Bizarre horsey habits?

FestiveFuzz

FestiveFuzz

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H has always been an oddball in my book but every once in a while he'll approach eye on and use whatever bare skin you have to put his eyeball on you and blink. He's done it since the very first time I viewed him so I've never thought much of it but a friend saw him doing it the other day and was really creeped out.

So what's your horses weirdest habit?
 
He licks my car...
No one elses, just mine.

When he sees it, he makes a beeline towards it and would happily stand there with it for as long as I let him!!


Oh, he also stares at himself in windows. *cough* poser.
 
Mine is a bit obsessed with shoes, human shoes that is..... on entering his stable, he will carefully sniff my footwear, perhaps an investigative nibble, until he's satisfied that they're ok. The other week, I went in his stable wearing a new pair of yard boots he'd never seen before - he stopped eating his feed (!!) and gave them a REALLY good sniff and a bit of a light chewing, snorted at them and carried on with his dinner....bizzare.
 
FestiveFuzz said:
H has always been an oddball in my book but every once in a while he'll approach eye on and use whatever bare skin you have to put his eyeball on you and blink. He's done it since the very first time I viewed him so I've never thought much of it but a friend saw him doing it the other day and was really creeped out.

So what's your horses weirdest habit?
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He is giving you butterfly kisses :)
 
I was going to start a thread on this the other day!
My horse is rising two, homebred so I know every single part of his life to date.
I've had multiple horses in the past, all had a few odd habits but I always put them down to something that's happened before I got them.
My lad just has a few carrots and a quartered apple for his tea (sports horse bred but seems to be looking fantastic on haylage and fresh air!) I've noticed recently he ALWAYS eats the carrots first. I've actually seen him take the apple out of his feed bucket and put them on the floor and eat them when he's eaten the carrots.
Another odd this he does is to do with water. He has a large trug bucket for his water, he gets completely fresh water every morning, and topped up in an evening... when I top it up, he HAS to drink some out of the bucket I'm topping it up with... Like he has to check it's ok(!!)
I know everything about him, he has never gone without water, never had dirty water...
Makes you wonder HOW they pick up these strange habits!

Littleshetland, my boy also loves shoes, especially if they have laces!
 
My girl has the polo-face..neck stretched out over stable door, ears pricked sideways, eyes slightly bulging, head tilted about 45 degrees to the right...she always knows when you have polos and will do this until you giver her one (or 10 )

Also whenever I put her travel boots, brushing boots, hiviz bands on shehas little nibble/tug on the near fore one, never the off side..??
 
She has this puddle in the field and likes to stand in it and eat the wet grass around the edge. The other day it was frozen so she licked the ice like an ice lolly, then made a hole and drank some muddy water. She had access to her pristine trough but no she wanted her puddle.
 
One of the mares at work, she is affectionately called Weirdo! Will take polos from you one at a time - no matter how many you have on your hand. She picks one up, pops it somewhere in her mouth, takes another, and another etc. Without chewing them until she gets 11 polos in her mouth. Offer her a 12th one and she will spit one out to take it. Offer her another one and another has to vacate the mouth before she will take it. Only ever 11! she will take them and drop them Until you offer her no more then she will crunch the ones she jas in her mouth before hoovering up the rest - again one at a time!

She also squeals and broncs round the box if you touch her under her jaw :D the amount of people she scares when they go to tack her up is brilliant! I am usually called on to tack her up as I just laugh at her. I am also the only person that can get a hug from her. She always turns her backside to the door when she hears the bolts go or sees you coming. Most people have to wait her out or shimmey her around waving a rope. I walk on, spread my arms and say "Weirdo Hug" and she spins round and her head is straight in my chest. She will stand for ages like this. She really is a bit spesh!

When she retires I sincerely hope she goes to a stud that will get her attitide - if not I will take her home ... just don't tell my mother lol!
 
My usually overly bold gelding cannot tolerate even the littlest of streams/creeks in winter. He becomes so afraid that he refuses to cross a creek only one step wide or will cross it with a HUGE jump. He also won't drink from such streams during winter, even if he uses them all the time in warmer months. Go figure.
 
Our jumping pony, Toby, used to do a full stretch when you,took his rug off. When he stretched his front end, his elbows were almost on the floor. This was every rug change. His new owner has confirmed that he still does it.

Also, Toby, at shows when you were standing by the ringside he would wrap his head and neck round your legs, keeping you close, which was lovely on a cold day!

