The 24-year-old actor had to work with a menagerie of animals while shooting his latest movie `Water for Elephants` but says coming face-to-face with one of the equestrian beasts left him particularly shaken. He said: "I had to get knocked down by a horse. That was terrifying. "It was just one split second but (it was) a fully grown stallion - I`m kind of relatively scared of horses as well." The `Twilight` hunk - who stars opposite Reese Witherspoon in the film - was relieved he wasn`t asked to mount the horse during filming. He added in an interview with the USA Today newspaper: "I`m just glad I didn`t have to ride any of them. I`m not particularly good at horse riding." Robert`s horse trouble wasn`t the only animal-related incident on set. The Hollywood hunk - who plays a vet, Jacob Jankowski, who falls in love with Reese`s character, circus performer Marlena Rosenbluth, in the movie - was picked up by the mouth of one of his elephant co-stars. He revealed: "The first time I met Thai the elephant, I just got in her mouth. It just seemed like a good place to be! "She had these huge lips and her teeth were all the way at the back so she just carried me around!"