So that’s what I want to talk about today. Tell me your stories of the calm horse who totally lost his mind about something – what was it? What happened?  Hopefully it will educate parents who still think certain horses are as safe as merry-go-round horses and no caution or common sense needs to be exercised around them. And remember, if you’re the parent who trusted too much and learned his/her lesson because an accident happened, sharing your story has the most impact of all. You can always make a new login/screen name if you want to stay anonymous – I’m cool with that and you will stay anonymous. I just want people to be a little more sensible than this before one of these very cute little girls is in the hospital with a concussion or worse.
188 comments to “Trust: It can go way too far!”
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My story is far from remarkable, but it always makes me grin to think of it. I was joining some friends to ride in a small town 4th of July parade. I decided to take my old faithful- an 18 year old semi-retired pushbutton show veteran who was just about as solid as they come. He was a flashy palomino with a very proud way of carrying himself- I thought he’d be perfect for the parade. And he had been in parades in the past. What got him off his noodle? Wasn’t the marching bands. Or fireworks. Or the fire engine sirens. Nor the balloons, crowds, or crazy floats. It was a bunny. The staging area was in a city park, and there were very large cement statues in the children’s area for them to crawl on. Only one of them freaked him out- a garish, grinning rabbit, about as tall as the average horse, but much wider. Poor old Mac was absolutely terrified- I couldn’t do a thing with him. His head was sky high, nostrils flaring, dancing in circles. Once we left the staging area and got away from the killer rabbit, he was back to his old steady self. Maybe it gave him a little more bounce to his step for the parade.
I’ve never seen him react to anything like that before or after The Bunny Incident.
I was on a perfect 16 year old dressage school horse who was out of shape, and going no where fast. We were finished with our lesson and walking on a loose rein with my feet out of the stirrups, when suddenly, a deaf gentleman who was working at the farm shook open a large trash bag, right as I went by him (he obviously didn’t realize it made a very big noise that might scare the horses). My perfect school horse dropped butt and took off so fast I didn’t even have time to react. I ended up in the dirt laughing and the school horse stopped 10 feet later and looked at me like I was the crazy one… Oh well, I learned that even on long rein warm ups and cool downs, I still need to be aware of my surroundings, or my horse will do it for me!
My dead broke gelding starting jumping around in the woods one day and I realized I was in a swarm of bees. I hightailed it out of there. Another time a different gelding started getting REALLY freaked out (and so was I) by a rustling in the woods that was all around us. We had ridden into the middle of a herd of bedded-down elk and they decided it was time to get up. That even freaked me out!!
This post is a prime example of why I ALWAYS wear a helmet when riding, even the 20-year old been there, done that horse!
My beloved large pony was as calm and patient as any pony could ever be. I could ride bareback in a halter. I could climb on her back when she was down, sunning herself in the field. I could leap-frog onto her back from behind. Basically a wonder pony. I could ride her under the branches of a huge fir tree when we played hide & seek on horseback.
Until I took her fox (drag) hunting. The hounds went mental (probably picked up a deer scent), and we all respectfully gathered in a fairly wooded, but wide cross-road in the trails. It was late October, no bugs, no wind, and we’d been out for under an hour with no wild gallops (it was very civilised hunt club). All was quiet when out of nowhere my pony suddenly put her head down and began to back up at hyper speed into the trees. I remember vividly the shocked (bemused) looks on my companions’ faces. “I’m okay!”, I called trying to figure out how to stop because nothing was working. Pulling on the reins was obviously not an option, and sitting up straight was impossible in the bush. A low-hanging branch assisted my dismount over my pony’s neck, and she stopped dead, blinking at me in the dappled sunlight.
I walked out of the bush to my friends, calmly mounted, and we were soon on our way. She never did it again.
A few years later overnight she refused to tie to anything and went absolutely ballistic if you tried. Fine. She would just stand where you parked her until you instructed otherwise. She lived to be 35.
As usual, another great and much-needed Public Service Announcement.
My 25-YO horse is fairly calm natured, but he STILL gets antsy over plastic bags, white things, etc. We put a young (6-YO) boy on him last Christmas and he was on the verge of looooooosing it. I don’t know that he’ll EVER be what I’d consider “kid safe.”
My husband had a 3-YO that was barely out of the round pen. He led the horse down there to ride one day, happened upon a good-sized rattler. Led the horse back up to the house to get a hoe, killed the snake, draped the body over the neck of the hoe, and traipsed back up the house to show me his kill. That horse never blinked an eye. But the first time we went to work him on cows, the horse literally loped backwards and was covered in sweat from head to tail. Oh yeah–and he was totally cow bred.
As you said, you just NEVER know what will set them off at ANY time. Best to err on the side of caution. Always!
Our very quiet 22 year old Arab whom we have used for beginner lessons, and has been used extensively in therapeutic riding programs goes completely wild when she sees a plastic bag. I think it might be from her halter days twenty years ago.
A barn we previously stabled at had a potbellied pig that roamed the property continuously. Even the sanest horses took a little getting used to that, and the first encounter was always a little sketchy.
We also had a larger thoroughbred mare in for sale who was in her mid teens, had been to numerous shows, evented everywhere, was quite unflappable when it came to loud noises and distractions, but who jumped out of her pasture and into the neighbouring cow field, then through the cow’s barbwire fencing, finally ending up three properties down with her neck torn open, all because she caught a glimpse of the donkey.
“Imprinted at birth” means, “you’d have to drive a truck through it to get it to wake up.” I believe there’s a huge difference between “imprinted” and “gentle.” A gentle horse is one that is accepting of us silly humans and the crazy stuff we want to do with them. An “imprinted” horse usually means nearly all of his natural self-preservation was literally “rubbed out” at birth. They’re dull, lifeless and their brains are wired wrong. Yes, I think they can be the closest thing you can ever get to “bombproof” but they are no fun to ride because the only way you CAN wake them up is to get that self-preservation to put in an appearance. Ugh. This filly has a dull, ugly life ahead of her.
My bomb proof 17 yr old Paint Gelding unscrewed his head at a Hunter Jumper show when someone rode a mule in a Hunter Hack class we had entered. He just kept staring at it, and when we started flat work & it passed us, he would snake his head out & try to bite it. When we lined up, the mule came in right beside us, and Mac just lost it- he went straight up, came down with his head between his knees like a rodeo bronc, screaming like nothing I had ever heard. It totally suprised me, because his buddy at home was a donkey.
After the class, I went & found the mule & rider & asked were they entering any more classes. They were done for the day, but agreed to let me tie Mac up at their trailer with the mule. After a few sniffs & snorts, Mac decided this strange long eared beastie wasn’t out to eat him, and was fine with the mule’s rider ponying him off the mule & taking them all over the show ground.
He’s never behaved like that before, and hasn’t behaved like that since!
I have the opposite. Spooky 19 year old OTTB. I did do some groundwork with him when I got him at 7. John Lyons was brand new and we did some round pen work. Most important he learned spook in place. Very helpful as he spooks at everything. Not your typical big blow up. Just those kind that the horse jumps in place getting ready to flee. But he doesn’t. However, I have gotten him used to baby strollers, small children feeding him, semi’s coming by withing 10 feet, huge machinery working on the farm, dogs underfoot, umbrellas, baby back packs, cars, bikes, motorcycles, tractors, horse trailers, horses running loose by him, horses bucking in paddocks next to ring, horses bucking on lunge line next to him, oncoming traffic of all kinds. He may be scared of blue tarps but I can put one on is back. He is a chicken but trusts me enough to touch everything with his nose. So lots of positive reinforcement is helpful but he still will spook at a leaf blowing!
I have used a “bombproof” schoolie who ran away from the tractor that passes the ring with the manure cart 6 times a day. Went from that half asleep practically trotting in place speed to gallop in one jump. Student stayed on as he just went forward fast with no bucking and pulled him into a circle to stop. Another schoolie went from rocking horse canter to gallop becasue horses played up in a nearby paddock.
My favorite was a red chestnut QH mare that was a school horse before getting bought to a perfect home. She was an angel. Packing a 7 year old around when BIG dutch WB dumped rider and went gallumping and bucking around ring. She stopped on the rail. I could not get to her becasue WB kept coming so close to her. Dumbblood lapped her twice then stopped on her tail. She did not flinch at all. Major carrots for her!
Sometime the quiet ones are just not as expressive as a hot TB. They are still tense and nervous but internalize it. Then they blow up and you can’t believe it. I have seen this with many horses.
At an end-of-the-summer stable schooling show, I was riding my usual dependable pony. The only times he ever freaked out under saddle was when it started thunderstorming in the middle of a lesson (he had hissy fits when you tried to clip his ears – as a result, he was quite fuzzy-eared). He was my favorite school pony and whenever we were allowed to choose who to ride, I chose him. For the schooling show, the weather was perfect, and we lined up after our first class. We won, and when the person handing out the construction paper ribbons gave me mine, Mr Dependable freaked out and bolted, bucking once for good measure. No one had ever seen him buck before! I dropped the ribbon at some point and he immediately calmed down. I had done other schooling shows with him where we were awarded the normal satin ribbons, and he didn’t think twice about having one on his bridle and later tried to eat it. Go figure.
We have a great old broodmare named Sue. Excellent bloodlines and fabulous producer, retired due to the horse economy. Anyway, she the type of mare you can ride in a halter/leadrope all the time. I can put my grandparents or young children on this mare she is so quiet. Her idea of being wild is to gait 4 steps then she goes to a walk as it is too much effort.
