Horses I HATE THE 4th!

[dixygirl]

As a horse owner I can totally relate with you and understand totally. :aww

I am more upset by the fireworks I think than my horse. She is a very spooky girl like me... her mama.

I live in a perpetual trance it seems. If someone walks up to me and says something unexpectedly I jump through the roof startled!

When a 1200 pound horse bolts with fear... it is dangerous. They can go through fences and stake themselves with splinters of wood or cause all sorts of damage. My girl was extremely jumpy too when I first got her. But now after some time, and a very close relationship with me... she has much more self confidence.

When the fireworks start, you may even see her yawning

but usually she is just standing in the field looking at the direction of the noise. I honestly don't know what is responsible for this dramatic change from how spooky she was when I first got her to how comfortable she is now. I have done spook training with her where you stand her on a lunge line and make all sorts of scary noises. Crack a bull whip, shake plastic bags, wave your arms, jump up and down and yell. I know it seems like the LAST thing you are supposed to do with a jumpy horse. But all the top horse trainers recommend it.

You make the scary movements untill they get used to it and stand still. Afterward you follow up with stroking of the animal. They call them desensitization and sensitzation exerecises.

Also there have been studies that show that babies who are constantly held by the mothers cry less. They also noted that particularly Asian babies almost never cry because in their culture the mother constantly holds the baby. Maybe this has a lot to do with it too... My horse has become very confident and calm because she is confident of my loving presence and that makes her feel safe now. It has also transfered and makes her feel that the world is a safe place.

Be that as it may, loud noises ARE very scary to horses and if a horse gets scared, they can kill you or destroy all property in their path. So although some don't have a clue what you are talking about and just pick at things like the word "hate", I know what you are talking about. Don't worry about walking on eggshells when you train them. Do the opposite but follow it up with some valuable gentle time.


Good luck with your horses... Thank God the noise is over for another year.
dixy

 

[spook]

I don't have horses, but the neighbors do...less then 1/2 mile away summer folks that live on the lake have a cannon. Yes, the boom is enough to drive us people nuts, a huge boooom every HOUR. ugh.
What I find most terrible is the ones that touch off fire works and sparklers that are used irrisponsibly into the woods or feild. The potential for a fire is huge and most of these are folks are out of staters, not realizing what the locals deal with.
(I do not mind anyone here, yet its other states that allow these types of explosives, Maine does not- sorry for the rant)

Sorry to hear that it bothers your horses and critters, it seems to stir the hens too. (Independence day- the days after

)

 

[megshenhut]

I understand totally. Only my horses are ok with it. But my senior dog is another story. I miss so sorry for her. Actually all summer is hard on her because of the thunderstorms. Any loud boom, thunder or fireworks sends her into a panic. The chickens and turkey don't seem to mind at all.

 

[spook]

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Not sure about anyone else, but we have had a T-storm almost everyday this summer. Its not fun! Not with how "hot" that they have been.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

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It's okay. Many of our horses were rescues so I know how it is. It was why we take so much effort to desensitize them. We had horses go through our fence last year, but it wasn't because fireworks. The knucklehead abused gelding was running from me(who was trying to catch him). Almost all of our horses were rescues, so it took a bit of work to get them where they are. The two stallions were nearly starved to death, which made it just a lil' bit easier to desensitize BlackJack(who was over 2 years old when I got him and NEVER was handled).

So I can understand getting annoyed with the fireworks. I don't, I thoroughly enjoy them, but I can understand.

LOL. Our white German Shepherd, Sassy, spent the first half the night laying INSIDE the bathtub.

Both German Shepherds hid in the the bathroom. Our mutt stayed outside calmly until we fired off our first mortar, then she considered it to close for comfort and asked to be let inside. She went inside and went to sleep. LOL

Hopefully everyone's beasties survived last night's celebrations.

I know it rained here for about 15 minutes at about 11-12 last night. I thought the shower was wonderful, God making sure there were no stray fires.

-Kim

 

[ilovemychickies]

Our horses were running around scared too. Pretty much everybody in our neighborhood was doing some kind of fireworks (including us

It was a blast! No pun intended.

). From the big huge ones that light up the sky to fountains to blackcats to sparklers. It was crazy yet awesome! I love doing and watching fireworks. But after a while the horses got used to it and settled down. Mom gave them some extra hay to keep them busy while the firework extravaganza was going on. I hope that everybody had a great 4th!

 

[Their Other Mother]

I never really thought about fire works. We live away from town and since they are illegal here the only fire works are put on by a big display company. Even so it rained really good last night so I don't think they could fire them. My horses probably would freak too.

 

[Wildsky]

My horse actually calmed down last night - we went out when all the big fireworks started, and she was in the barn with the goat (goat fast asleep) and Rosie, the horse wasn't snorting or any of the other crazy stuff she does. She was fine.
I was much happier.

We have thunderstorms here often with cracks of thunder really loud, so she's probably getting used to that kind of noise.

There is a firework that squeals and sounds like someone screaming, and that particular one really bothers her...

 

[sred98]

Ours all actually did really good. My young mare ignored everything, but I have her pretty bomb-proof as far as noise and movement goes. Our resident idiot, the Appaloosa/Welsh mix was hopping down the road while I was riding him during the day while neighbors several acres away were shooting blackcat firecrackers.

I don't think he was scared, just an excuse to be an idiot. He's kind of a doofus...a sweet doofus, but a doofus, nonetheless. LOL! But, when he was in the pasture, he was standing there watching them. The Thoroughbred was the one I was worried about. DH forgot to put him in the pasture when we started. He was tied to the fence eating. I guess since he was a racehorse rescue, it didn't bother him. When they started the firecrackers, he jerked his head up and looked at us, then went back to eating. So, ours did fine. We were doing the mortars and stuff not terribly far away, and they handled it really well.

Sorry to hear that others had problems. I was worried about ours, since they are all new, but they did great. I agree with the sensitization/desensitization techniques. My mare would start running if she heard a twig snap-literally-because I got her from a person's backyard with no trees in it. She had no idea what that noise was. It took a lot of work, but she isn't scared of anything, now. If she hears a strange noise, she looks at me to see what I am doing. I have to reassure her, but she doesn't freak out, at all.

Shelly

 

[Wildsky]

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Sounds like my girl - ANY excuse to act silly!!!