Do horses know when somthings wrong? Thoughts.

Montyforever

Montyforever

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Kind of like a 6th sense.

My old loan pony would never be caught, wasnt cuddly or sweet lol just wanted to be back out in the field with the boys.

I'd spend hours catching him, but the 2 days before he was due to go back to his owners (i didnt want him to go back, v.upset) he just stood at the gate all day, whinneying for me :(

When i did bring him in he was all cuddly and sweet, kept licking my face when i was crying almost as if he was saying "its ok i'll be fine" :'(

Im crying now and this was over a year ago now, i miss him :(

So thoughts and experiances thats made you *think* horses know when somthing wrong!

And foxes bisqwits ;)
 
Definately,Horses communicate by body language and are incredibly good at reading it,even human body language.
 
Deffinately , all animals especially horses are very good at reading body language as Mike said. If i have a had really bad ill just go cuddle my horse and he will be soo sweet, other days i wont even be able to catch him because he doesnt fancy coming in.

Also if i cry and my cat is around she will come up and give me a cuddle and lick my face ect.
 
My example isn't exactly something wrong.

I have a horse boarding with me (15.2h, 20 y.o QH) and she tries it on something rotten with her owner and her son (been there, done that, knows every trick in the book and then some) yet with her 11 year old blind daughter she doesn't put a foot out of place.

Even my very boisterous 4 y.o GSD who thinks nothing of running full tilt into your legs is as quiet as a a lamb around her, he is with all children, but with her he just sits tight against her leg and doesn't pester her to throw things.

Yes, they sense something, I am quite sure of that.
 
Gosh yes definately, my old mare Honey was a right so and so to ride, would drop you just for the fun of it :mad: Then all of a sudden she started being an angel to ride, this went on for weeks and weeks, kept saying to my mum, I just don't understand this, turns out I was pregnant found out when I was 20 weeks gone, was told I could never have children so came as a bit of a suprise, but Honey knew I'm sure of it, as soon as I had my daughter she went back to her old self :p
 
i deffinatly think horses are aware of different situations. e.g.... we had this hanovarian stallion called wineberry and he used to b a bugger leading him with his riding bridle, he used to tank of everywhere. but he knew instantly when he had his serving bridle on because he would walk very nicely and calmly because he knew where he was goin haha even though the bits where the same.
 
Lucy always knows when i'm upset. She gets very cuddly and gives me great big kisses. When i am upset about anything i always go to her and she just looks at me and she makes me feel so much better.
My dog is the same to. He sleeps on my bed and normaly raps himself round my feet and keeps them nice and toasty :) But if i am upset he comes up the top end of the bed and wants me to cuddle him al the time. The other week when i thought i was going to loose Lucy i spent all night crying in bed and Charlie spent all night trying to lick the tears off my face.
 
I believe they do my mare and gelding were stabled next to each other and my mare had a colic op:( then I was bought my boy:) Over a year later my mare was back in work and I used to have a lesson on my mare then another lesson on my boy :).
My mare was looking the best ever that night working great and we were due to go out to dressage in 2 days :) On my lesson with my boy he was a complete nightmare bucking bolting etc though I thought nothing of it because he could be a handful after the lesson I put my boy in his stable and he was kicking out and boxwalking and snorting :( this was very unusual for him in the stable I thought there was something wrong with him I waited for a while and he settled down and ate his tea:)
The next morning I had a call from the YO to say my mare was in a bad way and could I get to yard ASAP and could she call my vet :(
My 2 horses were in the RS horses block of about 20 of them as I worked on the yard and it was easier to have them in there:)
All the horses were so quiet you could hear a pin drop in that block that day.
due to serve cock up by the vet my mare could not walk at the point she was PTS the other horses needed to be moved. :(
After she had been taken away I tried to bring my boy back to his stable again he went crazy bless him he also lost a fair amount of weight in the few weeks after :(
I believe the night before he knew something was wrong and the way the block was so quiet I think they knew
 
Absolutely. I had Benson for nearly 10 years, he used to let me cuddle him for a while but then he would go back to bing the grandad of the group, almost saying he was to old for cuddles!
Me and OH went through a treatment of IVF a few years ago, the day I found it hadnt worked I went to the stables to find Benson laying flat out in his stable, which I had never seen before. He let me come into his stable and I knelt my his head and just stroked his ears. He picked up his head and just laid it across my knees. We stayed like that for ages, I think in the end he just went back to sleep!
I will never forget that,(tears rolling down face now!!)
 