Sue and I were walking up the drive during construction on the property. A little wind blew up a tarp and the next thing I knew I was on my butt facing her. She freight trained me so fast I never saw it coming. The only thing hurt was my pride and I think she was a bit embarrased she spooked at all…
I’ve got a 12 yr old saddlebred that I can do just about any crazy thing on until we encounter cows or llamas. I was once riding through a park I’d ridden through many times before and the difference was there were several cows and a llama in the pasture across the road. Throw in a backpack and a spook and I somersaulted off her side. She took off up the road, roaring past the cows and the llama and on her way home. Only reason I caught her before she made it the two miles home was because of a nice gentleman and his wife who were on a motorcycle and stopped when they saw me running up the road.
LOL….I was returning home after a delightful dink through our 60 acres of woods. Water, rough ground, deer……nothing bothered my gelding.
On the way home, we were travelling east, sun was in the west…….and our shadow moved up on our left, across some shrubbery/bushes.
Great googly moogly!!! Cisco stopped dead in his tracks, then decided an instant airs-above-the-ground teleport to his right was in order. I stayed on, but it wasn’t pretty……LOL….
My arab is terrified of cows. I found out the hard way- I’d never encountered cows with her before, and one day not too long after relocating to GA I explored a new dirt road we hadn’t been down yet, and came out on top of a hill between two pastures- on one side was a pasture full of cows and young calves, about 50 or 60 total, and on the opposite side was the bull- an enormous, full-grown black angus bull that must have literally weighed a ton.
The calves caught sight of us and, being curious baby animals, can galloping up to us as a group- and the mother cows followed- so the entire herd came barrelling straight at us!
Meanwhile the bull across the street hears all the commotion and came lumbering up at us to see what all the fuss was about.
We were right samck dab between the 2, and my horse lost it. To this day I’ve never had another horse do what she did- it was like she went in every possible direction at once without actually going anywhere. She was shaking and rolling her eyes and absolutely petrifed, but thanks to the way the road curved there didn’t really appear to be a safe exit and she couldn’t figure out where to bolt to.
I managed to get her started towards the barn and she bolted… fortunately I saw it coming and was prepared, and once we got out of sight of the cows, I was able to stop her. Well, sorta, she jigged the entire way back (about 5 miles!) and from them on, fought with me any time I tried to turn her down that fork in the road!
Year earlier, right after I bought the arab (my first horse, I was 18), I was riding her along the side of the road near the boarding barn, which was usually no issue, as she ignores traffic. Well, this guy pushing a shopping cart full of cans and bottles he’d been picking up off the roadside came around the curve right ahead of us, and that shopping cart full of shiny, rattly stuff panicked her, and she bolted for home. She galloped as fast as she could go, and it was all I could do to stay on, I still can’t believe I didn’t fall off. It was about a half mile back down the road then up a long paved driveway, and the big main gait stayed shut- I really thought she might just jump that gate, but she slammed on brakes at the last possible moment and stopped.
A little while later, the guy came walking down the driveway, minus the cart, looking for me to make sure I was ok! nice guy, and later on we encountered him (and his cart) again and had a good despooking session, and then when he passed by on his daily walks, she ignored him just like the rest of the traffic.
Other than these 2 incidents, more than 10 years apart, that mare is as sane and calm and reliable as they come. I put children on her (with a helmet!) and don’t think twice about it.
Tell me your stories of the calm horse who totally lost his mind about something – what was it? What happened? Hopefully it will educate parents who still think certain horses are as safe as merry-go-round horses and no caution or common sense needs to be exercised around them.
Okay, I’ll share something that I posted in response on another’s blog yesterday because I think it illustrates your point that a horse can go off at ANY time – even a so-called “bomb-proof” one. The horse I was on in the following anecdote was an ancient trail riding horse, obviously, what anyone would consider “bomb-roof”.
…I went on a trail ride on the beach while vacationing on the coast. We were riding at the water’s edge when from out of nowhere this viscious bulldog came running towards us. Instinctively I positioned myself and my horse between the dog and the group (which contained 2 of my children and several complete novice riders.)
The dog jumped up and locked it’s jaws onto my foot, preventing me from pulling out of the stirrup. The horse reared and spun and then bolted. Of course I had to stay on or be drug by one foot as the bleeping dog would not let go!
I managed to quickly get the horse to halt, at which point he turned around enough to grab the dog by the ear and rip him from my foot! The dog, once loose, went for the horse’s neck! (I later learned that bulldogs wer bred to take down bulls – hence the name – and that they did/do so by going for the throat of the bull.
Clever, eh? ;()
My horse began rearing and stamping at the dog. I feared it would go after the other horses/riders so I dismounted (picture half cartwheel-like leap, landing on my side in the sand)very graceful! Then the dog jumped on me! As I’m sure you can understand, at this point I had a bit of bone to pick with this dog! I punched him square in the jaw with all of my might and sent him back a few feet. His owner finally came running up with his leash in hand (good place for it, right?) yelling to me about how it’s alright, he won’t hurt you, he’s a really nice dog, etc. I refrained from punching her, – just barely and told her that perhaps I could believe her if I weren’t laying in the sand gushing blood from my foot…
~DD
On an often-mentioned topic not realted to today’s post- HYPP.
I’ve never owned or been significantly involved with QH’s or QH-related breeds and so I’ve never really bothered to learn anything about HYPP- pretty much all I know is from this blog.
So I have a question. A few weeks ago I was riding with a friend, when his QH did something bizarre. She suddenly went all stiff in her hind legs- it was like the muscles all cramped up, her toes were pointed hard, and she was stomping spastically like there were ants on her. She almost fell over- but just as quickly as it happened it was over- by the time my friend got off to see what was wrong, the horse’s legs had gone back to normal.
Could that have been an HYPP attack?
I was riding an OTTB that had started western pleasure show training before he was given to me as a problem horse, but he had no experience trail riding, and my mother-in-law was on her 19 year old qh mare. The mare has rode in parades, mule trains, and was owned and showed by a cousin in 4H for years. She never spooked at anything in all the years she has been in the family. One day we were introducing the TB to trail riding when both horses stopped in their tracks at the end of a field. We could not see anything, but agreed that the horses knew something was there. The mare kept a faster than usual walk on the way back and kept checking her back. The TB was a little more nervous and did the race track prance (as I call it) the whole way home. when we got back to the barn, we looked at the field we just rode across and at the corner we just had problems, a bear walked out. Outside of little things like this, we’ve been lucky having calm horses under the normal circumstances we ride under.
We rescued a 6 year old TWH mare nearly a year ago that we started this year. We were under the impression she was not broke. And under a western saddle, she acted as though she was not, and knew nothing. She was nervous about everything, but did not act out on those grounds. I got the strange interest in using an english saddle on her one day. Oddly, she seemed very comfortable with it. Even odder, though she had only a few hours under saddle with us, she miraculously learned all of the cues at once. After questioning the previous owner, we found out she had been trained Hunt Seat for 2 years before the lady had bought her at an auction.
A note to keep in mind, is that the horses who are generally what would be considered ‘bombproof’, when confronting that one thing that brings out the prey response, often react much more strongly than the horses that tend to be a little jumpy. With one of my horses who was rather spooky, when things startled him we’d work through it and move on, no big deal.
My amazingly quiet guy, the gelding that I would choose to ride through a war (and some show ring classes have felt like one!) if something scares him which has happened maybe three times in 8 years of eventful ownership, it’s all over. It’s very, very rare for him to startle, but if he is frightened, it essentially has blown his mental breaker and he needs some down time before he’s ready to go on. It’s something to keep in mind that not only could your ‘bombproof’ horse ‘explode’, when/if it does you’re probably going to have some confidence rebuilding to do with that horse.
Famous footage of a French military horse losing his shit in Paris (he survived ok, but it’s a scary video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OW0hLk9e8E
I came off my riding school’s “bombproof” schoolmistress earlier this year after someone parked a giant lorry by the only door to the school, then let off the airbrakes. Poor mare thought she was trapped – the only exit led to a monster.
When i got my horse, he was scared of everything. Seriously, if he could have seen air, he would have been afraid of it. But with time and many slow introductions, he doesn’t give many things a second glance. But it’s always the things you wouldn’t expect, the things you never think of, that scare him (and most horses) to death. Such as a sideways mouting block. Or a child holding a big stick. Or a bouncy ball. Or even a new saddle pad (I can not tell you how many disasters i’ve seen from someone who assumed the horse wouldn’t see the difference between the old one and new one). And even just seeing things from different angles. If a horse has never seen a chair from the backside, they might not realize it’s a chair.
If there’s one thing i’ve learned from my horse, it’s that you can never be cocky. Because as soon as you get cocky, that horse is going to make a fool out of you. So expect the unexpected.
I had a very broke trailhorse who was terrified of any horse wearing a cooler. Blankets were no problem but bring out the cooler and she would climb the walls. I always wondered exactly what she thought she saw that was so scary, since many similar things, like sheets flapping or blanketed horses, didn’t seem to phase her.
Many of the bad accidents I hear about are because of people getting complacent with their “dead broke” horses.
I can’t help but think the kids are used to hide the fillies’ conformation faults. Crooked legs? Just stick the kids in between them. Tailset too low? Just hang the kids off her rump! (I do like her though, anyone want to transport her to Alaska?)
One time, I took my (then) 3 year old QH/TB to drill team practice. I just got a new saddle…well it had a back cinch. I forgot to clip the strap that attaches the two cinches together. Needless to say, the whole drill team and my farrier happened to witness the “rodeo” in the parking lot as the back cinch slips back and puts pressure on her flank. I rode that day with plenty of aches…and got teased for years..
In the same drill team, there were quite a few barrel racers. Every August the State Fair is held. Our drill team got asked to perform during half time at the rodeo, and us barrel racers entered the rodeo as well. EVERY horse spooked at the bull pens (city slickers), and then, during my run, my horse did a beautiful sliding stop on the way to the second barrel facing the bull pen. Nice. I walked her around the barrel and continued our pattern, but my pride hurt as people laughed at my blooper.
