# Scary Moments



## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

I do a lot of trail blazing and last year riding through the woods (probably a bit faster than recommended), came across an old, rusty, cow pasture barbed wire boundary fence. I didn't see it until we were way too close, but I think my mare must have cause we wound up jumping a section that had the top strand down. First time I had jumped anything besides logs. I don't scare easily, but was heart was pounding a bit.


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## Britt (Apr 15, 2008)

I've had a LOT of those 'OMG' moments... I can't remember many right now, but the one that I can was when I was riding down the trails that go down the powerlines... these things went up and over a mountain, and I had Gyps. We slid sideways twice on the way down about twenty feet or so becausethere was two VERY steep drop-offs... 

Those powerlines are now one of my favorite places to ride up and down. Lol.


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## Sissimut-icehestar (Jan 20, 2008)

well i was on my way to a trail... 
and i had to go under a road, but my mare was acting up and went straight up this very steep, very loose gravel hill that lead up to the road ! it was about 3-4 meters high, and i just remember think as the traffic passed by " if some idiot honks right now I´m done for" 
thankfully i managed to get off and _slide_ down ! :roll:


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## Dumas'_Grrrl (Apr 2, 2008)

More than once I have been acused that my favorite word is sh*%  I must say it alot when riding...we seem to get into "situations" more than I'd like. Mind you I have only been back riding since Oct 07 so its probably just me. So far the scarriest moment we have had was when Dumas decided to slide/hop/sit his way down a hill... He was doing the sit/squat position and had his front feet pedleing us forward. He was fine with the whole thing! I was the one that had to check my shorts!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Yeah, once I was on a trail...there was this REALLY steep hill thingy, we HAD to cross over it, because there was no other way to go.  
So I did, Lexi did okay whew, I was shocked that she did it because I didn't know if she would do it or not. At the time she was only like 6 so yeah, bit weery! I was so proud of her though. 
Boy, was I scared!


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## FGRanch (Feb 9, 2008)

I've done the barded wire fence thing when I was a kid.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Dumas'_Grrrl said:


> More than once I have been acused that my favorite word is sh*%  I must say it alot when riding...we seem to get into "situations" more than I'd like. Mind you I have only been back riding since Oct 07 so its probably just me. So far the scarriest moment we have had was when Dumas decided to slide/hop/sit his way down a hill... He was doing the sit/squat position and had his front feet pedleing us forward. He was fine with the whole thing! I was the one that had to check my shorts!


LOL I had one of those too! On my previous horse Mattie, a little draft pony QH mix. She slid down a muddy creek bank on her butt. Her back legs went completely out from under her. I stayed on but had no idea how. One of those I wish I had a video camera moments. Could have sent it to Funniest Home Videos and won :lol:


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

LOL Vida! :lol:


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## Bitless (Jan 11, 2008)

Ehh to many. lol. 

One of the worst was going to the big beach for the first time on my own. Was a awsom ride except for at the end. We were troting in the sand, and on one side is a huge muddy lagoon, was low tide so was pretty much only mud. 
Silly horse turned and went straight in before i had a chance to react. He sunk to his knees, and trying to get out ended up jumping in further , resulting in him being in the mud up to his stomach/side. I kinda rolled off his back. Then he managed to jump out on his own.
I checked him over then had to jump back on as it was like a over hlaf hour ride home. Also had to walk home covered in very smelly mud as there was no water to wash it off :lol:


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Ewww yuck Bitless


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## FGRanch (Feb 9, 2008)

Great stories!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Wow Bitless that sounds gross! lol


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## jazzyrider (Sep 16, 2007)

ive had a few but the ones that came straight to mind are:

about 10 years ago i was riding my ottb that i had at the time. we were out on a trail and came to a bridge. it was pretty old and made from old railway sleepers/logs/thingys lol my friend went across first avoiding the couple of missing planks nicely so i followed her route. i got about half way over and it started to creak and one of the planks beneath us made cracking noises. he stopped still and we just stood there waiting. i was too scared to move because i thought we'd fall straight through. and we did!! we came out of it ok though. lots of scratches, bruises, cuts and splinters for the both of us but we were alive and no broken bones yay

the other one was a few months ago on jarred. it was the first time i had ever taken him away from the property for a ride. we were out in a kind of open area and there was a dam that has quite a deep, muddy slope into it. jarred was being silly because there were some ducks there :roll: and didnt want to go past the ****. we were riding near the edge of it and he started doing that silly sideways hopping avoiding thing they do. his back end was edging closer and closer to the edge and nothing i could do would get him to move forwards. i was envisioning us sliding backwards down the hill and me coming off and being crushed by him or something lol fortunately though one of his back feet slipped off the edge and spooked him so he lunged forward and we were safe


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Wow, Jazzy, I'm glad you were okay!! :shock:


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## .Delete. (Jan 7, 2008)

I was trailriding out in a huge park with alot of my friends when we ran into a cult. He he he, needless to say we ran as fast as we could


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Oh my gosh Jazzy that bridge crossing was definitly an "OH CRAP" moment. 
Delete, how funny :lol: Did they try to sell you jams and jellys or just offer you a bowl of rice and start chanting?