I've been ill and in hospital recently and haven't seen my horse for a month, the other day my friend took me up to see him in the field, he didn't come over we had to walk to see him (I'm on crutches now) he was quite sweet, but when I went to leave he followed me and every now and then he nudged me in the back, so I stopped and he came and stood in front of me for a cuddle, chewed my crutches for a bit then eat the grass. When I carried on walking he then did the same again and did it about 5 times and came with us all the way to the gate. He's not normally a cuddly horse at all but he really seemed to be pleased to see me and didn't want me to go, bless him x
 
Yes definitely. I had a bad fall from my old hunter out hunting, and although I got back on him when he'd been caught, I realised I was in too much pain to carry on. I decided to ride slowly back to the lorry while phoning my OH to come and meet us.
Normally this horse would get very cross if you took him home early from hunting, jogging and head tossing, but on this occasion he carried me like precious china, walking quietly back to the box and not putting a foot wrong even when we had to go along a busy road. He stood like a rock while I all but fell off him back at the box and even let my OH, who was pretty novicey at that time, untack him and load him up.
Once I was fully recovered I hunted him again and he was back to his usual cheeky self!
 
def they do.
on the 14th of march at 9pm my 2 welshies got out & i spent 2 hours in the pouring rain, at 38 weeks pregnant trying to catch them but at 11:21pm i had my first strong contraction & at that moment they both came to me to be caught, they walked in without issue or leads & were as gentl as pie.

my son was born at 11am the following morning.

& whenever the depression is getting to me they are sweet & come for non food prompted hugs.
 
We have a horse that isn't really into cuddles & fuss & can be nippy & bolshy however he was tied up one day & I was away from him for a few minutes. A child arrived on the yard with his mother who was just visiting & isn't horsey in the slightest. The child has autism & is rather boisterous, he got away from her & came over to my horse & was shouting & swinging his arms around my horse. He was hugging him around the legs etc & being very noisy. I came back & saw what was happening & was obviously concerned as I certainly didn't want the child injured or anything to happen to my horse. To my surprise my horse wasn't concerned in the slightest with what was happening. He was quite interested in the child & somehow knew that there was something different with the boy.

I don't know how or why my horse's attitude changed around that boy, I just know it did so possibly they sense something that we possibly don't?
 
Course they do!

My first pony Monty tried to kill me and my sister all the time! But put my dyspraxic brother on top and he was a different pony! (and, interestingly, one of few that picked up his dyspraxia, most ponies just get upset by his lack of balance!).

Dorey has been known to start hurting other people if I'm hurt and she can't get to me! She begins to fret, and then begings to barge and push people around and panic as if she's spooking. I have to let her know I'm okay before she'll settle again!!
 
My horse has been on trial recently with a 9 year old girl who'd only been riding a year and I got him back on Saturday (looong story) rode him out on Monday and he was exactly as he was when he left, tugging my arms out and wanting to gallop everywhere ( silly pony, only wanted to walk him round the block) yet when on trial he'd taken the little girl round jumping courses, hacking in fields and to a Pony Club 2 day mini camp and was perfectly behaved, he even won a pony club pony showing class at a show, as he was the best behaved pony in the class.

He even did mounted games: I tried, possibly twice, when I was younger, and he HATED it so I gave up, but he won three classes, and the DC was convinced he used to be a games pony, as he tried so hard. We bought him as a just broken 4 year old, so he definitely hasn't excusing my futile attempts :p the little girl had desperately wanted to beat her elder sister, so he tried so hard :D

I love my little pony :D <3
 
Yep. Defanetly. OH and my boy were out hacking the other month with 3 others from the yard. They came across an over-turned car with someone trapped underneath. He was losing alot of blood and very old. The ambulance was called but as they were in the woods they couldnt find the car. OH had to take my horse away from 3 others (he is normally very nappy and it took me 2yrs to get him to succesfully hack alone) to meet the ambulance. He then lead an ambulance with sierns blaring down a track. Not once did he play up. Not even when the air ambulance landed next to his feet. Its like he knew he had to behave that day because it was important.
 