I’ve never posted before, but this is a topic near and dear to my heart, and I’m living it right now.
My horse, who is our barns steady-eddie, the horse we throw kids up on who have never been on a horse in their life, dumped me on August 31 causing an injury that almost made me have to amputate my left arm.
She and I were waiting for a friend of ours who had hopped off her horse to clear some brush that had falled onto the entry of one of our trails. I was holding my friend’s horse’s reins in my left hand while my horse (Tequila) happily chomped on grass. Without warning Tequila bolted, then began a bucking fit that would have made a bronc proud. At the same time the other horse pulled backward to get away from my crazed beast of a horse and dragged me backward.
I came down with my arm extended and it took all the force. My elbow hyper-extended and blew out the inside of my arm, severing nerves, veins, and tendons. My radius fractured at both the wrist and the elbow.
Luckily my friend and I both kept our heads and we were able to get me the nearly a mile to a road to meet the ambulance, but even with that they almost had to take my arm as I lost a pulse in it for over 2 hours.
Now, 3 surgeries later, with at least 1 more on the way I may be able to finally start PT this coming week and may be able to return to work in February.
And whenever anyone who knows my horse hears the story the first thing is always “Not Tequila!” We still don’t know what set her off, the only thing we can guess is that she was stung by yellowjackets since we had seen a few in the area before it occured.
People have still been using my horse for beginners since the accident, and she hasn’t put a foot out of line since. But I make sure everyone who gets up on her knows the story. I do make anyone who ride her put a helmet on, but its hardly a preventive for all kinds of accidents. Riding is a dangerous sport even if all precautions are met, there’s no reason to make it more dangerous than it already is.
I’ve seen several normally laid back horses freak out the first time they saw miniature horses. We have a boarder at our barn that has a little heard of minis and we learned quickly to make sure the other horses had seen them over the arena fence and gotten used to them before people tried to ride. One of the lesson horses, used on all the total beginners, went nuts the first time she saw the minis. Ears back, eyes huge, snorting, rearing and trying to run away and then the minis neighed at her and she really freaked. Fortunately, she wasn’t being ridden at the time.
But really, over a mini. Now she’s best friends with one, though.
Many kids don’t have the experience or instincts to react quickly, especially the smaller ones. It’s pathetic to use them as advertising pawns. A trustworthy horse will behave as such when you go to try it out, no need for circus antics.
I once took a mare I was leasing to drill. She was bombproof, and I’d leased her for a year- tarps, tunnels, kids, husbands, bridges, water- you name it. I could remove and put a jacket back on, even toss my coat onto the rail while jogging along working her. But at drill we were practicing carring flags. Without a worry, I had someone hand me a flag. She bolted, and I got the ride of my life. Fortunately I stayed on and a friend came alongside and retrieved the flag but it was a good lesson- never assume
” A few weeks ago I was riding with a friend, when his QH did something bizarre. She suddenly went all stiff in her hind legs- it was like the muscles all cramped up, her toes were pointed hard, and she was stomping spastically like there were ants on her. She almost fell over- but just as quickly as it happened it was over- by the time my friend got off to see what was wrong, the horse’s legs had gone back to normal.
Could that have been an HYPP attack? ”
I’ve never seen an HYPP episode, but I would definitely have it checked out. Here’s an excerpt from the UC Davis website:
“Attacks of HYPP can take various forms and commonly have been confused with other conditions. Because of the muscle tremors and weakness, HYPP often resembles exertional rhabdomyolysis (“tying-up” syndrome). “Tying-up” syndrome can be caused by many different circumstances, including exercising a horse beyond the capacity to which it has been trained, as well as nutritional deficiencies and metabolic diseases. A distinguishing feature of HYPP from “tying-up” syndrome is that horses usually appear normal following an attack of HYPP.”
http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/hypp.php
RE: HYPP
In addition, check out the AQHA website for HYPP info.
http://www.aqha.com/association/registration/hypp.html
AQHA’s HYPP FACT SHEET
• Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP) is an inherited disease that leads to uncontrolled muscle twitching or profound muscle weakness, and in severe cases, may lead to collapse and/or death.
• HYPP is listed as a genetic defect in AQHA’s rules, along with Parrot Mouth and Cryptorchid conditions.
• To date, HYPP only has been traced to descendants of IMPRESSIVE, #0767246.
freedomtreeless – your friend’s horse’s symptoms, from the way you described them, are pretty consistent with known symptoms of HYPP. I hope your friend has called the vet for testing.
OT: I clicked on the link of the French military horse bolting for home and found something else
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMsRBjI5rbY
Am I the only one horrified by seeing those horses run around those fenceposts and crap on the ground?
On the plus side, I think at least one is wearing a breakaway halter. Won’t help if your horse gouges himself on a fencepost, though.
I had an old (19 or so, guessing of course) Grey Grade mare, likely a QH cross that I could barely get to move past a trot. She was huge and I was only 5 or so. She always put up with me doing silly things, didn’t freak out. I spent hours cutting her 2 inch thick mane with scissors and she tolerated that. I’d lead her to a horse trailer or a fence to get on her (we only rode bareback then). She was a bit barn sour and would lift her head clear up high when I tried to put a halter on her, but mostly was pretty good all the time and very tolerant. One day a friend and I decided to go for a ride. We caught her, hopped on and kicked her to go as fast as possible. She quickly bucked us off. We hadn’t untracked her, warmed her up, or anything, and both had hopped on at the same time. We walked home and she met us at the gate, I am sure she was smiling at me.
its truly amazing ow fast things can happen with horses. over a year ago my daughter was riding her trusty unflappable 28yr old pony. she ALWAYS has a helmet on and on this day i had noticed her helmet needed an adjustment un buckled it for a second to adjust it with her on the pony right next to me with a lead rope on the pony.at that very moment another horse at the farm got loose and barreled right at the pony that pony was gone no stopping him my daughter fell at a full gallop and got hurt pretty bad. i was shocked 10 seconds that was all it took if the accident would have waited just 10 seconds she would have had her helmet on. she came out of it ok after a few days in the hospital. when she came too first thing she asked was if daddy shot her pony?. it really wasent the ponys fault this pony is mr dependable say whoa and he stops traffic safe and he drives it just shows how fast an accident can happen even with a 28yr old retired 4-h show pony.she still rides that pony and never showed any fear of him after the accident but i will no longer adjust anything on a horse or rider with someone on the animal.
one other time i can think of i was riding my trusty arab on the trail. it had just rained so the ground was slick i was by myself. out of no where my horse starts acting totally spastic spinning in circles everything. all of asudden he rears up and out of the brush comes a ridderless thoughbred!. i never saw him or herd him coming but my arab sure did!. i fell off and my arab took off after the other horse who was his pasture mate! they went back to the barn i had to walk back as did the other horses rider!
We have a horse at our barn, a 9 year-old gelding. He’s been everything from a lesson horse to a pasture buddy and has seen plenty in all of his life. The other day as we were leading him in he freaked out, pulled the lead away from the person leading him in, and stood shaking in the corner of the pasture. We looked over to see what had spooked him so bad.
A kitten.
More precisely, one of the barn kittens who accompanied us on chores everyday since it was able to walk. Freaked this horse out like no tomorrow. Just goes to show you that you never know what can set a prey animal off.
Laddie was far from bomb-proof, but trusted me. I worked with him a lot on spooking, and he got to trust me enough to just dance instead of running away.
One day, I had ridden him past three working cement trucks. He was on tiptoe the whole time, huge eyes, huge nostrils, but he still walked by. A few minutes later, when the trucks were out of earshot, he blew up at a clump of dirt on the road. 4 feet in the air and 8 feet sideways. I broke up laughing, figuring he had a spook saved up and needed to use it.
Nostalgically, Ruthie
As a teenager my girlfriends and I had wonderful (unsafe) times with our horses zipping around the Mojave Desert. We were usually bareback with 2-3 of us at time and maybe even upside down on occasion, we were silly, carefree and trusted our horses with our lives–we were frequently dumped and had to be creative to get back on. I feel a little hypocritical not allowing my daughter to do the same things but I just want to keep her in one piece. How much freedom to be silly do you folks allow your kids?
Yeah. When I was riding at a local stable when I was about 8 I was riding on a usually ploddy, slow Fjord horse named Johan. One day I was riding him and something spooked him, he bolted and non supringsly I fell off and ended up with a sprained wrist. Which I didn’t noticed I’d sustained until several hours after I fell.
My 23 year old QH gelding, Bucky could be one those horses with kids hanging all over him but…..you never know. I’ve owned this horse for 17 years so it’s fairly safe to say that I KNOW him very well. This is a horse that I don’t really even like to ride because he is sooooo slooooow! My dog can run around his feet and under his belly and he barely blinks. One day I was getting ready to ride him and as is usual in Georgia part of getting ready to ride is a good spray down with bug spray. This horse has been sprayed with bug spray or show sheen or SOMETHING nearly every single time I’ve groomed him but THIS time he lost it. He jerked back on his lead and then went into panic mode. Luckily I always tie with a quick release and I was able to get him loose and calmed down before he damaged himself, me, or the barn. Same horse, different day….I was riding him a couple of weeks ago, we weren’t going far since it was kinda late in the day but as soon as I turned around to come home he started in with his jigging, then completely unexpectedly he snorted and reared straight up! I had absolutely no warning as there was nothing the least bit “spook worthy” out there but nonetheless I found myself on the ground. You just never know. I still don’t know what caused him to rear….I suspect it may have been the saddle since I was trying out a new one but who knows?
