Horse eating monsters...?

Question

What horse eating monsters live in your areas? Have they ever ACTUALLY attacked your horse? Or just silently sat or stood there and played "mind games" with your horse...while you get a cardio and muscle workout trying to convince your horse that the horse eating monster is really and truly NOTHING!

One of my 'monsters'...a large tree that has been in the same spot ever since we moved here. He sees it all the time. It never moves...has never bit him...or chased him...but if he's not really careful... and distract the 'monster' with fancy footwork and snorting...IT WILL EAT HIM!

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Answer 1

Oh I love this question as I guide trail rides (very decent place...horses well cared for etc.).  There is a big white sign I walk by everyday with my guide horse, never fails though, I have to hold his hand as we go by it, snorting, prancing, and no matter how many times I turn him to face it, he is still convinced that it is going to chew his face off.

Answer 2

Hmmm.... my guy isn't a fan of emus that live on a farm that we pass on trail rides... he thinks they are some kind of carnivorous predator that are going to fly up to him and carry him off with those LONG legs.

He also is terrified of sewer drain covers... if he goes within 10 feet of them he will fall in. He's convinced.

Anything new at the farm or something in a different place (lawn chairs, picnic tables, etc), he has to cautiously approach to smell them and make sure they are "dead".

Answer 3

most of my horses get pretty used to things, but my mom's old trail mare gets this big ol' worried look in her eyes when we fill her water bucket with the hose.  Oh yes.  She will even LEAVE her nummy hay to cower in the Veeeeery back of her stall until that nasty hose is long gone.  For at least the last 12 years (since we've owned her), she has seen this process I'd say, oh, about a million and one times.

Here's the kicker though...she's fine with baths.  She will even drink from the hose.  Makes you wonder what goes through their minds sometimes.

ETA: I just remembered when I first started showing my mare, she was sort of afraid of shadows.  She didn't freak out, but she would try to walk over them and would avoid stepping directly on them if at all possible.  She's goofy.

Answer 4

My mare...

Riding along, she's now got her confidence to be first in line.  She just thinks she is killer of all loose dogs.  Head up and her chest is out and she is just forging through like she is a gladiator.

Then it happens.

We come around the bend and now at the trail intersection. There, perched on that tree is the horse eater.  Big and white with jagged sides.  Funny markings that look like "Palomino Dr. ------->  "

She sees it...knows it is NOT a tree limb.  There is NO WAY that thing belongs in the woods!

She raises her head higher (now I can't even see where we are going!) and her ears are flipping to it then swiveling to see if he brought friends.

Ok....no friends so lets see if we can exit quickly.  She looks around with her ears but she is NOT going to take an eye off of that horse eater in the tree.

She now swivels an ear to me "You SURE you want to keep going?  Do you know what you are doing? Should I trust you?"  "Hey...you aren't reacting up there....DO YOU SEE THAT THING UP THERE????"

I kick her up and say "knock it off ya twit" and she just snorts a bit and then I turn her to a new trail and she quickly moves her hind end so she can still keep an eye on that monster.

EVERY trail intersection has a monster waiting for that poor unsuspecting horse.

The dang spare tire monsters are leg grabbers for sure!  Can't figure out why there is a tire out in the middle of no where and my horse knows it does NOT belong in the woods so it must be Horse Eater!

Tree Stumps.  Now why on earth is a tree stump a horse eater?  Well..my mare knows that it is not natural looking IN THE WOODS so it must be a flat Horse Eater waiting to snap on her like a venus fly trap!

We are walking along and all of the sudden she sees it just 2 feet from her.  She shudders and about falls out of her skin!

"Knock it off dummy!  It's already ate the horse in front of us! It's full"

Children's Little Tyke Toys.  *rolling eyes*

Yeah, that's a fun one!  Those multi colored things HAVE to have teeth and run like the dickens!

Realty signs...they got legs! Two!  Man they look mean!  Urban like mean!

HAHAHA

My gelding....

Freakin' Canadian Geese.  Anything making that much racket MUST love horse meat!  He hears one of those (they are always on this one pond in the woods) he just picks up his feet and boy he's gonna make sure he's sucked on to the side of my mare.  

"I don't care how narrow this trail is...I am NOT going to be last!"

EDIT: BB, the first pic...my mare would not venture past that at all!  Those trees are 'stumps' to her.  Cut...hahahaha

I'd have to do alot of convincing and when she did go past it I would definitely get a good 'lurch' forward feel! haha

Heck..that IS a horse eater and a MAN EATER if you look close enough!  Scares me!

That 2nd pic you show : my horses LOVE these paths.  Not scared at all..all is safe in there.  Put them out on a dirt road and FREAK CITY!

edit: SEE ARR HARR (on page 2)....reading what you wrote

had me sitting on the edge of my seat.  I knew something was gonna happen and I was holding my breath!  I woulda died!

