Both Tommy and Ira were totally terrified of turkeys when they first arrived at our house. It's understandable, because neither one had ever seen big noisy birds like these before - VERY up close and personal. At first I had to put each horse in the barn to keep them from trying the fences in an attempt to get away from the turkeys. They were really terrified of them. The tom turkeys like to puff up and strut around while making a very weird noise that sounds like a hand-held fan being whipped out. The weird noise and fanning feathers movement will generally scare the holy living crap out of horses that aren't used to it...
Now currently neither horse could give a flying crap less about the birds. The turkeys get pushy and like to hover around the grain feeders while waiting for the slobbered crumbs to fall onto the ground. The turkeys will actually bump into the horses legs and pop up in mid-flight right next to a horse. If that isn't bird desensitizing..... I'm not sure what is.
They've come a long way since arriving here, and both horses are now recovered "bird-a-phobes".
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