Newbee question

Hi,

How do horses out in the field react on a balloon that is landing or taking off quite close to them?

In rec.aviation.balloon,

Most horses shy from the sound of the burner & pilot light.

Some will panic and run.

That being said - the guy that taught me to fly taught me that the ONLY reason to be anywhere near horses is an dire emergency...

- Dan.

Horses that are accustomed to balloons very often continue with what they were doing, undisturbed by the balloons.

Some horses new to the area will be skittish, and will run around in the pen if they have adequate space. If you happen to come upon an unexpected horse, you can often calm it by yelling at it. Try to either overfly it or climb out with as few burns as possible.

We try not to launch near horses, but if we are close to the ground, we make less noise if we can complete the landing.

The personality of the horse (emu, ostrich, pig) seems to be similar to the owner.

I agree with Alan Sanderson. The temperament of the critters depends a lot on the temperament of the owner.

And, the more room they have in the pasture to run, the less likely you are to have an 'occurrence'.

We try to give them plenty of room, and we *do* talk to them if we have to fly over. The sound of a human voice will be somewhat comforting. Trouble with horses is, that if something happens to one of them, you can be sure the owner is convinced it would have been the next derby winner, and will want to be compensated accordingly.