My rope horse some years back was also a great hunting horse, and would stand ground tied while I shot, I even shot off his back a couple of times...

Got a new 54 caliber Great Plains rifle and it was a good shooter..One day for lack of anything else to do I decided to shoot the muzzle loader off his back at a 5 gal. can..Bang, and he never flinched, then the smoke drifted back in his face and all hell broke loose, I near needed and oxygen mask and my new rifle went flying thru the air as I grabbed everything I could to stay on..Bottom line is the rifle stock snapped in half, and I stayed on him by the skin of my teeth as he quit just before I did!! The villain was the smoke, not the noise or the shot...So I ground tied him and worked him out of that over a couple of days, but be forewarned, test them on the ground first!

I had a horse one time that was terrified of anything that moved near him when he was at any gate over a walk, a leaf blowing across in front of him, a bird taking off from the grass etc. I actually think this horse had something mental going on from other things he would do.

Steve........

A horse I rode as a kid was scared to death of water and would crow hop, buck or go around it always made for interesting ride

Kind of reminds me of the scene in the movie Jeremiah Johnson when he shot the elk with his rifle across the horses neck and paid for his mistake: "Wah pilgrim ya nailed 'em clean"!

I broke two horses to gunfire and shooting off their back. Ray, I don't believe I would have given the smoke the least thought either. Sorry about the rifle but glad you held on!

quote:

posted document.write('<nobr>'+ myTimeZone('Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:01:11 GMT-0800', '26 January 2016 06:01')+'</nobr>');26 January 2016 06:0126 January 2016 06:01Hide PostI had a horse one time that was terrified of anything that moved near him when he was at any gate over a walk, a leaf blowing across in front of him, a bird taking off from the grass etc. I actually think this horse had something mental going on from other things he would do.Steve........

Sounds like a good horse to get rid of

I inserted a threaded 3/8 inch bolt in both parts of the grip, fitted it together with lots of glass, sanded it off refinished the stock and its stronger than ever..can't even see the patch work unless you get it out in bright sun light and only then if you really look hard...

ONe thing for sure if you break a stock, wrap the break with lots of cottom and tape it up until you can repair it...that way you don't bend or damage those thin slivers of wood that gets broken off or bent before you get around to reparing it..otherwise you have spaces and gaps, even when carefully laid away..

Steve E,
That horse was never broke properly..A horse is isn't predatory, his approach by nature is to leave a bad situation, not hurt anyone, but he is a big strong animal and can hurt you..Proper training and they are the best animal on the earth..and a hell of a lot better than a 4 wheeler.