My husband, daughter and I met some friends at our local state park yesterday to ride. My family and I ride this park about twice a week during the week. Hubby works weekends so we mostly ride during the week. The summer has been crazy weird so this is the first time we have ridden with our friends this year- but our horses have ridden with their horses extensively in the past. We are an hour into our ride and it is great we are having a good time talking and riding. The state park has an air field for model airplanes on it. Well .... yesterday was a "Fly in" for many model air clubs. The high whining sound by the airport was horrible - hubbies normally easy going mare was completely freaked out! I mean freaked out!!! We are trying to get away from the airfield and deeper into the woods and wouldn't you know it a large limb falls from a tree and crashes to the ground. My friends horse bolted and rammed into the back of my daughters horse, friends fell off, loose horse running - hubbies horse is now at DEF CON 9 - she is bug eyes and visibly shaking (you can still hear the airplanes) she is rearing and spinning and is beside herself. Hubby gets off, friends horse is now also bug eyed and nervous. These two decide it is better to walk their horses until we are deeper into the woods and they calm down a bit. I dismount too to check on my daughters horse and to walk with hubby and his horse - Naughty Steve handled this all very well :lol: So they walk for 15-20 min and mount back up. Hubbies horse is prancing and generally not herself she is tossing her head and spinning around to look behind her- friends horse is now doing much of the same. We exit the woods and an RC helicopter dive bombs out of the air - it was huge! This was the last straw - hubbies horse is now rearing and trying to bolt she is so lathered up foam is flying off of her she is grinding her teeth, chewing her bit running backward away from bit when hubby is trying to slow her down - he eventually gets off. Friends horse is also now very upset she gets off and tries to lunge him - which sends hubbies horse into more of a tizzy as this horse is now running in circles and freaking out. So hubby says I am going to walk - he does not feel safe on his mare. I get off too and we tell friends to ride ahead without us. They don't because all of the horses are now snorty and prancy. We walk 30 minutes and are away from the airfield and deep in the woods again. Hubby mounts up and mare is still a basket case - she was like this the last hour back to the trailer.
My question is - what could/should we have done differently. I want to stress this mare has never - ever not once acted like this before. It was like she went over the edge and we could not bring her back. Once we got to the trailer she calmed right down. we untacked her and looked her over for brambles or anything on her or under her saddle that would bring this on. she sat at the trailer for an hour with a leg cocked and eating her hay with no issues. We ride at this park a lot - usually there are no planes duing the week. What do you HT experts think? Hubby is definately not up to this again- he says if she does this more she is going down the road. I think it was just the combination of the planes that she could see in the air doing tricks and diving down and the really horrible loud buzzing they made then the limb falling -= it was just more than she could handle. The one rein stop did not work - this is usually his "calm down" cue for her and she would do it and then spin or rear. What would you have done in this situation?