I agree with Jim that horses need to be pretrained
to accept whatever weird stuff comes along....I always was pretty smug as I had
bomproof horses but the young ones have been a challenge.
Last Friday we did a ride to town from my place (7
riders), 3 miles. The horses were just all great. We had my friend
Carol on her seasoned Arab, Thunder lead off, as he is pretty bombproof. I
was on my young mare (fortified by one wine cooler so I was relaxed, which
helped). All horses did just fine with the two Harleys that roared by on the
narrow bridge.
Things were going fine when a lady pushing a baby
stroller comes along. Thunder had never seen that, really had to stop,
arch his neck and bug out his eyes before he went by!
Today we were up at the State Forest for a nice
trail ride. We had the 4 year old we have had 3 months, who is coming
along just fine. There is also a CDF fire station there. While
I was getting water, a young guy comes down. There is a helicopter pad
right up above the staging area.The converstation goes like this"
him: "We will be doing helicopter manuvers
all day."
me: "good"
him: "we will be going up and down and a lot
of noise."
me. "Thats great!"
him, puzzled: "It might scare the
horses"
me: "Its good for them. Thanks for the free
training."
Well.....we did our ride and came back to
helicopters going up and down. The 4 year old was just fine. Both my
horses tied to the trailer and seemed to deal with the noise and dust quite
well. Our friend has a well seasoned paint mare who has been there many
times and seen this. But suddenly the 4 year old pulls back and starts
jumping around.......seems the paint mare had spooked, which spooked my
mare. Well, the paint mare was fine with the hovering helecopter....but
simultaneously, a man dropped out of a helecopter on a line.......and the wind
blew a white styrafoam ice chest across the parking area.......just too much for
their little horsey brains.......you can';t train for everything!!!