Answer 5

I have a couple of monsters too!  At the edge of the tree grove are 2 rocks, one is white and the other granite.  They mark the graves of a couple special dogs-one horse always goes on full alert around them, does his little dance, then other times he'll walk right by them.  Weird horse!

Another is my yellow finch feeder hanging from the crab apple tree in the front yard.  One horse will always go in defense mode.  It was funny when I had a second horse out at the same time, the second one goes right up to it and bumps it around with his nose.  

I loved your picture of your monster!  I have so many pictures too of the top of my horse heads.  Gives the picture a little more meaning I think.

Debi-your answer reminded me of something a few years ago.  We were riding and got to an oil road a few miles from home that had the white lines along the edge freshly painted.  My horse gives it a sniff and calmly walks across it.  My friends horse jumps across the first line, then sees the second line on the other side.  The horse just stands in the middle of the oil road shaking.  Luckily no traffic at the time and by the end of the day, the other horse was walking over the lines like a pro.

Oh, here's another I forgot about...I was riding a mare I used to have on a dirt road and she was holding her head funny and stepping strange.  I got off and checked her feet and tack, everything was fine, got back on and she was still doing it.  Turns out she was avoiding the cracks in the dirt.  I put her to work after that, if that's all she had better to do!

Answer 6

LOL. My horse is usually AWESOME with scary things. There are plenty of frightful objects on the neighborhood trails, but he's usually very dependable and simply lets me decide if it's scary or not for him. If I say it's ok, he'll agree and move on with a look or two, but nothing bad. Of course, this does NOT apply to over-stuffed trash cans, specifically ones with branches or palm leaves in them. If they're sticking out, it's game over. Sticks and firewood, as well as dead plants like this are also a major problem if left sitting on the side of the road, in a yard, or anywhere in sight. There is a nursery we ride by every time I take him around the block, which has wooden crates outside and plants around them. Those are EVIL. They're going to hop all the way across the street and chase us clear to Tick-Buck-Two! Another problem is the mailbox, rocks, and telephone pole groupies that hang out on our side of the street across from this evil nursery. You see, he never had a problem with them until one day when we were cantering down this trail and my food hit the electric box on the other side of them. The box isn't his problem though. It's those awkward white, pink and gray rocks. They are FICKLE. I suppose this is monster block though, because one house after the scary rocks and nursury, live these german sheapards. He usually doesn't even flick an ear to dogs. But THESE dogs are different. They're monsters if he's ever seen one.

My horse can walk between a working trash truck and a brick wall with two feet to navigate between them, no problem. But get him near some sticks, or LLAMAS (those are demonous), and he's a puff of smoke...GONE.

Answer 7

Lol -= we have wheelie bins

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different colours or coloured lids for different recycling items. They get put out on certain mornings and lurk at the kerbside.

Some days there is even the dreaded blue recycling bag full of newspapers.

None of these have ever done anything to him but once a little old lady did pop out from behind one with a brush and shovel ( scared the p**p out of him.)

http://www.judetoo.com/printpages/jt08.h...

The other thing is when the local council are setting up to do road patching and stuff they spray paint bits of the road - the bits they do in yellow are apparently okay but we have been known to have a major spooking session over a blue spot !

Also there appears to be a gremlin that hides behind a rock on our most often used bridleway.

Answer 8

One time my riding instructor was riding an Arab mix and all of a sudden he started to spook and he attempted to bolt. Guess what he was afraid of! A rock! I had to turn my horse to the side and start to trot out of the way so he wouldn't run us over. It surprised me how he could be afraid of a tiny rock in the ground. So we ended up turning around and heading back to the barn. We couldn't go any further on the trail ride. I was thinking maybe an Arab mix would be a little more (high strung.) Not all Arab's are high strung though. He is still afraid of rocks today, the owners need to de-spook him of rocks.

Answer 9

BFR'S .............Big F@ckin Rocks Oh and Lamas freaks my horse totally out! He cant figure out what the heck those funny looking animals are with the long necks that smell bad.

Answer 10

On the subject of wheelie bins (Debi!) I tried to convince one of my mother's horses (a good few years ago) that really there was nothing wrong with wheelie bins, they're absolutely FINE. So we went up to the bin - very very cautiously, and with a bit of bullying from me - and after a moment he stretched out his nose, about to l**k it. He always licked new things. And then out of nowhere, there was a HUGE gust of wind, which blew the lid off the bin. He certainly showed me who knew about monsters; we had a wee bolt up the lane.

