Do horses 'know'?

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lcharles

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My mare is a fab loader, you could open the stable door and she'd trot straight into the lorry if you'd let her. A while ago, she point blanked refused to go on, took about an hour to get her on in the end. At the show, i'd rang ahead as i was late and they kindly put my time back. Once we got to the show, the girl that rode on my time instead had an accident (which i wont go into), if i had been there on time like i usually am, it would of been me.:eek:

My gelding is fab and will jump pretty much anything, when we went hunting he wouldnt jump a reasonably small hedge which is unusual, then three horse's behind me shreaded their legs on barbed wire when landing :eek:

When the 9/11 attack on the twin towers happened, my friends mum was meant to be on the plane. She'd missed the flight by 2 minutes because her horse bolted off (apparently for no reason) and wouldnt be caught for over two hours.

I can think of several occasions when my horses have behaved out of character and then later found out that something bad has happened which would/could of involved me/them.

Look how AP Macoy with Sychronised, Sychronised 'spooked' at a wire he would be used to and to me it was a 'sign' that he knew what was to come, he knew his fate that day. Thing is, if my mare wouldnt load now, i would think 'something bad is going to happen' but i'd probably still go.

Is it just me or do you believe your horses sense/know a bad thing is on its way?
 
I think they do pick up on things, I had two horses that were stabled next to each other. My mare had undergone a colic op and was at this point back to work she also looked better than she ever had in the whole time I had her.
I used to have lessons after work on them both, my mare would be first then my boy would be the second slot. My mare went fab on the lesson but my boy although we bought him with major behavioural issues they were virtually gone. My boy prattled about like when we first bought him then after the lesson he was running round his stable bucking and squealing. I thought something was wrong with him but he settled down and I left the yard.
Next morning I was called my mare was colicing bad and was PTs that day, I always insist he knew something was wrong with her :(

I've also heard stories were when natural disasters happen animals act strange before hand. They also use dogs for people with epilepsy to let them know a seizure is due to happen
 
Yeah I think they do, we used to have lots of arguments at the yard I'm at and one time I was in the stable with my mare when someone came round shouting (at someone else!) but she went put herself across the door and wouldn't let me out. The cats at the yard can tell if I'm upset and come and sit on my lap for a cuddle or wrestle each other in front of me because they know it always makes me laugh :) and my dog who is a complete and utter wuss, when I took him for a walk there was someone walking behind me quite close (probably innocent) but Barney turned around and just looked him straight in the eye and as he's a big dog and most people seem to think greyhounds are evil he made sure he was walking a good few metres behind :p
 
I think they do. We have a horse at our yard who can be really quite nasty with biting, its like a game for him. Yet with the vets, farrier, physio or teeth man he behaves like a totally different horse. Its like he knows they are helping him.

On another yard a wee mare who very rarely came to the gate was waiting for us at bringing in time, turned out a gate had been trashed letting two fields of horses mix, it was like she was waiting to clipe on them.
 
I had my last share horse almost put both of us through a barbed wire fence bolting (true bolt) back to the yard. Very out of character but totally unstoppable.
I phoned the owner and said that I couldn't ride her anymore it was too dangerous for both of us. She'd never been bad to lead and was mini rearing and wide eyed all the way back to the field, really making a scene. A few hours later one of the horses died in the field, queue horse being off for a few days and no problem after, but nothing would distract her past where the horse had died (just planted and looked for a second then moved on again) for months.

Pan
 
My friends old horse was good to load, but almost refused to load when she was sold and being taken away. I think my friends distress didn't help, but it's interesting that she knew.


This is an interesting video too..
[youtube]FV4EMzyJsqU[/youtube]
 
That video is interesting.
Might have to have a close look at one of our log jumps. My mare is very honest when it comes to jumping and generally doesn't refuse, but she absolutely WON'T jump one of our log jumps (well within her capability), she even resists walking over the low end of it.
 
