The hunters scare the crap outta Mara (and New Years' fireworks in our yard)

I would have thought a hot air balloon would be scarier than hunters. Wrong again.


Last night our friendly neighborhood Foerster came to the door to tell us they'd be hunting tomorrow. We love his visits, it's always interesting. He told me he didn't want my horse getting scared and I said it's no problem. I told him how in America, we outfit ourselves in orange to avoid getting shot in the woods, but if people did that here, it would be ridiculous - only professional hunters shoot in the woods, and they put up signs and tell the neighborhood first.

We wished him good luck. I assumed it would be no problem because Mara has heard gunshots and they don't bother her.

I had no idea how much the hunters would freak her out. They arranged themselves at intervals around the little wood across the street and waited. One had an Irish Setter with him, this was the one Mara could see from her paddock. They all wore blaze orange or green and had rifles.

They just stood there, and that is what freaked the horses out.


The horses across the street were also quite upset.

Mara kept going to the gate to the pasture and trying to leave, and finding it closed, over and over. She stood in her giraffe pose staring at that statue-still guy who "DOESN'T BELONG!!!"

Since people walk across that field often, it was apparently the way those hunters were just standing still that freaked the horses out. Also, they were using whistles to communicate, so that's new.

Poor Mara, I couldn't comfort her, and she was shaking all over. I got a video. This was how she was shaking when she saw the reindeer (I still have to blog that).

Finally they whistled a code to each other and all came together down on the street. One had a huge rabbit over his shoulders. RABBIT? Come on guys.

I guess Mara knows about hunters now. Hopefully next year won't be so bad for her.







You can see the hunter on the right.




















New Years Update: After this occurred, I contacted my vet, showing him the video of her trembling, and asking him for "something" for Mara. He prescribed Zylkene and we started that a couple days before the 31st. I think it helped, I stayed up with her through all the fireworks - our neighbors all have their own private displays, which means even directly next door, they fire off rockets 50 meters away from my horse and donkey. 

I was so scared I would get hurt I had to stand under cover. But Mara only trembled a few minutes, and was pretty OK with the horror for the most part. Bellis was what you'd call "uncomfortable"  - she stood with her ears pricked toward the neighbors' yard, with a worried look in her eyes. But she also took many breaks to eat the extra hay I gave them. Mara couldn't eat, and she sprayed out fluid poop every few minutes, but she wasn't moving erratically, her bodily movements were not quick, she was keeping it under control. (Way better than the 3rd reindeer experience earlier that day....still must blog that, sorry.)

It actually made me mad that people shoot fireworks off so close to flight animals, knowing what might result (next door is the show-jumper lady). Last year I pulled 26 rockets out of my pasture on the 1st. Today, the 1st again, I see my field is, again, littered with fireworks. It's a horsefield, neighbors, come on, can't you fire them into the field across the street with no horses? My man told me today that Herr S who owns the boarding stable across the street stays home each Silvestser to watch over the horses. Well, honestly, you can do both, watch fireworks and care for flight animals - it's his grandkids shooting them off in the street in front of his house.

We made it through the night, and I'm gonna keep Mara on a low dose of Zylkene over the next couple months. I couldn't sleep after that hunter thing, realizing she needs help.