Other monsters... plastic bags, especially ones lodged in hedges; words written on the road (SLOW and STOP are particularly dangerous); spotted horses; cows; any buggy or pushchair which doesn't have one of my children in it (but stick my babies in and suddenly it's a carriage of delight, and the horses will all gather round to be adored); small dogs (can actually be quite dangerous); a fence post which honestly wasn't there last time (it was)... and they're all terrified of the Shetland when he's rugged up. Especially when (thanks to my 4 1/2 year old daughter) he's rugged up in sparkly pink. Dougie turns into a horse eating monster of doom the moment that rug goes on.

(They do have a point - he looks ridiculous.)

Answer 11

OMG! The small cluster of trees in the corner of the arena. Heaven forbid she actually stays on the rail because if she did that, surely they would jump in the arena and EAT her. And don't forget the evil horse eating minis. They may be a thousand lbs. smaller than her but dont let that fool you. They can definately devour a horse in a few seconds flat. Trust me on this. my horse knows what shes talking about.

Answer 12

Great Question. I have a horse that is absolutely terrified of miniature horses. Just something about their small stature freaks him out. And it's not like he himself is that big a horse- he's 14.1hh, but just something about a little tiny horse gets to him.

Answer 13

Donkeys seem to confuse the heck outta some of the horses at my barn when they go away to shows. They seem to not know what to think of them! Oh, and loud, high pitched, women's voices :-D

Answer 14

There was a large tree, I believe it was an oak, that was living on the side of the road. It only freaked out one of my horses. It never moved at all, but it scared the daylights out of poor Kody. Motorcycles also wanted to eat him, apparently.

Answer 15

Bright orange road cones. Every (well, the 4 I've trained so far) yearling I've had has been spooky about road cones. The yearling I'm working with right now thinks anything bright yellow is going to get her-which includes the water hose, a bucket and another horse's halter. The cool thing is we run electric fence and tie bright yellow ribbons to warn the horses off them- she won't get within 5 feet, LOL!

Answer 16

Ummm, I could perhaps tell you, only problem is I have a dog and 3 puttytats, no horseys, sorry I'm not much help for this. lol

Answer 17

This is a good one: picnic tables. I took him trail riding through a picnic area and a grouping of picnic tables freaked him out. I had to dismount and lead him around showing him the picnic tables and letting him sniff them. He's seen picnic tables before, but not a group of them. One won't attack him, but a pack of them will! lol

Another scary thing is the mounting block. Again, he's seen it a million times, but then I kicked it. The sound and movement made him freak.

Answer 18

Well there few "monsters" in my area. Except for the Sea Monsters. They only occure at the lake, and they are only dagerouse to my roping horse shorty. When we goto the lake go give the horses a nice break from work the Sea Monsters try to get Shorty(he is all of 14.2, and a brick s!@t house) and only Shorty. He is convenced that they will come up on land to EAT HIM! And it does get worse in the Sea Monster breeding season, summer, for the Sea Monsters are everywhere. We will go on a nice quiet 3-4 hour ride and at the end we will ride into the lake(a nice spot we know that 3 feet deep), to let the horses drink and splash in the water for a bit, and Shorty is the only one who comes out sweaty. He will stand in the water, looking at the Sea Monsters, prancing in place, with  his s****. doo face, with a look like I'm going to stand here for ya. But. I wanna go I wanna go I wanna go. Its funny, and as of yet no Sea Monster has attacked Shorty or any other horse. But he does not want to take the chance.

Edit-BB Those dead cut logs can swallow a horse whole. I've never seen it, but I have had a horse tell me they could.

Answer 19

LOL LOL OHHHH I want tp go ride up there again!!!!!! For mine right now is a cluster of rocks.... yeah they are going to grab her legs! She has to hop over, or barely touch the ground, like a tippy toe!!! LOL I have to laugh every time!!! I love this question!!!! LOL  Ohhh I have a mare in WY that doesn't like buffalo! She will stand for 4 wheelers, trains,  trash, plastic but heaven for bid there be a buffalo anywhere!!! She will come out of her skin!!!! LOL

Answer 20

My horse has 3 major monsters that bug him:

The first horse eating monster that my horse is afraid of is a big blue hose. It is sealed off by clips onto the side of the wall to supply water to the horses stalls, and whenever I bring him in from the paddock, he always eyes it and sometimes sidesteps away from it. He doesn't seem to understand that the hose is attached to the wall...

Another thing my horse thinks will eat him are baseball caps. If someone so much as goes into the barn with a baseball cap, he goes ballistic and tries to kick down the door of the stall. When a visitor came to the barn with a baseball cap on, he was deathly afraid and cowered in the back of the paddock and didn't move for half an hour. (This has also prompted a huge sign on the door of the barn that says NO BASEBALL CAPS AROUND HORSES. Visitors think it's quite funny.)

The last monster that my horse is haunted by is camera flashes. This makes it nearly impossible to get a good picture of him. He's okay with flashless cameras, but boy, if he sees that spark of light, BAM, he's out of there. This has prompted another sign that says NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY.

