Suggestions for conditioning horses to Hot Air Balloons.?

Question

I had a horse go through the fence after getting spooked by a hot air balloon that went over his field.

We have an outfitter in a nearby township that does excursions and others have had this problem too with the balloons. One farm had their stallion go through the fence. Unfortunately he got out into the road and was hit by a truck and killed. Mine went into the neighbors corn for most of the day, but came out of his ordeal ok. So my question is how would you go about conditioning a horse to accept them? The outfitters don't have a set schedule, so you never know when you will see them, otherwise I could just take them in. It seems that the horses object to the fire bellows going off overhead and the resulting roar. Plus they don't look up so they don't know where its coming from and just panic. This is a boarder and I am very concerned with his welfare and my insurance! I am going to call the outfitters and see if I can talk sense to them, but I know they limited by wind currents.

Answer 1

Mine doesn't like them either - we get them going past quite often during the summer and it is definitely the noise of the burn which bugs him most - although he does tense up when he sees them. Have you considered using those ear cover things that muffle the sound ?

Answer 2

I am not an expert on this but a similar problem is to get police horses use to large crowds and gun shots.  I think it is done by continued exposure and reassurance that they are safe.  You may want to find where police have horses trained and conditioned for their line of work.  The City of Chicago has horse patrols they might give you a lead or some other city/sheriff may be able to point you in the right direction.

Good Luck.

Answer 3

Gosh what an awful situation to be in! I have a similiar problem I live right next to the Fireman's training camp so at any given times sirens and honking are helicopters are overhead. My horses freaked at first but finally got used to them. I put hot air ballons right up there with parade floats. Perhaps a parade float could get them used to the enourmousness of them and then mounted horse patrol training for the noise associated with them. With that said do you think your hot air ballon neighbors could tape record the sound for you so you could play it softly at first and then gradually increase it to what it would be normally?

Answer 4

that is crappy. maybe you could talk to them to see if they could notify you ahead of time to see when they were taking off. other than that you could just calm down the horses as much as possible.

Good Luck :)

Answer 5

I get random hot air balloon flights mostly in the late afternoons in the fall when the leaves turn colors.  My horses run around a little and snort.  It definitely is more from the sound than the sight.  I guess you could try to mimic the sound, and could also stuff cotton in the spooky horse's ears when you suspect they might be coming.  Without having regular, controlled access to hot air balloons, I don't know how you'd ever condition your horses to them.

Answer 6

you are right they most horses dont like the roar that comes from the burner,the closest thing i have found is a propane construction heater,they put out a roar that is not as loud as one from a balloon but has the same effect.the only other thing i can suggest is find out when they are doing a flight and trailer your horse close to the take off point so he can get used to the sound.i live near a small airport and several military bases so i have aircraft and big helicopters that fly overhead and my horses dont even look up anymore.heck i even have a stunt pilot that likes to practice over my property (one of these days i will get a clean shot...kidding !) i tracked him down at the airport and told him to make sure he crashes on my neighbors property not mine.lol