For me I do not mind so much if the horse is on adrenaline , but I would not feel safe , or happy , unless the horse is being attentive to me. This is something that I have learnt again just this morning , MrC jumped abit , but he stayed attentive to me , some what , so I did not feel scared or worried at all .
For me , if I was in a situation where I was scared of some danger . I would want to watch for any potential threat and would be angry and even more scared if my companions kept trying to distract me from watching and looking for a very potential danger . Also , I would feel so much more afraid if my friends appeared to totally not see the threat . Basically I think I am just explaining what Romy has written , being faster , faster , faster than the horse in moving , and being aware of the danger...
I am probably making no sense at all ...
I never want go against the horse , instead if I didn't want to go in that direction , or do what he wanted . I would go along with him and then happily suggest another direction , and show that it is more fun and interesting over there , and , that going in that direction does not mean that we will never go in the direction that he wants . So we go in many directions and eventually forget which way we wanted to go in the first place
For me , spook busting with objects at home , never works in a non-controllable context , such as it is out on a walk , and , like you say , scared-ness of specific , partially immobile , objects is very easy to explain and overcome .
To me , there is a big difference between awareness and attentiveness . As I can see , out on the very few walks we have been on . That MrC can be very aware of something else yet still attentive an conscious of my micro movements . I suppose awareness and attentiveness are technically close , but to me the difference is vast .
With the fact that ; keeping an attentive micro movement connection does not prevent MrC looking , being aware and assessing his environment .Thus I am able to ask and suggest things without stopping him from keeping a clear notion of the environment . I know that I can ask for his complete and utter attentiveness
and awareness , but I know that this is not very productive , as it only allows a very small area that we can walk . As once you break the complete world-blocking-out concentration on each other . He is flooded with stimuli that he missed when was just focused on me , so then it is near impossible to ask for his ,even remote , attentiveness - as there are now way to many thing he needs to look at , at once .
There are many wonderful threads on establishing a body language awareness and micro communication with each other . So I wont go into this , but reading the
Encouraging politeness sticky , and this
What to do to prevent bolting < which is part of the politeness stick ) might be helpful .
I see that I have gone on a bit , but this is all very present in my mind , and writing it down has helped clarify it , some what
But I hope this helps
Good Luck