Crugeran Celt
Well-Known Member
Never met a dumb Welshie, mine outsmarts me regularly!!!!
You should meet my Sect D, can't decide if he is so intelligent it has made him neurotic or if he just hasn't got a working brain cell.
Clever breeds?
- Thread starter bluewhippet
- Start date
You should meet my Sect D, can't decide if he is so intelligent it has made him neurotic or if he just hasn't got a working brain cell.
ShadowFlame
Well-Known Member
I'm finding it slightly baffling to be honest
Rods (Cob) could empty a Decahedron in a matter of minutes - he'd got the art of pinning it in a corner, and stamping on the edge. Cue treat ball spinning round on the spot, depositing everything in the same spot = little effort and lots of food
It also took him a matter of days to work out an efficient way of emptying a trickle net, triple net, quadruple net, you name it, it'd be empty so quick you're stood there wondering "how?!".Flyer (Welsh D) had the memory of an elephant, and remembered places he hadn't been in over a decade. He still tried to take himself "home" when we hacked past old yards.
Pele (Arab) is the sort that will get himself into trouble if he doesn't have something to focus on. Probably a combination of being young, and having an active mind. He picks up on commands / behaviour quickly, even when it's not something you're actively trying to teach him.
Which is more intelligent? Impossible question, because they all excel(led) in different fields. I'm sure there were animal intelligence studies conducted a while ago that stated something along the lines of: you can have an intelligent horse, you can have an intelligent dog. However the type of intelligence will be different - a dog is a carnivore that needs to catch prey, i.e. they need to calculate (which is why collies and such can catch a ball in mid-air, which takes a fair bit of maths!). A horse, on the other hand, needs memory and methods of escape more than they do calculation, and they'll excel more at those. Doesn't mean to say either are smarter, but they are different. In that sense, the Cob and the Welsh probably beat the Arab, because their efforts (and skills) centre around self preservation.
Having said that, I did know an IDxTB who was a real "lights on but no-one home"... but maybe he was just misunderstood
TheLadyInBay
Well-Known Member
My older mare (Welsh cross breed ) is brilliant at playing silly ******s, she is intelligent enough too convince your she is really stupid. For example she used to pretend that she didn't understand the aids to pick up on the right lead on that particular day. Her face would go blank and she would humble and always pick up on the wrong leg after this. People would be like awwwww she is finding this difficult and try and make the work easier.
If you knew it was on purpose, you could shout, "oi, do it properly" and she would do a fly change onto the correct leg. Little madam.
If you knew it was on purpose, you could shout, "oi, do it properly" and she would do a fly change onto the correct leg. Little madam.
StormyMoments
Well-Known Member
I think it depends on the horse really not so much the breed although breed can be a factor but you cant tarnish all the horses of the same breed as being a bit dim unless you have met every single one of them 
My ISH proves very often that he can be smart but quite often isn't smart at all. training wise I only had to do one session on him to teach him flying changes on both reins and even after not doing it for 2 years he knows what im asking of him. Also when trying to get grass under the fence rather than zapping his face on the electric fencing every 2minutes he would lay on his side and put his head on the fence. he also used to let himself out of his stable, eat everyone's morning feeds then lock himself back in his stable. he also lets other horses out of their stables. but on the other hand he doesn't learn from his mistakes and repeats them again and again.
My PRE is very devious. He learns very quickly - i.e took him 10 mins to learn to self lunge, going up a gait with a lift of my hand and dropping down a gait when I lower my hand, making the circle bigger and smaller by putting my hand out in front of my chest or putting on my chest, changing direction to me saying 'change' and going the full length of the school when asked to 'go large'. he can also open doors, gates and turn on taps, he fetches things and will carry things when asked, holds his own lead rope when asked and can count
My ISH proves very often that he can be smart but quite often isn't smart at all. training wise I only had to do one session on him to teach him flying changes on both reins and even after not doing it for 2 years he knows what im asking of him. Also when trying to get grass under the fence rather than zapping his face on the electric fencing every 2minutes he would lay on his side and put his head on the fence. he also used to let himself out of his stable, eat everyone's morning feeds then lock himself back in his stable. he also lets other horses out of their stables. but on the other hand he doesn't learn from his mistakes and repeats them again and again.
My PRE is very devious. He learns very quickly - i.e took him 10 mins to learn to self lunge, going up a gait with a lift of my hand and dropping down a gait when I lower my hand, making the circle bigger and smaller by putting my hand out in front of my chest or putting on my chest, changing direction to me saying 'change' and going the full length of the school when asked to 'go large'. he can also open doors, gates and turn on taps, he fetches things and will carry things when asked, holds his own lead rope when asked and can count
LittleRooketRider
Well-Known Member
I could never do gridwork with my old (now 23) NF x TB mare as after the 1st go she would progress in to a flat out/mad hatter gallop whatever the distances and more frustratingly for the instructor she would get everything spot on and never touch the poles. any attempts to slow her down (on the instructors part) were in many ingenius ways avoided and proven pointless.....
eg. any trotting poles were cleay long-jumped as were canter poles
creating spooks to try and make her slow down and think about it were simply jumped bigger. if the instructor tried to slow her down by standing in front of the grid lucy would charge headfirst, and dodge at the last minute. trotting in had no affect and walking in resulted ina rocket launch....etc etc in the end the instructor avoided doing grid work wih us at all costs. may i add that at this point Lucy was 17/18 and liked to think she knew best and to be honest most of the time she was/is
Another example is Kitty (out od Lucy) who takes great pleasure in scaring my 75 year old instructor whitless buy larking about in front of the fence before showing off and getting herself out of all sorts of pickles and clearing the fence in her trademark exuberance
eg. any trotting poles were cleay long-jumped as were canter poles
creating spooks to try and make her slow down and think about it were simply jumped bigger. if the instructor tried to slow her down by standing in front of the grid lucy would charge headfirst, and dodge at the last minute. trotting in had no affect and walking in resulted ina rocket launch....etc etc in the end the instructor avoided doing grid work wih us at all costs. may i add that at this point Lucy was 17/18 and liked to think she knew best and to be honest most of the time she was/is
Another example is Kitty (out od Lucy) who takes great pleasure in scaring my 75 year old instructor whitless buy larking about in front of the fence before showing off and getting herself out of all sorts of pickles and clearing the fence in her trademark exuberance