Compile a cv for your horse- do they actually get bored?

[The-Bookworm]

Ok I am flicking through my books. The ones you buy, flick through and they sit on the shelf creating dust.

So for a Sunday something to do I grabbed the 100 ways to a perfect partnership book by Susan Mcbane.

Number 59 talks about how adaptable the horse is.
It suggests writing a cv as if they were applying for a job and to mention their good points, not so good such as health restrictions. Keep positive but be realistic.
So your superbly quiet horse could apply for a job as helping out a nervous rider.

But it goes on to say many horses are clearly bored with their lives if they only ever have one job. Mine is a happy hacker and yes I admit if we just do the same few routes we are both bored. She's more interested and alert if I pop somewhere we haven't for a while. We have more routes than days so I am lucky.
But for a job I think she's a circus entertainer as she plonked down for a roll with no warning and I hadn't finished riding at that point!
We've tried stick and ball and it was a hilarious disaster. Any budding players on here want a mallet with bite marks in it. I can assist.

 

[rara007]

I don’t think being bored in work is a complaint any of mine have had the chance to worry about!

 

[Leo Walker]

Mine drives, we do road work, faster fittening work, basic flat work, cones and obstacles. People ride her as well, generally fearless teenagers who charge about jumping which she seems to love. She does the odd bit of lunging or long reining and the odd ground work session. I dont think shes bored with her work. Shes out with a little herd of similar sized ponies and they graze, wander about and have play sessions so a nice life for a pony.

 

[DabDab]

Artemis - intelligent, hard working, confident perfectionist. Easily irritated by the simple minded, over bearing or those who are a bit wet and vague. Also does not care for running water. A natural leader and communicator.

Dabs - goofy comedian meets slick cool guy. More of a blue sky thinker than a work horse, and likes to 'push the envelope'. Gets by more on his strength of personality than technical expertise. Excellent strategist.

Pebbles - affable, friendly team player. What she lacks in conventional intelligence she more than makes up for in willingness. Keeps cool under pressure and is liked by everyone.

No, I don't think any of mine get bored, but mainly because I get bored very easily so I vary what I do with them a lot, and none of them really have a set 'job'

 

[Michen]

Boggle- bonkers.

But no, never bored. If I do something boring he makes his own fun.

 

[The-Bookworm]

Boggle- bonkers.

But no, never bored. If I do something boring he makes his own fun.

I have one like that. Opportunist.

 

[ihatework]

CV’s?

Giant:
All round mr nice guy. Dependable and reliable. Delivers to target although sometimes needs a line manager to keep him motivated. Within a structured organisation he has the ability to be an over-achiever although left to his own devices could easily take extended lunch breaks.

3yo homebred:
The little comedian of the team whose exhibitions could easily be misunderstood for naughtiness rather than underlying anxieties. Acutely alert and intelligent. Responsive to all kinds of emerging situations. High work drive but needs an understanding boss who can channel his abilities in the right direction.

 

[JFTDWS]

I don’t think being bored in work is a complaint any of mine have had the chance to worry about!

Mine neither! Mine mostly hack at the moment - but across a very dense network of bridleways so we do lots of different routes, different speeds, different plans. But they also do, or have done, TREC, horseball, polocrosse (I still do a bit of stick and balling even though I'm not playing), armed stuff / combat stuff like mocked up tent pegging and tilting, barrel racing, mounted games, trick work as well as dressage / sj / xc. And we're going to do archery on Sunday

When teaching Dae to stick and ball, I had a few bite marks on my racquet too. He also liked to trot around with his nose in the net. He eventually learned it was more fun to hoon about properly!

 

[spookypony]

JFTD, I want to do archery! I've started messing about a bit with Ring Riding, but we're still quite crap at it.