We had a young horse, Jay, (RIP) who would always stand with one back leg in a bucket if there was one nearby. If it wasn't close enough he would manoevre himself until he could reach the bucket and pull it nearer so he could stand in it.

Gotta love 'em. X
 
My wonderful boy shows if he really likes you by shuffling around until he can present you with his bottom! Embarrassingly he really does like to get up close to you...bit difficult to explain to anybody who doesn't know him!! And if you give his tail a scratch you're his best pal for life.

He also has an annoying fetish of rubbing his hocks / back of cannon bone - one leg at a time up and down the side of the wheelbarrow whilst I'm poo picking...happiest if he can't combine a good leg itch with knocking the barrow over!
 
Bambi gets a bit too aggressive rubbing her haynet with her head, after shes's been ridden and especially if she's sweaty she rubs and rubs her head! She also loves digging in the muddiest puddles in the field and slapping her hooves in the water! Another trick she does is fill her mouth up with water then come to the stable door and spray over you!

Chloe is a total diva and has many bizzare habits depending on what mood she's in! Tell her to get over herself and she's usually fine!

Our old boy would nibble your legs and had a thing about zips! My OH's old mare Joyce, when in season would wrap her neck right round you and nibble your bum, she'd also try and pin you to the wall! :eek:
 
Hanson said:
My wonderful boy shows if he really likes you by shuffling around until he can present you with his bottom! Embarrassingly he really does like to get up close to you...bit difficult to explain to anybody who doesn't know him!! And if you give his tail a scratch you're his best pal for life.

He also has an annoying fetish of rubbing his hocks / back of cannon bone - one leg at a time up and down the side of the wheelbarrow whilst I'm poo picking...happiest if he can't combine a good leg itch with knocking the barrow over!
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My mare (ASBO as I call her) does this too. You have to put her in a seperate paddock if you want to poo pick in peace! She isn't strange as such, but is VERY friendly and always in your face.

My gelding is very strange and has rituals almost. When he see's me coming with his halter (and only ever with his halter) he has to go for a wee before he'll be caught. When turned back out he always has a drink. Even if he's literally caught, checked over and released, he'll go for a drink. He eats in a specific order too, picks out any veg and leaves them till last. He also eats apples in 3 bites, no matter how small they are. Strange pony.
 
The throughbred always has to dip her tongue in the water before she will take a drink.
The ISH will always nibble you when you are grooming her front cannon bones.
As soon as you put them in the stable they will both always take a mouthful of hay, do one lap of the stable then have a wee. It is strange that they both do it and they have never been stabled near each other.
 
My gelding hates hates hates having his ears touched, but will deliberately duck under his leadrope when tied up, lift his head up, and 'ping' it off his ears. It made me panic the first few times, thinking that he'd got the rope wrapped over his head and that he might panic, but I've since seen him do it deliberately and repeatedly. Occasionally he does get stuck, but he just stands quietly and waits to be rescued.

He also licks the farrier's back while having his front feet done.

And if you stand outside his stable with a drink in your hand, you will get a tongue in it!
 
My Horse will only let me put her bridle on when shes facing a certain direction. As soon as she sees me coming with her bridle she will start getting into position! If I try to bridle her facing a different way she will drag me in a circle.
 
Give my mare something tasty, especially extra strong mints, she folds her tongue over against the roof of her mouth. Never seen anything else do that. She also walks down the yard, sticks her nose over the door to check her box and promptly refuses to go in if it's not mucked out! Can't say I blame her really but you would think she would prefer being in, eating and out the rain whilst I fix her bed haha
 
One of mine has to stand on anything she can - hay bales, tractor buckets, fallen tree trunks.. using a mounting block is a race to see who gets on it first, and once she jumped all four feet up on a large bale of haylage and stood peering over the hedge at the horses freaking out on the other side. She's 15hh and much too big to be doing things like that!
 
Long time lurker but had to share my Clyde x's habits! She was called Sweetie and she used to do the craziest things. I think it was her way of showing affection. For example she used to stand perpendicular to me and put her lips around my ear but keep her teeth shut and she would stand like it for hours if you let her, she only ever did it to me now I think about it. It was lovely and toasty in winter but not so fun when she came as you after dinner!

