do horses mark their territory with wee?

Bowen4Horses

Bowen4Horses

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 March 2009
Messages
4,970
Location
South Lincs/North Cambs
www.poppywebber.co.uk
hey all

every single time i muck raff out, or let him back in his stable, he gets a bit anxious... as soon as i move out of the way he does a big wee on the clean bed.

today i thought 'oooh, i'll catch it in a bucket' as he's SOOO predictable and goes literally within 10 seconds of being in there.

so, i put some bedding in the bottom of the bucket, waited... and caught it!! yay!!

he looked a little bemused by me catching it, but wasn't bothered. until after he'd finished and he sniffed the bucket, scrunched his face up, sniffed the bedding and looked seriously p*ssed off! he walked back and tried to wee again.

so... does he always wee in his bed to 'mark' it? i can honestly say the only time he ever acts anything other than perfect is when i'm mcking out and taking too long... he sort of 'hurries' me up. and i always know it's because he's dying to wee on the bed... he can't possibly be desperate for a wee EVERY time i muck out? i only take about 5 mins at the max... it's not like i'm mega slow....
blush.gif
 
Whenever I do my big muckout and take out all the wet Genie always does a wee as the first thing.... Have seen a number of horses do it!
 
Same here, my girlie always 'has to go' as soon as she walks into her nice clean bed - I always have the bucket ready now
smile.gif


She doesn't seem to mind though
smile.gif
So, don't know if it is a territory thing.
 
No idea if it is a territory thing. Tia always has to have a wee when she goes into her stable after i've mucked out. I dont even have to have put some clean flax down she'll still have a wee in the same spot.
 
I used to own a thug of a gelding who would go around the field p*ssing on every pile of hay I put out!
mad.gif
I only have mares now!
grin.gif
 
my gelding always walks into his stable, sniffs his clean bed, circles right a few times then wees! i rekon its more of a routine/comfort thing. i.e you get home at night, put your pj's on and put your feet up!!
 
Mine has to have a wee when he's put in his clean stable on a night. Think it is a sort of 'marking'. The donkley we used to have used to wee on top of where any of the other horses weed though - he'd wait behind them then wee on the same patch. I guess that's a sort of marking much like a dog wees on a bitch's wee.
 
Captain is a b*gger he will wee on it if his haylage gets too close to the horse next door, also he will pull down other horses' rugs and pee on them. Never managed to catch it though, 'cos other than the above he just pees in the same place, by his door and it runs out!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Captain is a b*gger he will wee on it if his haylage gets too close to the horse next door, also he will pull down other horses' rugs and pee on them. Never managed to catch it though, 'cos other than the above he just pees in the same place, by his door and it runs out!

[/ QUOTE ]

raff does that too! he sneaks into Piggle's stable sometimes and wees on his haylage. so Piggle wee'd on raff's stable rug.
 
I think it is a territory thing - my pony (an ex working stallion) when I first moved to the yard would not leave the yard without weeing in the drive way - this continued for about a year and he now seems to have stopped this but he nearly always wees when I put him back in the field (he lives out) and he nearly always wees or poos when I take to a new place for example a show ground he has not been to before.

Interestingly though he does not like weeing or pooing in his stable (he lives out but comes in occasionally for a few hours to wait for farrier etc). If he does poo in his stable he has to do it right up against the wall. He does not like being stabled and someone once suggested to leave a bit of his wee or poo in there to make it more homely for him.
 
I'm not sure - they def do sniff where other horses have been though so could be something in it...

Alternatively
- doing it in the stable avoids splash-back on legs
- when they are out and about there are lots of exciting things going on to distract.

I'm afraid I've never considered catching share horsey's (he always does the on clean bed thing)... but then I muck out into a wheel barrow so could be difficult to get that under there!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top