My old 20 something gelding, schoolmaster and teacher to countless kids before I purchased him. He’d been around the block so many times that I thought NOTHING could phase him. Until we were riding along an unfamiliar trail at a leisurely walk, when all of a sudden a dumped Killer Refrigerator loomed up from around a bend. I guess the stark whiteness of it against the mossy trees was frightening because he snorted like a lion, spun on his haunches and tried to bolt. At the same time, we ran into a spider web and I glimpsed a GIANT spider become dislodged and fall onto my shoulder. As I was screaming and flailing and trying to find the spider, I was also trying to rein in my poor gelding who was even more shocked by my antics on his back.
..I never did find the spider. *sob* And that was the worst part.Uuugh.
This is not a story of a blow-up, but a relevant situation that made me just livid.
I taught horseback at summer camp for three summers. My third summer i was in charge of the barn. One of the horses we got that year was a very solid three-year-old filly – an astonishingly perfect beginner horse. We rarely put advanced riders on her because she was young and we didn’t want to push her.
At the very tail end of the summer, i caught some sort of virus and was down for the count. The camp had these award ceremonies at the end of the summer in which campers who got the advanced award, the Gold Bandanna, made these big dramatic entrances, as noisy and ostentatious as possible. Unknown to me, one girl asked my second-in-command if she could ride in on a horse for hers. Without consulting me, he agreed, and chose that “bombproof” three-year-old as the horse to be used. So here’s this poor little filly, being taken into the camp among the firecrackers, police cars/fire trucks with lights and sirens flashing, and general hubbub of camp.
When i found out later, i was absolutely FURIOUS. Very fortunately, they went through without incident. He shouldn’t have agreed, but at least he had the sense to choose the most solid horse in the barn for it. It turned out that not only had he not consulted me, but he had gone to my supervisor, a complete non-horseperson, and given HIM the impression that he had my permission.
He was not happy when he got his staff evaluation from me.
My horse has done many parades. Bands, Balloons, kids, none of that fazes her. We were invited to participate in a St Patrick’s Day parade, but had to park the trailers at the end of the parade route. So one of the parade officials led all the horse groups to the beginning of the parade. Unfortunately he led us up the parade route, and the parade had started! We were walking along behind a chuckwagon pulled by mules with an outrider, when we met a group of bagpipers in kilts. Just as we turned off the road, they started playing, drums, pipes, probably about 25 of them. My horse snorted, but held steady, but the mule team went straight up in the air and the outrider backed into us. My horse then decided the band must be evil and about to get her and reared, crouching a bit at the same time (about to launch, I believe) But when she crouched, she sat down on some kids in the road, so she immediately moved forward. We got all the horses off the parade route, and went to our spot, but during the whole parade, whenever my horse saw a guy in a kilt, whether or not they had drums or pipes, she never took her eyes off them. Since they were walking back to the start in the crowd, we did the parade sideways, with her snorting and dancing, never taking her eyes off those guys..I guess she though they were torturing cats or something.
By wonderful TB/QH who I broke at 4 was fabulous before his ringbone set in. Now, he’s a pasture pet. He aced the mounted police testing — walked over the bridge, through the black plastic, stood on a dummy on top of the bridge (we were getting board). He had been there, done that.
However, he would spook at those small flags people use to mark spot in their yard. Even one of them. Scared to death of them. Bicycle, no problem, dogs, motorcycles, balloons, mailboxes, mattresses, tarps, etc., fine — it’s the small pink flag that’s going to eat you.
The only other thing he completely freaked out at was in the warm-up ring of a local show. It was a Fjord. He went nuts when he saw that horse — cleared the ring. He had lamas as neighors, my dog rode him with me, but that Fjord was just too much.
I always said that given the right circumstances a horse will always behave like a horse. We can teach them to accept many things; but they are a horse, and when spooked become a VERY LARGE animal out of control. My mare usually had a great inquisitive mind; donkeys pulling carts, plastic bags blowing against her legs, fire exstiquishers knocked off the barn wall during a vet clinic which set it off. Amazing no one was hurt. She would spook in place at least but those split seconds when her horsey brain took over could have been disaster if I couldn’t get her to focus on someone she could trust. But Yikes…it comes out of NOWHERE sometimes.
When she was in her 20′s I took her to a cutting trainer, just for fun, who had a fake cow on a line they would work back and forth. She wouldn’t even get close to it. Real cow, no problem. At her last home they had one of those picture opportunities where you put your face in the opening and the front was a cowboy/cowgirl couple. Life size, nice artwork. Frigging freaked her out EVERY time we went by even after months of “go up to sniff..stand by with cookies…” I knew she was most likely in the end of her years and just relaxed to enjoy her snorty challenge to the Monster. I would praise her for standing up to it.
But I will confess to endangering children many years ago when I had one playing in arena and another on top of my mare when for no apperent reason she reared on loose rein. I had turned my back for a second. Scared the living daylights out of me when I realized I had jepordized (sp?) both of the kids. Plus, it scared the rider. I would have been too far away to have stopped a wreck. We were lucky my mare reared in place and stayed there till I flew to her side. Anyone who knew her would have said she was “Bombproof”. A horse is a horse, of course, of course. Even MR Ed said so.
As kids we climbed all over the horses and did CRAZY stuff….but there wasn’t any ADULT supervision. Much less pic’s adults post for a sale.
My left knee has been the recipient of several horse kicks over the years, twice by my own when she kicked out of pain, all of them came in a split second. As an adult I learned to rate attitude better, many children just want to play.
My sister’s cob, while being very stupid about traffic, is brilliantin every other way – we can quite literaly put anyone on him. He was the first horse I rode after a bad accident and was on him before I was off crutches (at a walk round a school) and he has had a rider have a seizure on his back before now – he stood stock still the whole time. A friend was going to do some pony club games with him and so was riding the day before – he tripped and then put the most enormous buck in and sent my friend flying. He’s never done anything like that before or since and I would have sworn he would never do anything like that, but he is a horse!
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091113/bc_horse_hanging_091113/20091113/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
I sorry guys….I am stunned and speechless……….and saddened and tearful
Carrie Giannandrea
Dances with Horses
Formula One Farms
Well I once rode at an exceptional farm that had and old horse named Blue. HUGE QH gelding, but calmer than any horse i’d ever met. A girl was riding him in a storm when lightning struck a tree not five feet from them. She screamed her head off and Blue’s skin twitched…that was all. AMAZING how calm he was. Extremely tolerant too as he was a lesson horse. Little kids bounced around and climbed all over him and he loved them! But one day there was a new rider, maybe 25-ish, claimed to be the best Dressage rider in the state. She got on old Blue, and she kicked him hard to walk. Blue is really responsive, and you need only squeeze or cluck, so Blue just turned his head and looked at her. She got MAD and yelled and kicked again. He started walking, but even though he had listened she took out her crop and smacked him. Why she did this I have no idea, but Blue wouldn’t have any of it. Bucked her off and walked to where the other horses were standing like nothing had happened.
He had never bucked anyone before that, and he never did after. You never can tell!
Off topic but Fugly if you need something easy for the blog go check out the sale list for the AQHA World Show Auction. There are many, many bred mares on there that are HYPP N/H. Some that are not only N/H thmselves but bred to N/H stallions. When will breeders stop this crap.
My mare is extremely calm and sensible. One day I was riding down a popular trail system bareback which I do regularly. She spooked and veered really bad and I of course was totally un-prepared so I fell off and seriously injured my ankle (this was over a year ago and I am still having problems with it, ligament injury). You know was she spooked at? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. She THOUGHT she saw something but there was was nothing there. Ughhhhh lol.
This is my first post, although I’ve been a fan of this site for a LONG time! I have a 7 year old Quarterhorse gelding who is so laid back that if this were prehistoric times he would have been eaten AGES ago. Seriously, he is afraid of nothing and it seems to have rarely, if ever, entered his mind that there are things out there that could seriously harm him! That is, until the day that we came back from a trail ride to find a neighbor’s mini had escaped and was loose in my front yard. My boy took one look at that mini and came seriously unglued! All he wanted was to get far, far away! It was like he was thinking, “I don’t know what happened to that horse, but if it gets near me I might shrink too!”
My friend has a saintly Morgan mare (19 years old) that I ride for her about 4-5 days a week, since she can only get to the barn 2 days a week.
This mare is not afraid of ANYTHING. Except llamas. Llamas are, apparently, the work of the Devil.
We found this out when I was riding her around the big, wooded pasture at my last barn with my trainer and went past the fence bordering the neighbor’s property. Their pet llama merely lifted it’s head to see what we were doing, and Chanel Flipped. The. F***. Out. She hightailed it back to the barn at a frantic bolt. I finally got her under control before she leapt into the barn aisleway (thank God) and then we spent the next hour or so slowly circling her closer and closer to the Demon Llama, and then getting her to do some shoulder-in and such past the llama pasture to make her think about something else. She sort of tolerated it but would always prance past that one spot. The llama lost interest in us long before Chanel got over how scary it was.
To this day, she is still not a fan, although I am pretty sure that she will walk past a demon-Llama if I made her. I just prefer to go the long way around, though.
I like to think that my 7 year old paint gelding is the type to let me do anything with him, and to a great extent I can. We cross bridges, we pull tarps, we ford rivers and we chase after cows. Parades? No big deal. Rodeos? Fun! But I HAVE encountered recently a very terrifying beast that sends my normally level-headed horse sky-high in horror: kids on trampolines.
I have small nephew who has one of those giant netted trampolines at my parent’s property where I keep my horse. The trampoline itself isn’t scary… it can be grazed around, nibbled on, rubbed on (it makes a great scratching post for those hard to reach spots!) but the second kids get on that thing and start bouncing around, it becomes a monster to be reckoned with.