She also used to literally sit down, two front legs straight as poles but bum firmly on the floor if you tried to make her walk through any sort of water. Wouldn't even entertain the thought. And she would not get up (all 17.2hh of her) till you had walked away then would follow you so you could get back on. (We used to hack mainly around the farm she was stabled on so I got so exasperated the first time I thought sod it, sit there then and walked off as the stables were in sight and she always napped home, then she got up and followed me.)

To be honest she just loved sitting, she never once kicked, bit, reared, bolted but would often sit. If the sheep were annoying her in the field she would try and sit on it. She sat on my car bonnet that she had decided was too loud. She tried to sit on a donkey through a fence on a hack also as they make the most alarming noise! And she tried to sit on her companion shettie once when he kicked her by accident, and when she failed she just lied down and rolled over on him instead. Luckily she didn't ever fully squash anything that I can think of, sizeable dent in my bonnett though!
 
A horse I had on loan over the summer had a habit of shaking his head every time you took off his bridle. Which doesn't sound bad, but he would deliberately smack you across the face with his ears! It took me about a week to learn to stand away from him after I took off the bridle :D

One of the ponys will go for a wee every time I muck her out. As in, EVERY time. The other, when they run in to go to their stables, will go into the horses stable, take a bite out of his feed and then leg it out to his own stable before the horse gets to the yard and kills him 😂

My horse rubs his head on the side of the feed trough after each ride, trying to rub his bridle off or something? God only knows!
 
My boy loves having his bits and between his back legs scratched. He lifts a back leg up for you to facilitate this. If anyone else looks after him I have to warn them, he's never kicked in his life but waving hind legs at people may alarm them! If you stop he'll follow you and present his rear end to you to continue. :lol:
 
littleshetland said:
Mine is a bit obsessed with shoes, human shoes that is..... on entering his stable, he will carefully sniff my footwear, perhaps an investigative nibble, until he's satisfied that they're ok. The other week, I went in his stable wearing a new pair of yard boots he'd never seen before - he stopped eating his feed (!!) and gave them a REALLY good sniff and a bit of a light chewing, snorted at them and carried on with his dinner....bizzare.
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My home bred 3 year old is exactly the same, riveted by feet. Has been since she was a foal!
 
My horse was very ill in 2010 and didn't want to go out to the paddock (which is 400m away from home and stable). Worried that he'd get very stiff and his legs would fill being stabled, I let him use my back garden as a mini paddock and he really liked it and the ritual became written in stone. He used to come in from the paddock at 6 and spend most of the summer evenings in the garden.

Here's the weird bit... he garden trained himself and never went to the loo in the garden. He'd nip in his stable, pee/poo, then come back out again and resume where he left off, usually scoffing the neighbours climbing roses that hung over our side. I'd love to say he was as clean in the paddock, but he poohed and pee'd all over the place.
 
My old mare stands waving a back leg to indicate she would like her udders scratching, she has me well trained and has trained other humans as necessary to perform this essential task!
 
Great thread! My boy has started weeing whenever he comes into his stable (he used to be shy of doing this when anyone was watching). I've also noticed he chucks the carrots out of his feed and eats them last (I use a carrot or two to stir in a scoop of codlivine!). Being a good RS pony he always lowers his head as soon as he's tied up after a ride to make it easier to take the bridle off!
 
suffolkmare said:
Great thread! My boy has started weeing whenever he comes into his stable (he used to be shy of doing this when anyone was watching). I've also noticed he chucks the carrots out of his feed and eats them last (I use a carrot or two to stir in a scoop of codlivine!). Being a good RS pony he always lowers his head as soon as he's tied up after a ride to make it easier to take the bridle off!
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Will he pee in a bucket to save wetting the bed?
 
This thread is soooo funny! :D

My mare has few weird habits, but when she has finished her breakfast bucket and goes over to the hay feeder, she always has a pee. The little mare is pretty normal, but when I tried to give her brussels sprouts as a treat, she carefully ate all around them: the bucket was totally clean, with clean sprouts...I thought she didn't like them, but then she had them all for pudding a bit later.

The Spooky Pony has many quirks, but his funniest gave him his competition name: he looooves clothes fastenings, zippers, velcro, toggles of any kind (likes to twannnnggg the trimmer's hoodie toggle elastic while his feet are being done), but especially buttons. He'll seize them, and if not prevented, remove and quickly crunch up and/or swallow them. Several hapless people have fallen prey to this oddity! When asked how he got his name, I just say that it's a warning... :D
 
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