spooking: WAS: Hunting WARNING - OPINION FOLLOWS

["Glenda R. Snodgrass" <grs@TheNetEffect.com>]

> Here's a horse related question:  Has anyone thought enough about *how*
> their horse spooks (if it does) to notice if different critters cause
> different kinds of spook?  I am pretty sure that Paul's mare Etta, queen
> of sideways levitation, only did that with deer.  Not cougars, fox,
> rabbits, coyotes, dogs or wild pigs.  At least the only times that Paul
> wound up on the ground as the result of a spook was when it was about
> deer.  Lif

There is a HUGE, ugly, Brahma-cross-of-some-type bull in a pasture not far
from my boarding stable.  We call him Mr. B. :))  The first time we met
Mr. B, my friend and I were riding two endurance Ay-rabs who shocked us by
being completely unconcerned with Mr. B snorting at us from a mere 10
yards or so across a really flimsy-looking barbed-wire fence.  Both
Ay-rabs had their noses buried in grass and had to be KICKED to move on
and get away from Mr. B, while my friend and I were very, very nervous.  
Of course, this was a mere half hour after we had kicked the same horses
repeatedly to get them to cross a 4" deep trickle of water crossing the
road. :))

However, a few days ago Mr. B was taking a nap, hidden in the tall grass
right next to the trail, and gave Lakota a tremendous scare when he
awakened from his nap and jumped up right next to us to see what was going
on. Lakota leaped straight up, made a 90-degree turn in the air and hit
the ground at a full gallop across the field. :)  Lakota has taken similar
leaps because of deer bounding across the trail ahead of us.

I've determined, over nearly 3 years of riding this darlin' horse of mine,
that it's *movement* that scares him more than anything else.  He takes
scant notice of most any creature that is still, or moving very little,
but any sudden movements, whether close or far away, are what send him
into orbit.  Even noise is not a problem -- gunshots and loud trucks on
the road and such bother him not one whit.  But a squirrel falling off a
tree branch 15ft ahead of us on the trail gets a lot of attention. :)

Glenda & Lakota
Mobile, AL
AERC # M18819 & H27310
SE Region


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