# Scared of horses, any advice please?



## delca1 (Oct 29, 2011)

Hi, I don't often come to the horse section but I was hoping you could tell me your thoughts on my problem 

Indie is a german shepherd, now 8 months old. She has only ever seen horses across a fence and from a distance and has been watchful and a bit scared of them but not noisy.

Last week a horse and rider were coming down a road towards me with a long line of cars slowly following, I kept Indie distracted and kept walking when suddenly a car over took the horse which panicked a little and kept rearing up and kind of prancing right across the road. All vehicles stopped and the rider calmed the horse and off they went again. Trouble is, Indie was really freaked by this and started barking and lunging around on the lead- not really towards the horse but really scared.

I was thinking of approaching some nearby stables to see if I could gradually get her used to being close to horses without being scared and in turn scaring or lunging at them.. 
I'm not sure the reaction I would get...how do you as horse owners/riders feel about me trying this?

Thanks for reading


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## Elles (Aug 15, 2011)

Can't hurt to ask. 

If you were local to me, I'd let you visit my lot. They're all fine with dogs.

They're good in traffic too, no prancing and rearing here.


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## RachJeremy (Sep 14, 2012)

It couldn't of been because the horse was scared it set her off could it? 

But still i agree with above, it never hurts to ask. Either a local yard or find someone nearby who has horses.


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## xemzsx (Feb 10, 2013)

Again im going to repeat asking wont hurt, it really just depends on the owner and the horses themsleves. My advice would be if possible walk her past horses in the field if possible woth some treats etc til she'll happily walk past and not notice them til eventually shes calm enough to get closer to one. As for the horse spooking, Horses can be spooky and get scared over anything even some horses there own shaddows, really theres no way to definitively know what spooked the horse it could be a factor of the weather, traffic, the horse itself ( breed and age), the rider, really just anything 

Emily


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## sillygilly (Oct 6, 2009)

I think its a very good idea to introduce her slowly to horses, as previous post said maybe walking her past grazing calm horses and treating her. I would welcome anyone who wanted to introduce their dog to horses, as mine are all well used to them and would not be in any way spooked by a barking dog. It works the other way as well, I walk my dogs by the side of my ponies so they will not get silly and frighten each other.


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