bored horses

[Ibblebibble]

you hear a lot these days about 'bored' horses, breaking them in early because they are bored etc etc. Why is this, what are the signs of boredom?
Are we actually just projecting human emotions on them ? i can understand horses that are stabled for long periods could be bored because standing in a 12x12 box is unnatural for them, but a horse that's in a field eating and wandering about surely is just doing what a horse does?

 

[Wagtail]

Interesting post. I think that generally, so long as a horse is eating it's not bored. But when confined in stables and fed at set feeding times, then yes, horses get extremely bored. There are some horses, like my field ornament mare, who gets bored just because I am no longer riding her. She used to love being ridden and learning new things. Now I have to keep her mind active by doing clicker training with her, otherwise she becomes a real pest, barging out of the field everytime you want to take another out or put one back in etc. She barges out and takes herself into the yard and to the tacking up area. If I keep her busy though, she doesn't do this. So I would say that MOST horses, so long as they are on nice pasture do not get bored, but there are exceptions, like my mare.

 

[Ibblebibble]

hmm one of mine will try to follow the other horse out the field but thats cos he's a big jessie and doesn't like being left without her lol
i can understand a horse missing a routine that they have become accustomed too, if they've been ridden regularly then have to retire due to injury /illness i can understand them taking a while to get used to not being ridden and having that routine, but again is it really boredom which a lot of people would claim or just a change of lifestyle that takes getting used to

 

[bugsylugs]

A lot of older horses I've ridden become grumpy when they aren't worked as much as they used to be and the younger ones were cheeky to get attention but once a routine was established most of them were fine even if stabled 24/7!

A friend of mine is confusing her horses naughtiness with boredom. It's just over 3 years old and she backed him just before he was 3 due to him being bored. He was bargy and a general sod so that was her conclusion. She is going to keep him in over winter and start to school him properly next year.

Most of the yard disagree with her but she won't have any of it. She feels that his boredom is creating his naughtiness. He lives out 24/7 at the moment so goodness knows how naughty he'll be when in 14 hours a day and bored! She can't understand that you can have a youngster live out and still work with it and teach it even it not actually sitting on it.