Personally I find it hilarious… it’s something we’re currently working on, and although he’s improving and will now approach it (albeit wide-eyed and snorting), but it was still surprising to me that something so apparently mundane would send my boy crazy in fear. Just goes to show there’s no such thing as bomb-proof and that eventually, your horse will find SOMETHING to be terrified of.
solocycle that is so funny about the spider! i can remember once i had my arab in cross ties and i grabbed his cookie jar to give him a cookie. i was standing right next to him and noticed a hole in the cookie jar. i looked into the hole and saw a mouse staring back at me when all of a sudden that mouse leaped from the jar and landed right on my neck i took off screaming jumping and flailing around like an idiot! my horse stood there and looked at me like i was crazy!.
i also have found memories of how terrified he used to be of the arena back door! i walked him to the door to get him to sniff it then he started snorting his eyes as big as saucers when i looked at the door one of the barn cats was trying to get in and was reaching its paw under the door with claws extended!
I have an 8 year old AQHA mare who is a QH in every sense of the breed. She is extremely well broke and the most laidback and sweet mare you will ever meet…and I would NEVER hang on her like those kids are on that filly! She is a horse afterall…
A point that seems to have been missed is that this filly is TWO years old.
Even if you were to claim an animal is bombproof, it can’t be at two years old, that’s like saying a four year old child knows everything!!
My AQHA mare Vandy was awesome, and nearly bombproof.
Any horse pulling a wheeled conveyance of ANY KIND, however, completely freaked her out. And of course the cart ponies were ALWAYS after Hunter Under Saddle at State Fair!
The year we did best (3rd I think) the judge complimented her: “brilliant mover, GREAT alert expression” HA!
I won a big high-point trophy one show. Got all excited, waved it around in triumph, sun caught the shiny, and ol’ Vandy stuck her tail in the ground, her nose in the air, and did about a 270-degree turn.
I landed in the dirt, right on top of the trophy. Had a gorgeous grapefruit-sized target bruise on my ass for 2 months.
Gotta love hubris.
How about one that should have but didn’t?
I had a thirty-something Saddlebred (now gone to his final reward) who had done everything from gaited to parades to being “on the road” (any SBR readers knows what that means) to jumping to kids costume classes to lessons to therapy work. We were having a church kids campout on the farm. Late that afternoon, one of the superidiot parents was creating a monster wood/brush pile in the firepit for the upcoming weenie roast. This project included the liberal use of a popular accelerant. I was leading the gelding in from pasture and the superidiot was watching me lead the gelding to the barn from his pasture. When I was about 6 paces from the fire he tossed a match on the accelerant-wetted pile. ON PURPOSE.
The resultant implosion and explosion literally ripped the oxygen right out of my lungs and I started to pass out gasping like the worst asthma attack ever. But my wonderful old gelding froze and stood like a rock. He did not bolt. He did not melt down. He did not move a muscle until I was able to breathe again. Then HE calmly walked ME to the barn.
There were no apologies forthcoming from the superidiot nor even an acknowledgment that he could easily have caused the death of both the horse and me.
The camp went on – for one evening. I quit that church the next morning!
Cattypex – that is a GREAT story!
As for old Blue, he was just NOT going to put up with that crap…I would have loved to have seen him put that girl in the dirt!
OT but if anybody needs a VERY good laugh today (I warn you now – you WILL LOL in your office!)
http://www.antiduckface.com
gotta give them an iota of credit for encouraging breaking at 3 in the ad. i have kids and grandkids and i can’t imagine ever letting them hang out between a horses’ legs. being in that position would bring swift action, but not the camera kind.
my own riding horse spooks at everything, even at a butterfly once. i am sure it was a rare carnivorous, killer butterfly though. my hubs first horse was an ancient morgan gelding, he spooked only once that i know of. dear hub was on little trail in the wooded area near our house and 2 bobcats popped out of the brush and ran across the trail in front of them. i am not sure who was more frightened, the horse or the former city-dwelling hub! kudos to him for staying on, i heard it was quite a ride and the old gelding was still eye rolling and sweating when they came in. the horse has since passed away but will live on for us as the bombproof fellow who freaked just once. darn it, it’s been 3 years and i am still tearing up as i write this.
I have written about Annie, my wonderful babysitter mare many times. She had been a ranch horse, trail horse, 4-H project, lesson horse, you name it.
She was in her mid-twenties and I had owned her for 15 years the first time I saw her around a horse drawn carriage. She was tied outside of the trailer when a team of Belgians went by. She exploded. Busted the trailer tie and took off….after the wagon.
It was crazy.
SoloCycle said: “At the same time, we ran into a spider web and I glimpsed a GIANT spider become dislodged and fall onto my shoulder. As I was screaming and flailing and trying to find the spider, I was also trying to rein in my poor gelding who was even more shocked by my antics on his back.
..I never did find the spider. *sob* And that was the worst part.Uuugh.”
OMG, I’m sorry, I laughed out loud at this. We get these huge spiders here in Georgia, we call them Banana Spiders and they will spin a web across the trails in the woods. A friend and I went riding on some trails that hadn’t been used in a few weeks and were warned to take a crop or something to knock the spider webs down. Well we didn’t and I nearly did a back flip off my horses rump trying to avoid one of those suckers….must have been as big as my hand!!! I can look at a spider all day long but don’t ever let one crawl on me! I will snatch myself bald if I think there is one on my head.
Was a a local show last weekend with a been there, done that show pony. This guy is so cool that when he goes in the ring, he knows he’s showing and struts his stuff. At the farm, when all the others are running wild over some noise – he is calmly looking at them with his WTF look. So, at the show – we school the night before the show and in the ring is a screaming banshee of a trainer yelling at a little kid on a horse from the center of the ring while said kid is on the rail (that is a whole nother topic of conversation!). I am just flatting the pony around, dodging kids, etc., and pony is being a total gent and in the course of our travels we get near the screamer – pony politely informs me in no uncertain terms that either I take him away from her, or he will do it for me. I got the hint.
The next day, we are chilling between classes and I decide we will stand in the shade, which is near the ring, since I am in long sleeves, wool jacket, helmet, etc. Luckily my trainer was there as well because the been there done that pony commenced to spin, back, maybe buck a little. Why – we don’t know, but he broke his bridle in the process. Back to the barn for a replacement, I get back on and it’s like it never happened.
Pony has never done that with me – ever. Did I have visions of my 54 yo butt landing on concrete – you betcha.
Here’s another LOL one (if you haven’t seen it already):
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
A few years ago my old guy and I met up with some cattle. They shocked the hell out him, especially when they moved! I did not come off but he turned around and ran in the other direction. Thankfully it isn’t that hard to get him to stop. Now I have to say that to my knowledge he had never seen a cow before, but at one point there was an ostrich farm down the street from us and he LOVED to go check them out. I personally would think that ostriches are more frightening than cattle but what do I know?
@Drillrider – that is SO hilarious! Thanks forthat!
~~DD
funniest video on youtube, and relevant to todays post! title is “horse oops!!”
I spent the night at an empty fairgrounds on my way to a big show several states away. Since it was hot, I tied my horse to the trailer for the night and slept on the ground because it was too hot in the trailer. In the middle of the night, a heavy fog rolled in. Then, my horse started to freak and blow thru his nose and try to pull away from the trailer. I could see truck headlights in the dark and black things walking thru the fog towards us. Turned out that there was going to be a Black Angus cattle show at the grounds on the following day and people were starting to arrive the night before. They were unloading the black cows in the dark and using their headlights to light the way to the cattle barns. I got up in my pajamas and bare feet and put my horse in the trailer. He never made a peep. I think he thought he was hiding.
Arrived at another fairgrounds years ago in the middle of the night, in a heavy fog. Nearly walked right into an elephant that was chained in an open field. There had been a circus there the night before and they were leaving in the morning. Scared the bejebbers out of us!
Unsheared llamas did it for my 27 year old Arab who thought he’d seen it all. He was headed for Utah before I got him stopped. I got off and let him yo-yo around me for a while but he never did get a grip. I walked him halfway home before I got on again.
They WERE pretty weird looking. Their fur hung nearly to the ground and they resembled large smelly moving sofas.
Things that I thought would freak my horse, but didn’t:
- The 5 Thunderbird jets, in formation, flying low over his corral during an airshow. Ignored.
- The goat with full curved back horns that stood on its hind legs and butted him in the chest. Ignored. As far as I know he’d never seen a goat before, much less up close and personal. When this happened I was on him and just relaxing between dressage tests at a show.
- The huge fire fighting air tanker that took off just as we rode by. Thundering 50 feet overhead… ignored.
- Wild bear in the woods, once it came out of the bushes so he could see it, no big deal.
- 3 coyotes trotting through his paddock. Ignored.
Oh, where do I start.
First, I have met precisely one horse I would consider bombproof. He was a Highland Pony gelding named ‘Buster’. Trail ride. I was riding Cobweb, *definitely* considered an old faithful, and up to that point I would have said Cobweb spooking was unimaginable…
…when a group of, for want of a better term, juvenile delinquents decided it would be funny to, no kidding, throw firecrackers at us. Cobweb leapt six feet in the air, eyes bulging, but amazingly didn’t run.
Buster…flicked an ear, stood like a rock, and developed this ‘and?’ expression on his face. It was unbelievable. (And probably had something to do with the fact that deer stalkers used to literally use Highland ponies as mobile hides and shoot guns that were propped up on their withers).
Wasps, bees and yellowjackets will freak *any* horse, no matter how quiet. Can you blame them…I don’t want to get stung either!
About the *funniest* spook I encountered. The barn I ride at has a door from the arena to the outside in one end of the arena, a big one. It’s generally kept closed, but occasionally opened and a gate put across it in summer to allow more air into the indoor and the barn itself. It has a row of windows at about four feet off the ground. For many, many years you could barely tell those windows were there, they were so grimy. Then a new owner took over.
She cleaned the windows.
Every damn horse in that barn spooked at the clean windows…or more precisely their *reflection* in said clean windows.