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## Dumas'_Grrrl (Apr 2, 2008)

Vidaloco said:


> Delete, how funny :lol: Did they try to sell you jams and jellys or just offer you a bowl of rice and start chanting?



LOL :lol: ummmmm horrrrrrrrseysssss ummm horrrrrrseysssss...


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

LOL Delete!! :lol: That's funny.


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## jazzyrider (Sep 16, 2007)

pop - yep, all in one piece & ok

vida - it sure was lol


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## Small_Town_Girl (Feb 15, 2008)

On Ace's first trail ride (May 2nd), he did great, but when we was 
almost done he decided to show out because he gotten lazy
and tired, he wasn't listening to any of my commands
and was going way to fast and shaking his head like a
maniac and bucking every now and then. It was so scary
for me because I could of gotten seriously injured. I had to
have someone pony him back for me, lol.


But overall, it was fun, he did enjoy running through the mud holes
90 mph.! Can't wait to try it again!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Aw, haha that seems fun yet scary @ the same time!


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## .Delete. (Jan 7, 2008)

Ha ha ha no. It was in Beaver Creek Ohio and we where on a ridge with a really low valley below, we heard music and we saw smoke from a campfire down in the middle of the valley. The guy who was in the front explained to the rest of us that there are several cults that live out in the woods at that park and we had to go really fast when ever we thought we where near a cult because you never know what they could do :wink:


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

after a nice long relaxing trailride... I pulled the *IDIOT* card out of my pocket and raced my friend as fast as I could across the cornfield to the edge of the paved road where I expected my horse to go from fullblast to standing calmly while waiting for traffic...

He stopped for a second and then bolted into the road. I still remember looking straight at the grill of a dodge astro, it was beige. I think he saw it the same time I saw it, he reared and fell over, and was careful not to land on me, we were laying next to the car and I said... "GET UP SO I CAN SEE IF YOUR HURT"... he got up and LEFT ME! he went home and I had to walk, and 9 million people saw it, ok, maybe not 9 million but the entire barn at least... and what could I do but listen to the world tell me what a [email protected]$$ I was!

couple years later the horse whisperer came out... talk about scary....


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Woah...that must've been realllly scary... :shock:
I am glad you were okay.


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## LuvMyPaint (Apr 26, 2008)

Some very scary moments everyone's had...

The two that popped right into my mind happened to my friend's while I was with them...

I was with my friend and her QH gelding, Quincy. She had him for over 16 years so knew all of his little quirks. One day we were approaching a steep cliff into the riverbed on one side and on the other the road was right next to us. Thankfully not a busy road.

Quincy spooked at the guard railing along the cliff and started backing up over the cliff. I freaked and froze, but Jennifer didn't. To this day we still talk about how she saved him, it was amazing! She was bareback and leaped off of him, landing towards the front of his shoulder, while she jumped she had managed to flip the reins over his head and as soon as her feet hit the groud she was pulling him back up away from the cliff! :shock: I still don't know how she did it...

The other time was with my friend Lisa. We were crossing a small wooden bridge that we had gone over numerous times. I was in the middle of it when she got to the other side. A plank was loose on the end and her horse freaked and started spinning! I watched in horror as her foot hit the side and slipped over... followed by the rest of her. Lisa jumped clear and her mare landed next to her. The fall was just about 3' but it felt like eternity. I can still picture the terror on Lisa's face... but as soon as Brandy (the mare) stood up Lisa was calling for me to catch her and see if she was ok.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

^^^^ :shock: OH CRAP! :shock:


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Wow those are VERY scary!! :shock: That's just amazing how she saved him like that.


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## LuvMyPaint (Apr 26, 2008)

I know!!! I realized after those two times I'm not the person you want to have around in an emergency... I kind of panic and freeze.


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## Dumas'_Grrrl (Apr 2, 2008)

LuvMyPaint said:


> I know!!! I realized after those two times I'm not the person you want to have around in an emergency... I kind of panic and freeze.


Crap! Those were seriously scary!