My gelding wont go anywhere near a caravan at the end of the field since someone had sex in there lol Even if i get off and lead him up to it he snorts and blows at it! Obviously wasnt a good experience for the participants haha x
 
my mum has a loony 15.2hh bay gelding, unpredictable in any situation.

we had a 17hh on th middle of our lorry and the 15.2hh loony on the end. opened ramp, went to enter classes and came back to lorry.....tack locker doors were open so i immediately thought that someone had been in ther....upon closr inspection we had 2 ginger 17hh legs through the side of the lorryy. he was panicking obviously and without going on and o and on he ended up upside down hanging over the top of said loony horse! said loony horse did not move a muscle! we had 3 fire crewe out and our understanding was basically we get the 15.2 off back and risk losing the big horse, or we keeo them both on lorry and risk losing them both. nebs (the 15.2 walked off like an angel) followed by the 17hh which rolled down the ramp, got up and walked up like nothing had happened.....superficial cuts, no lameness nothing! its weird how horses act in serious situations and i dont doubt they know when something is life threatening which leads me to believe they know more than us :)

our lorry however had the whole side ripped out of it! lol to look at the lorry you would not believe any horses got off alive!
 
Yes they totally do.. I lost a horse in 2010 and he was cremated and ashes burried in the woods on our neighbours land -a lovely spot where bluebells grow now surrounded by tall copper beaches that we can see the treetops towering in the woods,from the school & tennis court. A farmer friend with a mini digger dug the whole as it was too chalky & solid to do by hand. He was buried exactly a week after. The spot is so dense you can only see the tree tops and is over a lane & a river about half a mile as the crows fly but you couldn't walk back thru. the animals were all out that year and I was stunned to see them literally keeping vigil all stood heads low facing the direction of where he rests.So now burried but at the exactly time he had been pts(EAM) they all raised their heads-goats, sheep horses and one by one made some kind of gesture.a call a snort a foot pawing the ground. His goat friend seemed to spend alot of time while she was obviously grieving stood on her tree stump rigid & staring in his direction it was usually around the time it happened and joined by his favourite gelding friend who is still very much grieving. They say horses/animals don't cry. I've seen the tears roll.

I had another experience yesterday..which I feel unsure about sharing on here. the grieving gelding above has not been right since his friend died and I had a massive flare up with my condition when his friend was pts-stress & grief etc magnifying the pain uncontrollably. I have kept a diary of all his strange incidents episodes and unexplainable behaviours and odd ailments that the vets have not made any sense of..the last week has been hell pain wise for me-soft tissue pain and messed up nerve signals are not lovers of this terrible weather we are having.Till yesterday we had a breakthru. McTimoney neuro lady came out and nearly knocked me for six(not physically!) I explained everything to her especially his bitterness to other horses(particularly the youngster who my big lad seems to be like a strict headmaster to) particularly when I am having bad pain days.She spent 3 hours examining & manipulating him, looking at his very obvious soreness and lameness and came to the conclusion that I have an incredibly special horse. on going home as suggested & comparing my medical diary with his veterinary diary, it would seem somehow they mirror each other perfectly-tho slightly out of sync.His episodes are all logged with horse terminology..mine human.His on further comparison are all identical to mine except if I've been hurting in the morning & the pain has gone by evening, then his entries for the evening or following morning are similar or matching mine to the letter. Feeling slightly stunned, but it would appear for all intents and purposes that I have a healing therapy horse who has simply been mirroring me and in the words of the therapist and now my vet,not my own, being trying to take on my pain. Both are fully qualified professionals and both were baffled by his unexplained history of odd pains & unsoundness.My vet, a partner at the practice and very much a realist and a blunt one at that, is in full agreement (thats the most shocking part) I now feel terrible for thinking my horse was jealous, misbehaving and self harming and for being angry &not liking him when he constantly told off my youngster or the mares...never underestimate what animals are capable of and the levels of intuition and knowledge they share with us..or try to(while we a not always receptive). Whoever said animals cannot talk..their own way admittedly but they trully can.
 