The funniest one though was Lucy, who is a chestnut mare. I rode her past at a walk in both directions. She kinda looked askance, then sort of shrugged and carried on. So, I thought I was safe.
Then halfway through the ride somebody came up behind us on pure white Tonka Toy. She saw HIS reflection in the window, went ‘Aieeee! Ghost Horse!’ and damn near dumped me in the dirt. (Even at the time it was funny…her own reflection, no sweat. Tonka’s…aiee!)
I have a question. How is that girl in the second picture even in that position? Was it just a lucky shot or did they gorilla glue her to the horse?
On to my personal bombproof horse freakout moment! One time I was walking my horse from the back pasture to the front pasture, and my dog, who apparently figured out how to use the cat door, came running over. My horse (who is fine with fireworks, sheep, llamas, semis, ANYTHING) who has been known to play fetch with my dog, didn’t see her coming until she was underfoot. Well, my horse yanked on the leadrope and bolted about two feet (enough to knock me on my a**). I landed right in front of her while she was still moving, and she did some pretty incredible gymnastics to avoid stepping on me. She jumped about 3 feet up with her head stuck between her legs, and came down spread eagle with me miraculously in between her right feet and her left feet and her nose inches from my face. She looked so incredulous, it was hysterical. She never moved a muscle until I was right side up, and then she had the audacity to look impressed with herself.
I really hate to do this guys so I apologize in advance, but I just came across my first sickening local Craigslist ad and, not knowing what else to do, here it is:
sale-pkmf2-1463941879@craigslist.org
Located in the lovely rolling hills of VA, this 16mo colt, who is apparently broke to ride already, desperately needs upgrading! Eesh, those pasterns….
There should be a blog/website dedicated solely to postings of desperate need-to-be-upgradeds since there appears to be an abundance of them. Animals of all kinds, too. Anyone know of a site like this? I’ll do it if none exists.
A very good friend of mine had a 19 year old daughter. She was at the race track on one of the lead pony horses (not a race horse). This horse had a very calm, quiet, “bombproof” nature, as most lead pony’s should as it is their job to keep the race horse calm until they get to the gates. The daughter was on her way out to the track from the barn. No one knows what set the horse off, but the horse reared and flipped over, pinning her under the horse and shattering her skull. Despite having an medical staff and an ambulance on site and a hospital less than 5 minutes away, there was nothing they could do to save her and she was pulled off of life support that night.
This was a 19 year old who had been riding her whole life on a horse that NEVER did anything like that before. This girl used to gallop race horses, so its not like she never had to deal with unruly horses before. This girl was an amazing rider. It would be impossible for a young child to have near the amount of experience this girl had, and thus far less likely to save themselves in a situation like that.
I used to lease a 10 year old QH that was usually pretty good. He never did anything to be mean. When we went on our normal road rides to get to the wooded area we rode in one of the little next door neightbor girls always ran out to him and gave our horses a carrot and a kiss. It seemed like everytime she would catch us, it seemed like she would wait and watch for us. One day she was on her rollarblades. I saw her go to the garage fridge and pull out the carrots. The horses saw her turn around outside of the garage and and start down the drive way to reach us. She wasn’t coming any faster then normal she was just coasting down the driveway toward us. I don’t know if it was the fact that her legs weren’t moving or the sound of the blades but he decided to get all crazy and do some circles and then run into the ditch on the other side.
I wouldn’t really ever consider horses completely broke and bomb-broof because the first time you state that, your going to end you butt in the sand!
About a week after we got our gelding, I was leading him around the pasture with my dad aboard. Dad and I were talking when all of a sudden a shrew jumped out of the grass, ran up Tucker’s leg to about his knee and then jumped off and disappeared. Tucker didn’t even bat an eye. Looked at it, but kept moving. I was more scared than Tucker was (I was afraid because I didn’t know how he’d react and with Dad aboard, I was worried). We burn leaves, trash, and brush feet outside of the pasture and neither horse bats an eye. They actually come over closer to try to get some petting from us. We run tractors, mulchers, lawn mowers, and other load potentially scary items by them, no reaction.
A few weeks ago, we were working on knocking down a large tree by their pasture when we discovered what scares them. Branches falling down. A big branch fell and they both took off to the other side of the pasture. I can understand them being scared of it but after all they get exposed to it’s laughable. After seeing their reaction, we moved them to the riding pen when it came time to knock the whole tree down.
i was riding alone in our indoor arena with my mare who is often referred to as one of the calmest horse in our stable when it suddenly (and i mean really suddenly) started to rain hale outside. my mare spooked so badly that she bolted out of the arena, into the corridor that leads to the stable and punched her shoulder solidly into the stable door. apparently she was terrified enough not to remember one should stop before a solid object. last time i saw her so scared was when she met a hang glider up close (she was 3 at the time).
she had some minor gashes on her side and one of my boots was ruined, but otherwise we were ok. could have been a lot worse.
Rode my son’s horse to the pasture by the bus stop to pick him up. She’s a nice little 14hh mare. Riding bareback. She was grazing when the bus pulled up. Trucks and jake brakes – all the noise that she is normally used to as she is pastured here. I was sitting on her waiting, just soaking up the sun. My son comes up to the fence & tosses his backpack over the fence before climbing thru. She jumped like she had been shot. No velcro butt here. I fell off in front of God and a school bus full of kids.
When I was teaching lessons, we had this awesome QH pony that could do the Children/Adult jumpers in the 3′ ring, change into kiddo tack and do the W/T crossrails or even leadline. He was that freakin’ awesome and just a plain old blast to ride. He knew pretty much everything, but you had to ask correctly or all you would get is a pokey, ity-bity trot out of him. We also had a little Arab mare that was either great or horrible, and I did not trust outside the ring for that reason.
Well, at the end of the summer a two 12 y/o girls begged to ride out and I finally consented. We took saintly QH pony and another pony and left the arab mare behind. My thought was, we are going to walk and maybe just trot on a big circle. So we get to the field and I remember to close the gate behind me (thank you Pony Club for pounding that lesson in my brain). The girls head off at a walk to a nice flat spot and I have them make a big (maybe 40m ish) circle. Well, Mr. Perfect starts to gig. I tell girl to make a very small circle and a small pulley rein up on the inside. No dice. Then he tries a canter step. Then he realizes that he got said girl’s goat and tries to hightail it back to the barn, only to find the gate shut. In the mean time I am yelling at the top of my lungs for girl to pulley rein hard, or circle hard, something… hell, ANYTHING. She finally comprehends and gets naughty runaway pony (who is now trying to run back and forth to the closed gate in a temper fit) on a circle. We get back to a control canter, then trot, almost…. Nope, he’s gotta add a buck in there too. Sit up, sit up, damn the third one she’s off. So close. Girl was fine, and Naughty Pony went right back to placid self when I got on him.
They always humble us, don’t they. The moral of today’s story is, the pony may be almost perfect, but he’s still a horse. Be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.
off topic but a story that needs to be spread around and these asshats outed to the world…
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Brentwood+residents+charged+after+horse+starved+hanged+death/2220397/story.html
OMG!! I am laughing my ass off looking at the “people of Walmart” and the “anti duck face” photos!! I think these two sites fit in perfect with this blog. After all, how many times have you heard it said……. You just can’t make this shit up! Freaking hilarious!!
Mybaymoare……..priceless! This is the kind of thing that would happen to me!! Thanks for sharing!
One day I left my non horsie hubby watching the kiddo who was 6 at the time while I ran a few errands. She asked daddy if she could brush ‘her’ horse. So daddy of course, says sure why not (he thinks horses are big dogs) So the 6 yr old goes and catches my old retired 25 yr old as bombproof as they come mare she’s been taking lessons on and daddy ties her up. To the frost free hydrant….with a square knot. Then he plops the unhelmeted kid on the horse and hands her a brush. The proceeds to take the loader and start loading scrap metal in a trailer. Well needless to say the frost free hydrant didn’t survive the massive set back but some how the kiddo managed to stay on as the mare flew backwards, came to her senses and stopped dead still. Hubby spent the next day digging up and replacing said hydrant and that night finding out if the couch was comfy for that lil lack of brainpower moment.
I was riding my 24yr old Appy along a trail by the river in my backyard. Rode it maybe 5 or 6 HUNDRED times, plodding along……until a crane (one of those huge ass birds that stand in water fishing) flew out from it’s perch in a tree to the left of us.
My guy who is practically half asleep is now completely out of his mind with terror that the world is crashing down on him bolts about 200 feet down the trail until he stops and lets out one giant snort. We could never ride past that spot without a couple of good looks around and snorting….
Thanks Tucker and Birdie you reminded me of another story of a wreck that didn’t happen. This happened when my “crazy A-rab” was around 7 years old.
The old barn where I boarded had several stout wood poles from the floor to the roof, and you could tie to them. So my horse is tied there while I’m getting his tack. This barn is a place where people from town dump kittens “because they’ll be fine; they can hunt mice.” *eyeroll* At the time there was an awesome old black ex-tom-cat who sort of adopted the kittens. Part of his cat mentoring program was to catch live mice and bring them in for the kittens to practice on. So here he comes with a mouse which he drops in the middle of the barn, and here come the kittens. The mouse freaks and streaks over to my horse where it climbs his rear leg. The kittens follow. One is hanging halfway up his tail. My horse swings his head around, ears pinned, and lifts his leg as high as his belly. The mouse leaps for it and runs for the great outdoors, kittens follow. Train wreck averted. I finally started breathing again. He couldn’t have said more plainly, “Could you kids take it outside!!”
