Isn't it ironic?

[SkarletVoid 195]

I'm a brony, and yet I have a genuine Phobia of horses and ponies irl

[AVagrant 1,740]

Because they aren't Equestria ponies!

[abronymouse 6,152]

horses are pretty dangerous, so that's not a bad phobia 

although I love em :3

look its liddle horsey face :3

G4 is the horsiest generation in terms of sounds and movement, but the models are still quite anthro, especially the faces. 

 

[Snoopy Fan 12,322]

Here’s something else ironic, I don’t really like bugs, but I love A Bug’s Life.

[Dawnshine Wonder 4,021]

Horses in real life usually they only attack if they feel threatened, not at random, but it can happen from time to time. And due to being herbivores, they're not going to eat us, hippopotamus is in fact a more dangerous herbivore to humans due to how often they become aggressive when approached by other animals, but this is a response to a threat, territorial or otherwise.

and horses in MLP FIM I'd definitely not feel threatened by, most of the time. We can never interact with them because of them being fictional Ponies, but generally they are friendly toward each other. 

 

 

(1) Do horses attack humans? - Quora

[Envy 6,480]

Well, MLP ponies aren't very horselike really, so you don't have to feel too weird about it.

An example I have for me is the fact that I find horror and morbidity absolutely disturbs me greatly, and yet I love British (and some early American) Folk music that is very morbid and disturbing. These songs can be so graphic and grim that I can imagine someone would look at me funny for listening to them if they listened to the lyrics... And yet I have no problem with any of it.

This is such a weird contradiction for me. I suppose it's easier to stomach Folk because it's music and not visually graphic. But still... I find it bizarre that I can stomach these songs regardless.

Some examples:

Spoiler

British:

https://theowlservice.bandcamp.com/track/the-red-barn

American:

 

[Clawdeen 25,299]

Nothing wrong with that. I don’t care too much for horses or ponies myself. That being said due to your phobia you may want to skip my explanations of my own reasons for not being a fan of them. Out of courtesy I’ll put all of what I wrote in a spoiler 

 

Spoiler

Especially after all my years of being forced to go to assateague island and watch the ponies on the beach tear up peoples stuff while the life guards stand around doing a poor job at keeping people away from the ponies. Piles of crap everywhere and lots of large flies that like to bite. Plus last time I was there they had a really gross photo on a sign plastered all over the place of a little girl who got bit by one of the ponies. It was a bloody bite mark on a little girl and them warning you to stay away from the ponies. Which really pissed me off. You can warn people without posting a bloody wound photo all over the place. I hope they got the parents permission to plaster their kids photo all over the place like that (but lbr it’s ocean city they so didn’t lmao). 

I even had one of these ponies come up behind me while I was putting stuff in the car and stepped right on my foot which hurt like hell. It was wanting in the back of the car where are stuff was. Idk how it didn’t break anything. Ofc some guy wanted to make a comment about it because he over heard me complaining about having my foot stepped on. Yeah it moved its foot off me but it hurt. We got into it big time because no incompetent man is going to stand there and insult me after I just potentially got injured. His gf just stood there but his mommy came to save him from me tho. 

But everyone wants to go there because ponies on the beach. Absolutely hate it. If the next time I somehow end up forced to go there and I see those signs still there or something else like it I’ll be ripping it off and finding someone to have a conversation with about it. Nobody wants to see gross wound photos all over the place ffs.

On the flip side I’ve got two cousins who are big into riding horses.Always used to rub it in how they have this expensive hobby riding horses as if it makes them better than the average person. They also smell like a horse tho. And I’ll pass on that. 
 

But yeah that’s my tldr reasoning on why I don’t like them much myself

 

Edited April 7 by Clawdeen
Spoilering my sea of text

[Night Sky 1,178]

I will second what others have already said. A certain fear and respect of horses is very healthy and based on several million years worth of instinct. 

Even a pony could kill you under certain circumstances. But a draft horse or Clydesdale, it wouldn't take much at all. You can quite easily get killed or crippled hanging around with horses. 

Look at Superman, even he wasn't exempted from this. Pony magic is poweful magic. The Princesses have all said it, were we listening?

I know people who've owned horses their whole lives. One of them got kicked and has permanent ringing in her ears. Another had to have her jaw entirely rebuilt. My park ranger buddy was inspecting his mount's horse shoes. Next thing he knew everything went black. He had a vague, fleeting memory of a horse nose, and then he woke up totally messed up in the hospital.

And yet. When a horse comes right up to the fence and presses its nose in my face, or when I am feeding them apples, I get the sense that great strength has given rise to great gentleness and innocent belonging, over many more millions of years than us humans have had to learn how to come to terms with ourselves.

Edited April 7 by Night Sky