Definitely think they know when things are wrong far better than humans.I have MS (mild so not a major prob)and stroppy mare who is a pain to stand tends to be that bit better when I'm a bit stiff/sore or just generally having a feel sorry for myself day which tbh is good cos it puts things into perspective
Also my grouchy welsh cob who you could never trust 100% was great with people with learning difficulties or mental health but if you were ablebodied etc he would just take the pee.
 
Yes they do, I had a bad accident and lost my leg above the knee, I still have my horse and now ride and to everything with her, she will walk along side me so slowly as I can not walk very well let alone fast if I loose my balance and have to stop, she will wait and only walk on when I am ready to do so, I had her before this happened to me, but I would say she is far more understanding now, and puts up with all sorts of things that I struggle to do, it really is like she knows that there something not right with mum and she looks out for me. So along side them picking up on our body language, they pick up on other things as well. She gave me my life back when I thought I had lost everything and had nothing left to live for.
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With out a doubt!!!!

The only time Cochise played up with me was when I was in so much agony with tooth achre i was choking back the tears.

He wouldnt be caught. Reared when i tried to mount. Then pranced the entite hack - completley unlike him.

I could only out it down to him sensing my pain.

Clever little spotty... :o
 
I am convinced that they do. Our little coloured cob was amazing, we had a young woman living with us who had Dissociative Identity Disorder, which meant that at times she was a 'normal' 19 year old, at others she was a 6' 3 year old! The mare was a stroppy bag with the 'adult' but carried the 'little one' as if she had eggs on her back. This mare would stomp down the middle of the road, giving no account to traffic, but with the '3 year old' would tuck herself into the verge and stand still until the car had passed. She also allowed 'the child' to make a hay hat for her every night in winter and would noit shake it off until the girl had gone back into the house. We could not quite believe it, but witnessed it on an almost daily basis for three years!
 
I am sure they do. The horse that used to be stabled next to mine, and used to share a field with mine, had colic one night and the next morning when he was found, the vet was called, and he was put on a drip. All the horses on the block were very quiet. The horse didn't make it, and my horse seemed very down and very quiet for quite a long time. And he was a little bit put out when a new horse appeared in that stable a few weeks later. Now though he is best friends with his new neighbour. He is full of character and can be very cheeky, but if I am feeling tired/ fed up he always cheers me up, as he will be really sweet. He does it to other people too - he will put his head on their shoulder, and almost give them a neck lock, and is really cute and cuddly. Yesterday I went up as I hadn't seen him for a couple of days (he is on livery!) and I was really tired. I started to brush him and he reached down to start grooming me back - including licking my boots!!! Lol. He is sooo funny sometimes! He can be a bit silly/ naughty out, but if I am not feeling 100% he never tries it on.

I am sure they know far more than us about the ways of the natural world.
 
wow what lovely stories. thank you for sharing :D my dog eddie has always been ultra protective of me when i have been pregnant won't let any animals near me :eek: paddy is so quiet when my kids try and do stuff with him bless them.
 
Sorry to hijack, but Harper_Gal, I found your reply really interesting, as my 4-year-old grandson has dyspraxia and my pony, who does not particularly like small children around, is as good as gold with him. My friend at the yard has a yearling colt who is also really gentle when my grandson gives him carrot strips (under strict supervision)...and this is a colt who is "nippy" with everyone else.
 
My two little ones will always come and see me if I am upset, but they are super friendly ponies anyway. These are lovely stories and the only one I have that is similar is about my old jumping pony. He used to get so excited and walk round on his hind legs, I used to think it was funny so it never bothered me. He had a big jump as well but when my little sister rode him he was as quiet as a mouse. She isn't the best rider in the world and has no balance! He always was quiet and when she jumped him he was as good as gold. If I then got on and jumped him after her he always went back to his normal self!

Also, there is a little Shetland down the yard who plays his owner up like nothing else but when a little 4 year old girl tries to do anything with him he is perfectly fine. He also comes straight over to me but play his owner up!

Horses are funny creatures and that's why I love them. They are so clever and not only can they read us but I find it incredibly easy to read them. I know straight away when mine are in a funny mood!!
 
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