Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Jonni <jonnij@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Later, came around a corner to find a man and his son (about 6 years old) in full camo walking down the trail. Now THIS scared the horse big time. I joked that the camo must have made him just see a couple of "floating heads". They stood absolutely still, and did not say a word! I know they think they are doing the right
thing to be quiet and still. We just need to educate them that the horses
will be better if they say something.

 

The flip side of that also can be scary for a horse - people who say way too much and scare the horse.  I was riding my young gelding down a road to get to a trail.  While passing one house, the neighbor's two dogs ran up and starting barking loudly.  My young horse wasn't thrilled, but he has lots of experience with barking dogs.  He handled the dogs fine.  What he could not handle was the dogs' owner running out of the house, waving his arms and screaming at the dogs to stop barking.  My horse almost came unglued as this screaming man came running right up to us, still waving his arms and screaming at the dogs.  The man dragged the dogs into the house while my horse completely froze in place, trembling.  I don't think he had any experience with screaming humans.  It took me about five minutes to calm my horse down to the point where he would take one step.  At least he didn't do his typical "no warning spin while dropping shoulder and bolting" (dropping rider is optional but often included!).  I sure appreciated his decision to freeze in place, especially since we were on pavement! 

 

Thankfully, my gelding has gotten braver, is somewhat used to the screaming neighbor now (yes, there have been repeat performances), and has stopped spinning and bolting on me when he spooks! 

 

Karen

 

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