I think they do. Numerous occasions mine has been funny about things & has always turned out to be right. When her very elderly best friend was pts, myself & the owner got them both in, then when vet arrived mine stayed in her box & elderly mare was taken round the corner to a paddock, with the plan being to put mine in with the body after. When elderly mare was taken out, they both spent a good few mins nuzzling & sniffing each other as if to say bye. Mine then stood to attention like a statue before visibly drooping at the same time the other horse was injected.
When I was pregnant she used to rest her head very gently on the bump as though listening to the heartbeat. And just looked out for me in general.
There's been a few instances she has refused to do things for no reason & been right. Like adamantly planting in some woods & refusing to do anything but turn round. About 10 mins later a huge tree, further along fell down, knocking several smaller ones too. If she'd moved when I asked we would have been under one of them. She's also done a few things where the ground has turned out to be unsafe too.
On a route we've hacked for ages there is a spot she doesn't like, needs lots of reassurance to walk past & I have even searched on foot & can't find an explanation. And she just isn't a nervy or spooky horse. So I'm assuming there must be something there.
 
A friend of mine and her husband had two horses . . . hers a cheeky, common (in the nicest possible way) coloured cob called Tommy and her husband's a big, black Irish sport horse called Rocky. Rocky was notorious for being very territorial over his stable - would lunge and bite/snap at passer's by, including Karen . . . Tommy, although a typical cheeky cob, was soft as butter and never bit or kicked. When Karen was pregnant, Rocky became very gentle with Karen (and only Karen) . . . didn't bare his teeth at her once throughout her pregnancy . . . and Tommy bit her. They both knew something was different about Karen and behaved accordingly. Perhaps the pregnancy hormones meant she smelled different? Either way, they certainly sensed something.

A couple of weeks ago a horse at our yard was PTS. The vet used the only empty field - right next to the schooling arena. Every horse who went into the arena that day and for a few days afterwards took a huge interest in the side of the school nearest the field - taking a good look over the fence every time they passed that side. They weren't spooky, just very "aware."

P
 
My sister often repeats the story of how my horse reacted when her companion was PTS. He had a horrendous bout of colic and was PTS on the yard where the other horses (who were in the field) couldn't see him. He was given the injection so no warning shot or anything like that. However, my mare knew something was wrong. My sister was on her way through the field to go and see her horse (it's a footpath) when my mare saw her and, screaming her head off, came charging towards her. My sister said she'd never seen my horse so wired (she is normally the leaning over backwards type). She was so keyed up, clinging to my sister (who she doesn't even know that well) and following her up the field that my sister took pity on her and brought her in. But she was still uneasy and took quite a while to get back to her normal self. So my sister maintains that she *knew* something horrible had happened and that her behaviour mirrored the horrific circumstances of her companion's death, even though to all intents and purposes she couldn't really have known.
 
i think their senses are a lot more evolved than ours and so yes they can sense when a storm is coming because of the change in atmospheric pressure, or an earthquake, again due to changes that us lumbering bipods just wouldn't pick up without help from computers. Do i think they can know when some manmade disaster is going to happen? no, it's just us making a connection between a behaviour they have shown and an event. normally you would put that behaviour down to high spirits, too much grass, not enough turnout etc etc, but because it occurred on a day when something awful happened we convince ourselves that it must be linked.

we know they're great readers of body language so i'm sure they do pick up on slight variations in our mood and even the way we move, we like to think it's some kind of supernatural sixth sense or understanding that they have but i honestly think they're just a thousand times better at reading signals than we are. we rely too much on speech to communicate whereas horses and other animals don't:)
we used to ride past an abbatoir and the ponies would always play up and so we were convinced they could smell death and were scared. now maybe they could but i'll bet half their reaction was due to us expecting the spooks and silliness and tensing up ready for it;) when i rode a newly backed pony past there on my own (so she didn't pick up any vibes from another pony) i was so busy concentrating on riding her that i wasn't fully aware of where we were on the route, she walked past that abbatoir without a second look. rode past a week later with a couple of the other ponies and she reacted because they did;)
 
What amzing stories. Horses are so clever.