Oh, my horse does have it hard. :P

Answer 21

My horse totally thinks goats are going to eat her.  She freaks out any time she sees or hears one!  As far as I know, she has never been hurt by one or even that close to one, but she just knows that they are going to eat her.

Answer 22

A hot air balloon.  Planes can fly over all day, but a hot air balloon anywhere within sight is a deal -breaker for any unspooking training I've ever done...God forbid if one should ever land anywhere close, it would be full out cardiac arrest. I'm actually curious as to whether anyone has found a "cure" for that one.

Answer 23

Yes, we have horseasaureses around here.  Usually "hiding" in the manzanita....holy cow!!   errrrr, horse!!!!

Answer 24

I have problems with horse eating pinecones and the dreaded horse eating cows from time to time.

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about...My horse does a drop turn at the sight of a pinecone in the middle of the road.

Answer 25

That's a great one! My daughter had this super hunter pony years ago, and we used to laugh that along the trail, leading to the ring, there were "lions" in the woods!  She was either tricking us, or truly afraid of that particular area.  So funny and so many good memories.

Answer 26

Oooo This is a fun one...

Well lets see, there's the manure-spredding monter. One of my mares swear that thing is going to de-tatch from my tractor and attack! The pond monster. I've never seen it, but 3 of my horses swear he's in there. They won't come within 20 feet of the pond without there nostrils flared and eyes wide. Theres the oh-no-theres-a-new-thing-in-the-arena!!! monster. That one really gets mo Morgan.... Haha. Of course I've never seen any of these so-called monters attack, but my horses sure have! Or at least they act like they have... LOL

Good question!

Answer 27

Bouncing horse turds. Yep. We were trotting in the ring and he caught a stray t**d on the upswing of one of his hind legs and sent it bouncing past us. Freaked the frak out of him.

Go figure, the one t**d the manure fork missed. Boy, can those suckers bounce and, apparently, swallow 1200 lb horses whole!

Answer 28

On one of the trails I used to ride on there was an old rusty roundbail hay rack, and every single time we passed by it my horse nearly had a heart attack. Of course he would act all brave and walk right past it not even giving it a second look until he got as far as the object being around his flanks, then he was off like a bottle rocket.

I know that little SOB did it on purpose... lol He got in the habbit of bolting at that spot and kept it up. I haven't ridden on that trail in a while, but last few times I think he learned that I wasn't going to let him get away with that little game.

Answer 29

the elephant ear type plants. the monsters live under there. ive seen them chase the horse across a field.

all out worset monster for my horse tho (keep in mind he's a 16.2 hand qh/tb) is.... COWS... omg they're talking! omg they're plotting! save me!

we were walking up the road, the girl riding him (i was riding my mare) decided to get off and lead him... good thing cause as soon as the first cow mooed he flipped around 360, did another the oppsite way when the next cow mooed, and it was over when the rest of the heard came to the fence, he ended up rearing up so high he went over backwards on the road. few cuts and scrapes later he was fine... was still deathly afraid of those cow monsters!

Answer 30

BB don't you know that those are the worst ones?  The ones that have always been there?  They are biding their time....waiting for just the right moment to attack, so they have to be vigilant!

Had a paint horse when I was a kid, goofy looking half of his face was white & he had a blue eye, the other half sorrel with a brown eye.  The horse was an awesome roping horse & could run like the wind.  Loved riding him bareback he was so soothe & he could get so close to the ground on the corners of the arena at a dead run you could have scooped up hand fulls of dirt.  You could ride him anywhere, IF he was saddled.  Roads with traffic he wouldn't even flick an ear, parades, under freeway over passes, ANYWHERE.  

But, when he was being ridden bareback, EVERYTHING in the world was out to get him.  Dust devils, birds, pieces of grass, blowing gum wrappers, bugs, etc.  When I say EVERYTHING, I mean EVERYTHING!!!

I miss that horse so much, he was so cool.

As for now, Sage believes that small children are actually ninja out to assasinate him in apparently some horrible gruesome way, because if there is one around, he starts shaking & gets all wild eyed, breaks out in a sweat.  If I am standing with him, he practically hides his head under my arm.  He will even check to see if they are still there & hide his head again.  NEVER with our boys & he has been around them their whole lives.  Can't figure it.

He has never reacted as far as spooking or trying to get away, he just freezes & they don't even have to be anywhere NEAR him.

But, I had a big 17.1h running quarter that reacted this way to young horses & ponies, so.....

Answer 31

oh you mean, the different coloured coat monster, or the gravel road monster or the sound of running water monster or the muck heap monster or the i can't belive it's my 100th time down this same rd and seeing that rock monster....I think they know the truth and it's all just a big ruse to try and better our horse skills.

oh and then there's the OMG my feed bin is different monster