Are some horses more snorty than others?!

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soloequestrian

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My youngster is a great one for snorting. Mainly at the dasdardly killer sheep that keep appearing in next door fields. Depending on proximity and how evil they look she will snort, flag her tail, prance around and sometimes flee. It made me very wary of the initial snort when I'm on her until someone on here used the phrase 'a polite snort' when talking about horses being wary. That phrase has made me think that perhaps the prancing and fleeing are not always going to follow so I'm getting better at just riding positively (rather than hopping off) when a snort inducing situation occurs. None of my others have every really used snorting when they sensed something to be wary of - just alert body posture but no noise. Is the youngster unusual?
 
I think it completely depends on the horse.

Topaz is the queen on snorting in my little herd! She does it at everything and anything, doesn’t always follow up with much these days thankfully, but she is very spooky and reactive in general.
 
Yes my chestnut gelding snorts and puffs for England. I’m always laughing at him as he has a snort for every occasion. In the summer I often ride in the evening then we put the horse in for their dinner whilst we have a cup of tea and I always know when he’s finished and wants to go back out as you can hear him from the tea room ?.

He’s generally spooky but not every snort means he’s off.
 
Our young connie snorts when he is concerned - absolute dragon snorts. Head up, nostrils falred. But rarely, if ever these days, does more. It can be a sound of alarm - although horses can also snort and blow a few minutes into exercise to just clear thier noses - but it does not have to be immediately followed by an over reaction. Perhaps as her snorting makes you nervous it feeds back to her and she thinks there is soemthing to be truely frightened of. If you can just think of it as a conversational "Oh.." and respond in a calming manner it would probably help her.
 
Mine is fairly vocal and has what I believe are different snorts - the very loud honky one which may or may not be followed up by a big spook, interested snorts, relieved snorts, scared snorts and one whiffley snort that sounds like gentle purring & that he only does coming in from the field. He is very reactive, and that first reaction is generally to leg it rather than stop and look, so I've put a bit of effort in trying to learn the slightly different sounds.

Feel free to scoff at this, it just works for me. He's the most snorty horse on the yard.
 
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We have the relatively rarely seen danger snort which is very loud and not dissimilar to something you may hear on Jurassic Park. This snort is followed by tail flagging and a big pinging gait (or a violent halt) or mixture of both. Then we have the out hacking snort which is when something extra dangerous is seen (different colour pavement for example) which requires more than a stop/spook/ tiptoe. He is quite a reactive twit and not entirely convinced that I'm correct in telling him it's not going to eat him.
 
Yup, I had a spooky connie cross that was a master of the snorts. He didn't do it when he was genuinely frightened - too busy running very fast - but at anthing that had changed from the day before like tyre tracks, or an odd paper bag. His party trick was to wait until everyone had been fed and tucked up for the night, then do the loudest snort which made them all rush to their doors while he smugly go back to his feed.
 
We have a very rare snort... Almost always followed by a increase in height and promptly followed by high alert prance around or flee!!

Thankfully these snorts only ever seem to happen in his own time and can be witnessed from afar!
 
My new horse (well new since last summer) happily snorts, sighs, whinnies and huff puffs his way through everyday life. He is the most vocal horse I have ever owned and makes me laugh every ride as he sticks his giraffe head over high hedges and whickers and snorts at whatever he sees, or thinks he sees, on the other side.

He is my OH's favourite as he delights in telling everyone how the new horse really likes him and chatters and chuntles at him every morning when he goes to check them. I haven't the heart to tell him he does this all the time to absolutely anyone lol!
 
My gypsy cob mare is very vocal and snorty. Tonight she entertained herself by repeatedly snorting into a metal grating over a drain. Like the horse above with the metal bucket she was intrigued by the noise she would make with it. It was hilarious to watch her.
 
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