I guess alot of it comes from there instinct in the wild where they have to use extra senses. I guess its a bit like our 'gut instinct'.

I understand horses or any animal sensing death as i guess its a sign of danger. Amazing how they act though.

My mare was buried at the end of our field under her favourite tree, our other horses used to stand around her - not on top of where she was buried, even years later when the soil/ground was all exactly the same.
 
I think animals are undoubtably more sensitive than us and able to read situations in ways we often don't. We rely so much on spoken language that we perhaps aren't as tuned into our other senses as animals are. Saying that, I remember a horse who passed away many years ago in a field and for a long time afterwards, the horses would each look towards the spot where she was found when being ridden past it. None of them were in that field when it happened so couldn't have known. Or it may have been because some of the riders knew and would look over themselves&the horses just copied each other.
I think there's definitely something to be said for reading their instincts, although I also agree that we tend to make links between events&behaviour that may sometimes be misplaced.
 
What an amazing thread. Yes I do believe horses know. I get weird things happening to!! I was getting a Reiki session done on one of mine, OMG it was the weirdest thing, I was quite skeptical to start with, but when she started working on the horse I started to feel really strange, like I was going to pass out had to sit down!! It was then explained to me I had a deep connection with the horses everything that he was felling I was feeling, its still happens!!
 
Horses read our body language & can smell our stress but have no knowledge of the future. To believe otherwise is the same as saying the moon is made of green cheese, though perhaps those people at NASA are keeping something quiet ! ;)
 
We can read body language too, of dogs, horses etc if we have spent enough time around them & I wouldn't be suprised to learn that we can also smell fear etc & understand at an intuitive level. Beyond that nobody knows what tomorrow will bring, perhaps that is just as well.:rolleyes:
 
I believe they do know. When i had my pony i hacked her out everyday in the holidays and we always started by going past a motorbike track to get into the woods, she was always 100% and loved this route but on this paticular she would not go in the woods at all she had a proper rearing fit (she had never reared in the time i had her) and kept spinning round in the other direction, so i gave up and went a different route to discover on our way back that 2 bikes collided and came off the track, if we had went that way it was almost certain we would have been cought up in the middle of it all
 
POLLDARK said:
Horses read our body language & can smell our stress but have no knowledge of the future. To believe otherwise is the same as saying the moon is made of green cheese, though perhaps those people at NASA are keeping something quiet ! ;)
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In my case I'm certain she knew something. Whether the horse had communicated that she didn't feel right, or she could smell something wrong (no PM so don't know what she died of), she knew.

I have had lots of coincidences, which is what they are, however have learnt that if everything is going against you, don't do it. Sometimes the horse simply telling you it's not in the mood is a precursor to a bad event. Other times it's heard or smelled something we haven't. Whatever the reason, if one of the horses is out of sorts, I've learned that hopping on and riding through it isn't the best idea :)

Pan
 
I totally agree, I dont think everytime my horse wont go near the woods something has happened, its because he's being a muppet so he has a whack and gets ridden forwards.

I dont think you could live by how your horse acts but when something is definatley out of character, they must be trying to telling us something is wrong!

Wish horses could talk!!
 
Now KirstyKate, thats a whole new thread!! haha.

We were talking at the yard the other night about a 'communicator' and one girl had some amazing things to say about them. Maybe worth having a go to see what they say, only £40 apparently.

Girl had her horse diagnosed with the help of one!!

Think my mare would just moan though and my gelding would moan about my moaning mare!! haha :D
 
I have used 2 both made me cry, I have a remedial case, and we had a feeling he had been seriously abused and they both confirmed it and I didnt say a word poor boy. If you like reading Toa of Equss is brilliant, I am not a reader and I could not put it down!
 
lcharles said:
I totally agree, I dont think everytime my horse wont go near the woods something has happened, its because he's being a muppet so he has a whack and gets ridden forwards.

I dont think you could live by how your horse acts but when something is definatley out of character, they must be trying to telling us something is wrong!

Wish horses could talk!!
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+1, mucking about is one thing, out of character is another.
 
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