My former horse still confuses me to this day. We got him, emaciated, and began the process of recuperating him. He had been a gentle enough horse to begin with, until I was riding him in the arena while I was taking my lesson. For some reason, the stable had an electric wire in the arena towards the outside. My horse jumped when he went passed it; something I could handle…until the saddle slipped sideways and I had to hold on. That’s not his fault, obviously. I was twelve at the time and still learning. I held on as long as I could and, stupidly, screamed when my gripped slipped. I don’t know how it happened but I remember landing on the ground inches from his hooves with him looking down at me like ‘What the crud are you doing down there?’ Shaken, I grabbed his reins and held him while my trainer fixed his saddle, then told me to walk him around the arena again. Once again, he spooked by the wire and they finally turned it off after three other horses came in and spooked by it. So, we kept walking and came past the bales of hay sitting in the arena. Yes, the arena had hay sitting in the arena with nothing to block it off from the horses and a tractor on the other side of the arena. When I talked to my trainer about it later, she said that the way the dust comes off the hay sometimes makes horses freak out. Well, whatever he saw caused him to bolt away from me and gallop around the arena like he was possessed. THEN he decided that he wanted to roll with the saddle on! When he stood up, the reins were wrapped around his left front leg. Thankfully, my trainer managed to calm him down enough to unwrap the reins from him. I don’t know what was going on with him that day but that was why we decided to sell him. Whether it was a smart or stupid idea, I’ll never know…
My gelding took on the chaos of the upperville horse show-walked down the shared walkway with ATV’s, other horses, people, dogs, lined with vendors. Never blinked. Until one of the vendors dropped change into the cash register. THAT made him jump.
I had a horse that I absolutely loved. All his gaits…smooth as buttah. Good brakes. His name was Bandit, he was an old-school appy, and he damn near killed me.
3 broken ribs, a punctured lung, a concussion, a severely sprained wrist and a torn ACL. 5 days in the hospital, a $25,000 bill.
Bandit was a old-school looking appy….short, maybe 15.2, wispy mane and tail.
He was a livery horse that I rode 2 or 3 times a week. The trails around here have speed limits…walk here, trot here, canter here.
We rode every week at least once, so DH and I went for a Valentine’s day ride in 1999.
So, we’re heading back to the barn, and we hit the canter stretch. Bandit tries to take up a run-away type thing, to get back to the barn. I try to hold him back, doing correction circles, until I finally had his head almost by my ankles. He bucked once, I stayed on. He bucked again..I went up into the air, and he ran out from under me(and hightailed it back to the barn), and I hit the frozen crushed limestone, hard, hence the damage.
10 years later, I’m still trying to sort out my feelings about horses. Don’t know what I could have done differently. I don’t ride anymore, ‘cuz I don’t trust them, but I’d really love to trust them, and ride again.
Just as an afterthought…after I came off Bandit I was unconcious for a bit. It was the best nap I have ever had….blue sky, warm, comfortable, and total peace. I’m not afraid to die anymore. I could have stayed there forever, but then I had the trail guide screaming in my face…..and I woke up.
Oh this is a ripe post for me, as I’m still wearing the casts and the chipped teeth, and sporting a pretty new scar on my lip. Bought this mare as an unstarted 3yo, she’s 13 this year, over 700 CTR and endurance miles along with countless training rides. She does spook on occasion but she’s rideable through them. Worst spooks till recently were an old coop jump and a white plastic chair left in the woods.
This ride, a wild turkey decided to fly off its roost in the thick woods to our right just as her hip passed`it. Convinced that a helicopter was about to land on her ass, she boogered hard to the left smack dab in to high tensile electric cattle fencing. She leaped away, launched me, and as I saw the rocks rising to greet me, I thought “ooooh, this isn’t good.” 10 years, 2 falls……helmet saved my 45 yo head! I’m starting back with lessons to find my velcro butt and a friend sent me some Saddle-tite!!!
No horse is bomb proof.
I’ve had my little mare since she was 2; now she’s 7… and she’s been around the block more than a few times with me.
Last winter, I got shingles (first thought it was a horrendous fibromyalgia flare up) and got to the doc just in the nick of time for an antiviral to do any good at all. Three ‘horse pills’ of acyclovir later, I decided to take a little ride around the block on my mare. She was quite calm that afternoon — VERY calm, nothing to worry about.
Till she saw a white chair floating across a yard, about a tenth of a mile out from our driveway. I pointed out the small child carrying the broken chair, and she settled right down. “Mom” knew what The Floating Thing was, and didn’t seem worried.. so… okay, no problem.
We made it a few steps, and the head went up, the legs all locked… and snortiness came forth. LO! BEHOLD! There was a large dark garbage can MOVING ALL BY ITESELF! Maybe it was R2D2s homelier brother — or worse! Maybe it was his evil twin! Not having seen Star Wars, I doubt that’s what Liberty thought — but having been around the block more than a time or two, she has a good sense of What Can and What Cannot happen, according to local physics. Garbage cans do not move by themselves.
So, she wheeled. I think I bailed, but I might have just plain ‘come off’, and ran back through the open residential property that backs up to our own (fenced) property… looking for Padman for comfort. I lay there a minute, getting my bearings.. realized a lens had popped out of my glasses.. and when i sat up I spied two small children running for the porch and their lazy dad doing absolutely nothing. Eventually he came over NOT to offer help but to suggest I should not be riding along that road. I in turn suggested that since he lives in an equine community, perhaps he should teach his children to stand still when a horse is looking antsy, nearby. I did NOT make any observation about how odd it was that a large man in the prime of his life would have his child, who was maybe four, wheeling a heavy garbage can out to the road instead of doing it himself.
I caught Bird, took her with me to finish moving the offensive can out to the road, let her sniff the chair, and found a handy fence to use as a mounting block. We finished our ride. I had a major hematoma on my inside right calf, which require draining since it was causing enough pressure that there was risk of capsule syndrome or losing my foot.
By the time this whole mess was over, it was time to take another ‘horse pill’. The bottle clearly stated “Do not drive or operate heavy machinery until you learn how this medicine will affect you”. The ‘net, and my own experience over the next ten or so days, made it quite clear that this medication affected my balance and perception BIGTIME.
Moral of the story: Medicine that asks one not to drive or operate heavy machinery should also say “Do not ride your horse bareback while taking this medication, as it may affect your balance, perception, and judgement!”
My twentysomething old Morgan mare was the definition of bombproof. I could ride her next to a busy road with yahoos honking at us and she wouldn’t even flinch. One time, an overnight 4-H show had the misfortune of accidentally scheduling on the same weekend as fireworks being set off in the field next to the show grounds. It was total chaos – horses jumping out of their stalls, climbing the walls… my mare didn’t blink an eye. She pinned her ears at dogs that run at her but wasn’t afraid of them. She wasn’t the lease bit bothered by other animals having a freak-out, whether it be dogs, horses, whatever. She had seen cows, chickens, pigs, and didn’t give them the time of day. Sometimes I would take her on trails with no bridle – just a rope around her neck. One time we saw a bear in the woods and I was really nervous but she just gave it room and continued on without incident.
One day we were on a relaxing trail ride and I spotted an adorable little deer. Then my mare saw it. She froze, and it was the first time I ever felt a horse’s heartbeat through the saddle. She shook and trembled and then, without consulting me, turned tail and took off for home.
It was the one and only time I experienced this horse being frightened. I don’t understand it to this day, why a DEER? Surely it wasn’t the first time she’d ever seen a deer? Did she have a traumatic childhood experience with a deer??
A farm I used to board at had some ponies they used rides at events, in additin to beginner lessons. These were seen-it-all/done-it-all mounts. The town had a yearly fair and they would take a couple to give rides. Amongst everything else, ballons, rides, games, music, etc, the one thing the geriatric mare lost her head over? Someone parachuting in as a special show. She took off at warp speed across the fair. Luckily one of the older kids from the barn happened to be on her at that moment and pulled her up. She was a shaking mess for the rest of the day. They took her home. Now how does one prep a horse for that?
A friend of mine has a fjord gelding. Not that old, but generally approaches anything new with the mentality of “can I eat it?” Apparently minis are the stuff of nightmares though. He is terrified of them. Thinks they will kill him.
It could have been SO BAD had it turned out differently. I had a 3 year old mare and a 4 year old little boy. One morning I was cleaning house and my son was playing on the computer (no internet access – he should have been safe). I have to back up a bit and tell you all that my son is an only child and has always been very quiet and self reliant, so not hearing him was not usually a red flag. Anyhow, back to cleaning my house. I had just finished the bathroom and peaked out the bedroom window to look at the horses, and what to my horror, did I see! My three year old mare layed out flat on her side, basking in the sun, and my four year old child sitting with his back against her belly, eyes closed, also basking in the sun. I was fricken terrified. I didn’t want to open the window and say something because I was afraid of how she would react. I didn’t want to go outside for the same reason. I stood there looking at them for what seemed like an hour but was really only a couple of seconds. I had just about decided to try to sneak out and get the boy, when I saw him stretch and open his eyes. He saw me in the window and waved so I gave him that crooked finger “come here” gesture. He got up and wiped himself off, scooted under the fence and headed for the house. As he stood up the mare lifted her head, but did not stand up until he was out of the stall. Coincidence? Maybe, but she could have killed that boy and didn’t. I broke out in a cold sweat and realized I hadn’t been breathing. It still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and that was 15 years ago…
We had a 18 year old standardbred, off the track that had never batted an eye at anything. Ever. Until she saw her first llama. She broke free of the person leading her, charged through the fence in front of her, across that pasture and through the next 2 fences before she finally stopped. She eventually got used to them, but we never knew she could move that quick!
My Dutch Warmblood gelding (who passed away about 5 years ago), was pretty blase about anything. Traffic? Meh. Donkeys? Meh. Dogs? Meh. Plastic bags? He’d swivel his ears at them, but nothing other than that. He was a show veteran, had been hacked out in Griffith Park in Los Angeles (noisy, loud, LOTS of horses on the trails), jumped both in stadium and cross country, had kids on him, you name it. Bomb. Proof. Lazy, but bombproof.
