Horses are Funny

Horses are funny. They are big animals, but they are still prey animals and can get spooked at the tiniest thing. The other day I was riding Harley in the indoor arena. The dirt had been watered and there were a few puddles. We start in a clockwise direction walking around the arena and through the puddles. We pick up our posting trot and trot through the puddles. At the posting trot we change direction and go through one puddle. As we approach the second puddle from this new direction Harley suddenly starts, shies away and starts backing up. "Oh my God! It's going to kill us!!!!!!!!" I squeeze him on and talk to him and he darts around it. We keep going, through the other puddle without a thought. As we approach the demon puddle I start reassuring him and squeezing him harder. He still looks at it like it's going to swallow us whole, but he goes through it. We did it one more time before we started cantering. He cantered through it without giving it a second thought, but as I walked him to cool him down he wasn't too happy about that puddle. Yes, horses are funny.