I can completely relate to you in the freezing part. Usually if freak out and just stand there. Then have a million great ideas flood my brain right after! But every once in a while I pull a feather out and do the right thing!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Yeah...I usually TRY to stay calm lol I just freeze too.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

When Beauty severed the tendons in her right leg and the artery in her left, the lady that was there kept telling me to stay calm. I was underneath her, holding the leg with my bare hands and I kept yelling "get me something for this, get me a rope, gauze, a t-shirt, anything!" and she kept saying, just stay calm, you are not helping matters, stay calm. I didn't know at the time that a horse won't bleed out that fast even though the blood is PUMPING out like that, I really thought she was going to die on the spot, of course the vet actually said it was superficial and happens more often then you think (the artery - not the tendons...)... who knew? Anyway, I called the vet and my dad on the cell while holding preasure with my bare hands and listening to this women continue to tell me to STAY CALM. When my dad got there, I got all the stuff he needed to make a tourneqout while he held preasure, and she was STILL telling me to stay calm! I was so mad, I was furious... It wasn't until the next day that my brother (who also showed up and helped AWESOMELY) said to me, you do know she was panicking don't you? I had no idea, that was how she reacted... to tell people to stay calm... she was basically frozen... I would have rathered she be frozen than telling me to ... STAY CALM!!!! LOL....


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## MaryMooCow22 (May 7, 2008)

Farmpony that is weird! And funny! And scary!! All at the same time!

My story's not that bad, but it freaked me out. I was trail riding a year ago with five other people. I was riding a 29 year old paint gelding, and I was bringing up the rear. So, we got to this one part of the trail where there was a steep hill. There was no way around it, because the other fork in the trail (that we usually take) was cut off by a ginormous fallen tree. So every started to go down the hill, one at a time...it was kinda slippery and scary to watch, but everyone in front of me made it down safely.
I was getting ready to go when our leader looked back up and said "Uh-oh. I forgot about ole Breezy back there!" I decided this was totally not a good idea, so I was going to turn around and go back to the barn. I pulled on the reins to turn, but Breezy wouldn't have it! He did not want to leave. 
So he started walking forward, down this dirt clumped, tree-leg littered rock pile of a hill!! I pulled back on his reins and did everything I could to get him to stop, and he wouldn't have it!! So he continues to stumbled down the hill rocks, tumbling down after us. Finally, I just gave up. I released the reins, closed my eyes and held on TIGHT to the horn, so he could just do his thing.
THANK GOODNESS I can say, he made it down safely, and no one was hurt. 

OK, so it's really not a scary story, but it freaked me out haha!!


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## LuvMyPaint (Apr 26, 2008)

I can see why MaryMoo - one thing I HATE doing on horseback is going downhill. Even if it's a nice trail, I stil don't like it.

That's awful farmpony! Did your mare heal up fine?


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## Bitless (Jan 11, 2008)

All i can say is eeek to some of the posts above :shock: 

Hahaha horse riders are crazy people :lol: 

A couple more of mine, not to horrible but spooky enough situation :wink:

I was out riding Banjo and leading/ ponying Foxy. They descided to spaz as this big black tarp/plasic thing in the bushes :roll: That was easy enough to control as i new it was there and i new they were most likely to get a fright. And so i crossed the road to go right around it. The bad thing is i had to walk along the side of the street with houses on it :? which i hate doing. 
And sure enough a huge black dog came running out barking. It was a bloody solid thing...some cross bred. dragging a chain , so obviously was supposed to be tied up. I yelled at it as it ran up, which stopped it, but only for a moment. It turned for Banjos back end  Started snarling and snapping at him :evil: , i was still yelling at it, And thank heaven for my wonderfull horse, he stood perfectly still, not even freaking out. then in one swift movment with his back leg...WHAM. he kicked the dog dead on. It rolled for like over 3 meters or somthing along the road then ran away ..hehe. 
I checked Boo once around the corner, and he had a scratch right up on the inside of his hind leg :evil: stupid dog actually bit him, obviously why he kicked it  .

Kinda funny as he was scared of a bag but when it came to a serious situation straight after he kept his cool  so proud of him that day. 

O and another one that got my heart racing......
Foxy the loony started bucking when i was riding him down the hill :x and it aint a little hill. Then to my horror as i try to control him the bridle broke :shock: So the nose band started sliding up his face. He stopped half way down, and i jumped off to fix the bridle. hehe then carried on with my ride, lol. I ended up finding a tiny bit of metal wire half stuck under his horse shoe ( farrier was amazed i even saw it ) which i believe was what cased him to buck. But yea freaked me the hell out at the time :roll:


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I hate running into dogs on a trail :twisted: I'm usually very pleased when Vida kicks them to the curb :lol: 
Farmpony, how did she cut her legs?


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Haha Bitless yes we are! :lol: Woah, I wouldn't want my horse bucking down a hill like that, LOL!


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

the artery, as i said... apparently was GET THIS! superficial... the blood GUSHED with every beat of her heart! SUPERFICIAL! Anyway, that one healed w/out a scar, just a few stitches at the house and then at the equine hospital they redid them because they had a cleaner facility... the tendons, which in all honosty, to me, looked like a gash that needed a couple stitches and would be fine... took a 4 hour surgery and 4 months to heal... she's really good now, she has a permanent limp, but it's mechanical because of mobility, not because of pain...