Hmm. The Spooky Pony's CV would include a some very mediocre dressage (before flat out refusing to participate any more), appalling jumping, isolated attempts at TREC and Handy Pony, and XC (as long as it's only water jumps, small drops and steps, and the tiniest of logs). As plus points, he would have "keeps on going and going and going and going and going and going...", with some very decent endurance credentials, off-roading through forestry, general sure-footedness and toughness, and extreme quickness at learning odd tricks through clicker training (he can tell left from right, I mean the words). His best feature is his spectacular tail (though the Ballerina Mare quite fancies his apparently sexy fetlocks), and his face is rather pretty. He is a highly competent lawnmower, with excellent teeth (we had the dentist today, so that's official). He is extremely suspicious of people who might want to catch him for any reason, which would be a plus point only if there were dodgy characters about. His health is very robust, apart from the healed check ligament injury that prompted his retirement, and Cushing's. Current occupations are "Gentlepony of Leisure" and "Two-Mare Gelding", and he seems quite happy with this situation.

The Ballerina Mare's CV would be quite patchy-looking, with strong beginnings in showing and dressage, before slowing to a crawl (thanks, mad uni job and cracked confidence!). It picks up again in the last year with a promising start to her Endurance career and a very challenging trail ride, and we're still hoping to get the dressage back on track...in the meantime, we've messed about with Ring Riding, badly (as above), and re-building rider confidence. Her special skills are "anything that involves going sideways", cleverness and enthusiasm, caprioles (so far only in the field), and spooking in such a balanced way that the rider is never unbalanced, either (how considerate of her!). Her best features are being very good-looking as well as clever, having a good and compact conformation, excellent hooves, and being generally sensitive, willing, and sweet. Less attractive (from other horses' point of view) is her extreme greed, and as a result, the speed with which she annexes foreign feed buckets, earning her the epithet, "the Great White Shark" ("Madam Shark" to her friends). She also has Cushing's (despite being a bit young for it), had a few sarcoids a few years ago, and has the beginnings of melanomas, so her health can be a bit of a concern. Current occupations are endurance horse (aiming for 60km this season), hopefully again dressage horse, "Chief Mare", and "Eater of Everything Edible".

 

[nikkimariet]

Fig - workaholic, not a team player, over achiever. All round nice guy. Likes to dine alone. Obsessively tidy and quite needy.

Nova - likes drawing d*cks on desks and pushing girls over in the playground. What's work? Ridiculously good looking.

 

[SEL]

The Appy - a diva carrying a little too much weight. Not her fault obviously, it's her genes (ha!) A tonne of health problems which means she can't work so sits around all day stuffing her face. On the plus side she's pretty and all the boys like her.

The Ardennes - over grown labrador with dodgy joints and a huge fan club. Best nose ever. Adores the Appy even though she bullies him!

Currently considering horse #3 - will need a cv which includes 4 working legs and the ability to carry a rider on the odd occasion. I keep my expectations low these days!!

 

[catkin]

Fellboy is still that teenager in the back row of class who has the sort of school report that makes you wince...... 'very capable but needs to direct his talents towards less disruptive activities'.

He'd want to write his own CV, it would be short: 'Handsome Rock God, comedian and all-round cool dude'.

His references may disagree

 

[Fiona]

Bored is a relative term I think, and not particularly applicable to animals.

Hubby's horse has only hacked for a year because of his hip problems, and she is still her normal well behaved self. I jumped her once, and she didn't even bounce or squeak..

My pony Fionn's CV would definitely describe him as inventive and fun loving and fond of his grub, but slightly unconfident when put under pressure.

Daisy's would mention that she was a bit of a drama queen and loves an audience (though hates donkeys)..

Sophie's would say that she was very kind and gentle to the smaller ones....

Fiona

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Never thought about writing a CV for mine: mmmm..... will have to think about that one!

 

[milliepops]

Never thought about writing a CV for mine: mmmm..... will have to think about that one!

nope, nor me. I tried to think about it when I first saw this post but my brain won't make it happen!!

I think there is *something* in the boredom thing, by which I don't mean that horses need stimulating lives the way some people do. But they need the right environment. I think Salty is a bit bored now as she doesn't have any work to do and is on a yard that is definitely most suited to working horses. What I've noticed with her is that she's got more sociable with me, she's quite cwtchy which she wasn't really before. At some point she will get shipped off to the field and live out 24/7 where the oldies have plenty of time on their hands to hatch mischievous plans etc, spend more time just being a horse.
I don't think Kira is bored. She eats up her school work and has no interest in anything else, she hates hacking, can't see the point of poles or jumping etc and only likes to be out in the field otherwise.