November 2007

Nervous Horses

Equine anxiety 101: Sometime’s it’s real, and sometimes it’s not.

You’re hacking peacefully along when you feel a tremor go through your horse’s body. His previously floppy ears snap forward, and his head rises up. As you wonder when your horse turned into a giraffe, his steps become slower and shorter, his back drops, and he emits the emphatic horse-in-jeopardy snort.

You look left and right, desperately trying to see the flesh-eating monster that must have just emerged from the bushes. But you see nothing. Nothing but rocks, trees and grass. The same rocks, trees and grass that have always been there.

Unfamiliar sights, sounds and situations can cause any horse to panic.

But wait, what’s that? There, in the tree, a tiny shimmer of white. It looks like a piece…