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## LuvMyPaint (Apr 26, 2008)

That's good she healed up farmpony! Curious as well on how she did it? Although, half the time we never even know do we? :? 

I just remembered two that actually happened to me... Bitless reminded me when she was talking about ponying.

I was ponying Teak last year down to the riverbed. I had taken him down there before, but never by the water (because of my mare's legs - last summer I finally decided she could take the sand). 

So anyways... I was prepared for a struggle the 1st time into the water. My friend got right behind him to push him in and I started in. Well his feet got to the edge and he stopped dead in his tracks! By the time I stopped there was a slack in the rope. Well... then the little ****** decided to leap in and landed half on top of my mare's rear end! His hoof hit me in the back, but not hard. He slid off and stood there shaking. My friends started walking by and the water was splashing everywhere, so he started struggling again. I told everyone to freeze until he got used to it. Within a few minutes he was sniffing and pawing the water and relaxed. After that I had no problems getting him in the water.

The other time was in the riverbed (again ponying Teak about a month later). We got to the middle of the river and stopped the horses for a drink and rest. Teak was having a grand ol time stomping the water and sucking it up. I was watching him play when all of a sudden he took off running. I still had hold of the lead rope so he ran a half circle about 10' out and then the rope hit my friend in the shoulder and I dropped the rope! Luckily no one was hurt...

OH... the reason he spooked... I saw it when he took off. There was an island in the river by us and a Great Blue Heron took off out of it not 15' from us... so I really don't blame him for that. :lol:


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

You know... those heron have been known to eat horses in one big gulp! It's no wonder the spook!

Ok,... welll..... how did she do it.... alright..... here go's.....

I let this 9 year old ride her.... we had just built the barn a few months before and there was left over siding that was piled next to the barn on what is goign to be the pad for my trailer parkign. it's between the ring and the barn, there is no fence around my ring...I told my husband that was a dangerous place to put it... he was goign to move it... the kid thought it would be cool to climb the 3 foot embankment, i told her not to... to late... it happened... I did tell my husband to move the siding, yes... but... you know... the day after it happened, I pulled the tractor up and moved the siding in less than ten minutes... i'm a bad bad bad bad bad bad BAD horsemommy..........


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## LuvMyPaint (Apr 26, 2008)

Ouch! Sounds like an unfortunate accident... hopefully the kid felt bad.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

The kid felt bad... the mom wanted to know if she could ride Blue since beauty was down... um................nah.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Wow, ouchies!!


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## Abby (Nov 26, 2007)

Wow great stories guys. Here is one of mine.

This one time, we were trail riding it was dusky and we were about to cross the highway to get back home since there is no where to ride on the other side of the highway, so we do this all the time. Solomon had spooked at flag snapping, so I moved him away from the road to settle him down I was easing him down and walking him in circles to collect him back up, just asking him to do things and get his mind off the scary flag. Dixie does NOT like it when she has to go on with other horses lagging behind, so she started fighting my mom and my mom was trying to get her away from traffic because o fit but somehow Dixie had spun around and backed into traffic. I've never seen a horse back up so fast. I looked up to see a car skidding on the breaks and began slamming on the horn. Dixie reared while backing up after that and nearly fell over. While she was rearing my mom slipped her feet out of the stirrups and swung off her from the horn, and pulled her down and calmly walked out of traffic. She handled it so well but it was incredibly scary to watch.

Another time we were riding out in the small five acre pasture which has a hill that comes up to the road. Well, we were practicing cantering bareback so we were doing it up the hill so the horses would be slower and would have to stop because there was a fence there. Well, I had never cantered bareback before so it was my first time this time, and we went up the hill and there was a group of people walking wearing hunters orange at the top of the hill. As soon as they got to the top, Dixie spooked and threw my mom off and took off running. Lucky kept cantering but when he saw Dixie go whizzing past he snapped in her direction to follow her, well, he went right and I went left. I somehow managed to hang on though but I was clinging to the side of my horse, my hands and legs wrapped around him, and he kept hitting me with his elbow as he ran. Now that i was hanging on is side, he started whipping in a circle and spinning like a reiner! I felt my grip slack and I flew off him and ended up rolling down the hill. He came after me though, which I thought was a nice gesture and grazed while I lay there collecting myself.

edit- for spelling


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

These are all really great storys everyone! They all belong in a trail riding magazine. 
thanks for the info on the injury Farmpony. I wondered because a friend had a horse step on a glass bottle in a ditch. His horse was very severly injured and had to take a year off. If I remember right it cut up into the heel and messed up some nerves/tendons. 
Everyone watch out for those bottles when riding along roads!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Abby, scary stories!! :shock: Ahh...you guys sure have some crazy experiences lol. :lol:


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