Hello! Yesterday I was walking my dog around our neighborhood, and just when I was about to go back to my condo a wagon led by a horse passed by. It's definitely not usual for horses to be around like that, as I live in a very much urban city. I'm not sure if my dog had even seen a horse before, but the fact is he went crazy!!! He started barking like crazy and trying to go after the horse, which is so unlike him! He is such a laid back dog and will rarely bark. So I was surprised at his reaction. Even more because right after his barking episode he put his tail under his paws and acted scared. He was still barking and with his tail down until we got home. I'm not sure if he acted like that because of the noise the horse's paws made on the floor, or at the horse itself. The fact was, it upset him! Are dogs usually afraid of horses?
I think it depends where they are raised. I bet your dog was probably just scared never seeing a horse before as you said you live in an urban city and don't ever see them around. But if you have a puppy who's raised around horses then I doubt there would be any issues. I've never heard of dogs just being naturally afraid of horses.
Your dog probably got shocked of seeing a big strange animal around so he was just trying to protect himself by barking but was scared at the same time. Our dogs never really got scared of a bigger animal but they will keep on barking non stop and I noticed that the bigger animals don't come any closer either.
Yeah, as others have said, most dogs are unused to animals such as horses or other large animals. Given that, dogs are also usually wary of anything that makes loud noises - such as with a horse wagon. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it as your dog should eventually start learning otherwise if it keeps on running into this wagon. Moreover, the horse was probably more scared of your dog than your dog was of the horse. Horses are very skittish, and get scared even at smaller animals, much less loud, barking dogs.