One day I was riding in the park with a friend of mine and a kid came up behind us on a mountain bike – he had a bell on the bike and he rang it as he zoomed past us and my gelding absolutely lost it. He jumped straight up, did the 360 spin and took off after leaving me sitting in the dirt.
He only ran about 50 yards and I wasn’t hurt, but it was a good lesson about never letting one’s guard down, even on a horse one considered bomb-proof.
A few stories I guess.
Now, I used to ride at a barn populated by ex-racehorses so we never really believed in “bombproof”. However, if the horse was not a Thoroughbred I think we tended to relax more simply because they tended not to do things like:
- freak out at the colour yellow
- freak out at leaves falling
- freak out at the wind
- freak out at a dropped jump
- etc.
We had one horse, a young QH mare who was dead quiet. She was unimpressed by literally everything that came across her path. Rogue dogs trying to chase the horses on a trail, she would charge them; coyote in the pasture, she was better then any other security; deep water, she went right in no hesitation. She was a rescue from a guy down the road who didn’t think he had to feed his horses in the winter (in mid-Northern Ontario) and thought his mule would bred his gelding he named “Princess”. The only time I saw this mare freak out was when we were trail riding down the road to a neighbouring farm. She got slower and slower as she started to realise what direction she was going in and when she saw it she freaked right out and we had to turn back.
I was riding an ex-pony from the trail (who I absolutely loved because of his rational, logical mindset). We were ponying a two year old who had just started training for the track the next year. Third time ridden ever, first hack, short, fifteen minute walk. Easy right? Two year old was cool as a cucumber but my horse was wheeling, prancing and going sideways down the trail. Why you may ask? The horse with us was a very badly behaved (somewhat rider encouraged) ex racehorse who was up in the air every other step. My calm, “bombproof”, unstressable horse was stressing out because he wasn’t allowed to pony the ten year old gelding.
Also, the stupidest spook ever which to this day none of us really understand. We had a QH/Welsh cross mare who was a huge sweetheart, bred on the farm, weaned in a cow field next door, brave as anything, beginner lesson pony. Our lessons typically ended with a turn around the big field as a cool out. This day, a fence was down somewhere and about fifty cows were on the road moseying past our field/riding ring. The horses looked during the lesson and it was my horse, a flighty Arabian mare imported from Germany, never really had seen farm animals before in her life, who kept looking and trembling. We decide to do our cool out anyway since the only horse bothered by it was mine and as long as no one else freaked out she would probably be fine. A learning experience for her. We head out, no problem, crest the hill, cows right on the other side of the fence. My horse, shaking but fine, the QH cross mare who has lived alongside a cow field her whole life? FLIPPED OUT and took off top speed to the barn. She bucked off her rider and her bridle and it took half an hour to coax her close enough to catch. My horse, totally fine, feeling quite proud of herself at the end. Big pats for Shiia, absolutely no clue what went on with Honey.
Oh wait, I have another that is pretty much the stupidest fall I’ve ever had but, to be fair, I was ten and it was only my second month of lessons.
Our staple beginner horse of the time was a 20 year old Standardbred who was quiet, lazy, and willing to put up with shit from kids. When it rained we often got a sink hole in the ring so we had a pylon to steer around. Now, don’t get me wrong, I could steer, but I was just learning how to trot one circle at a time. I was so busy concentrating on my posting and trusting my horse to just go in the circle I didn’t pay attention. My horse was just lumbering along, went “Oh, we’re on the wrong side of the pylon I’m just going to move over a bit” and boom, I’m in the mud. Horse freaked out, ran to the gate, then came back once I was up and had some air back in me. He just gave me this reproachful “WTF kid?” However he made sure to trot very slowly around the pylon after that.
My 30+ old boy doesn’t twitch when semis, harleys and guns have roared close by. I rode him on the back roads in our small town for gentle exercise. I always keep an eye and ear out for vehicles. We came around a corner and he skidded to a halt, then started backing as fast as he could. I almost went over the saddle and onto his neck. The terror that set him off, a buzzard chowing down on some road kill. He will even duck his head down when they fly over in the pasture. Doesn’t react to chickens, ducks or turkeys, or other wild birds, just buzzards. We joke that is because he knows they are starting to circle him.
was trail-riding my old-timer the other day, just as easy plod with the bareback pad and the hackamore. this mare is 22 years old, i’ve had her since she was 15. we’ve been everywhere and done everything and nothing’s every bothered her. she’s never even looked funny at anything. she’s always the horse i ride when i’m exhausted or my mind is only half on riding or whatever, so we were both about half asleep that day, totally relaxed when suddenly my dog sneezed and my old mare just about jumped clean out of her own skin! that’s it. a dog sneeze. my own dog who my horse has known for seven years. i don’t know if she forgot the dog was there or what, but she completely freaked. we both made it through okay and once she calmed down i just about fell off her laughing.
My guy is fearless- tarps, tractors, cars, bikes, strollers, wooden bridges-nothing. Even a five-abreast street sweeper gang with brushes going barely made him twitch an ear.
But… there are Demon Cactus on the Mineral Wells trail that he is POSITIVE are going to get him! He tries to go past sideways (hard to do in a cart!) but does go past. And spooks both going AND coming back!
At the barn I used to ride at (I was roughly 16 at the time), we had a shetland pony who was used in lessons. He seemed pretty bomb proof for the most part even though we hadn’t had him for very long. After all, he was 10 or so at the time and he had been a pony ride pony – the ones that are hitched to the merri-go-round deal and walk in cirlces with children on them forever.
At our barn’s schooling show, a 5 or 6 year old girl was to ride him in a lead line class. She’d been riding him walk/trot by herself for a while so she was in the ring without a leader. When the class began, someone had to go into the ring to lead the pony. Instead of going through the gate, this person decided to go through the fence. When the pony saw this accompanied by a lead line on the ground, he FREAKED OUT and bolted and galloped around the small ring with the child dangling helplessly from the stirrup. When she eventually dropped off the stirrup, the child was trampled and the pony finally stopped running and was caught.
The mother of the child immediately ran into the ring, scooped the child off the ground and screamed at the coach and never came back.
I believe this is a case of the people who were supposed to be in charge and taking care of things became stagnant, and the mom not understanding that these things can (although shouldn’t) happen around horses.
I’ve had several excellent wrecks … and I have never been picked up by ambulance nor been seen by a doctor following a wreck! What an accomplishment!
#1: When I was 11, my friend and I were riding her elderly horse double (and I mean elderly, he was probably 32 years of age at the time, unknown to us! What is it with people selling very elderly horses to kids and telling them “He’s 18�) one day after school. We were riding mostly bareback with a bareback pad, and I was in front, with my feet in the stirrups. I have no idea what happened, but ‘ol bombproof Tony went postal, full tilt bucking bronco a la Salinas rodeo. My friend flew off one way, I flew off the other, ripping the bareback pad stirrups off the pad in the bargain (I landed with both feet still in the stirrups), landing on my hip and elbow. Probably fractured my elbow but I never confessed how badly it hurt to my parents. Couldn’t straighten my arm for a month.
And yes, my friend got back on him to prove a point, if just to ride him to his pasture to put him away. I walked the ½ mile home, trying to cover up how badly I was hurt.
#2: The day I tried out the first horse I bought with my own money, I was trying him out, riding double with my sister on back. Salinas rodeo version 2.0. I hit the pavement (I did that a lot) and I should have not bought the horse right then and there—“Oh, honey Paint’s a little ticklish that way.†For an elderly horse (probably 34 years of age at the time), he could buck!
#3: Too numerous times to count: While schooling Paint Mare from Hell in barrels, planning to make a hard right turn at the first barrel. Except I’d get a dead stop or a hard left turn, always going over her head. Plenty of scars from that …
#4: Paint Mare from Hell scared by Shetland pony that ran at her over a hill. She took off running and it took me five full miles at a dead gallop on a country road trying to bring her to a stop. I was riding bareback, or course. I was riding with an inexperienced friend who was riding my more reliable gelding, but when the mare took off, he did too. Inexperienced friend did not have the brains to pull back on the reins and try to stop—she dropped the reins (roping reins thankfully!) and held onto the horn.
My own child never had such unruly horses! It’s a miracle I am alive and can still sort of walk today.
Actually my very first horse wreck was pretty traumatic too. My dad bought a half-broke stallion Shetland pony (he didn’t know it was a stallion—I always wondered what those things were!). Dynamite was as cute as could be but really not well-trained. My parents were not horsey at all. The nearest thing we had to horsey in my family was my grandfather who liked to spend a day at Golden Gate Fields whenever he could while my dad was a kid.
I was riding him one day and he took off up the hill behind our house, headed for the low scrub oaks with the goal of getting me off. He had zero whoa and was ridden ina snaffle bit. He didn’t get me off, but I have a vivid memory of my father yelling at me to get after him, turn his head, kick him and make him come down the hill. As I recall, my dad had to hike up the hill to lead Dynamite back down, ‘cause he wasn’t moving anywhere!
Hmmm… Is it a coincidence that I was talking about this same thing to a friend that is contemplating adopting a rescue horse?
Just today, my 17 y/o been-there-done-that, ex-rodeo/hunter/halter champ, parade ham had a fight or flight moment. I had him tied where the farrier normally does his work inside the barn while I picked his stall. Well — about five minutes into apple picking, a small flock of grackles decided to relocate from a sycamore tree to tin roof right over Sonny. The sound of the birds’ flapping wings and teeny feet scraping and sliding on the metal made his forelock stand on end! He danced around, violently looking and whinnied for me to come and rescue him! My poor bear!
And this is a horse that has been in countless arenas, trails, parades and rodeos.