Do you let others handle your horses?

I believe they behave exactly the same for me as for anyone else. The girls at home struggle a bit with Moon occaisionally because she has me well trained and she gets a bit annoyed with people who dont conform to her ways!
 
Brooklyn - Yes
Casper - Yes
Jay - Yes
OJ - Yes
Juice - Yes
Sabrina - Yes

Billy - Not just anyone as he can panick and rear up
Weedy - Only a few as although he is a weed he is very strong and likes to canter on the spot and rear when he gets excited.
The Boy - Only a few people are allowed to handle him he is very very good and laid back but you can never fall into the false sense of security with him 'cos that's when he'll have you.
 
I will allow anyone who is kind but firm handle my horses. That is probably about 50% of the people on our DIY yard.

They are both well behaved but being ponies can be a bit cheeky. Mini Shetland is only young and has been seen dragging an unsuspecting person accross the yard at high speed
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I will allow anyone who is kind but firm handle my horses. That is probably about 50% of the people on our DIY yard.


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My thoughts exactly. I'd rather do them myself because then I know how/when things are done but happy for a few people to do it. Have had bad experience in the past with staff on a previous yard beating horses up (and no, I'm not exaggerating - one of them kicked a 2yo filly in the ribs). However mine are both pretty well behaved so shouldn't be a problem.
 
Yes absolutely. When I first got Ty he was a complete arse to handle and now, I'm proud to say, that he's a gem to handle now....and that's all down to me ;-) haa haa

I'm happy with anyone handling him and O.
 
I'd rather not because my horse is so bl**dy difficult, but I have to because I'm away with work a lot. As long as you do everything really slowly with her she's fine but if you rush round her she gets very uptight, and the yard staff obviously don't have a great amount of time to accommodate my horse's over-sensitivity. When I've been away she's noticeably much more jumpy and headshy. The worst thing about her is that she's big and clumsy so she needs constant reminding of the rules and to respect your space, but I can do it without scaring her, but understandably, other people don't have as much patience for her. I have to say I also feel very guilty towards the yard staff for asking them to deal with my horse as she isn't straightforward to handle.
 
Absolutely, I wouldn't let anyone near my horse that I don't trust so anyone I do can handle him and handle him well. He is a very big strong cheeky boy and knows how to behave (with others!!!) with me it's drag time, let me at the grass mum!!!!! But with others he is usually an angel!! A few of us are on a turn out rota at our yard so turn each others out and these range from a 13hh ish pony to a huge 18hh and they are all saints!!

My 16.1 maxi is brilliant with novices and children and will stand for hours with his head to the ground to let a child brush his head (or posing for pics-interesting hack!) but with me and his 'aunties' can sometimes act the spoilt little toddler, but just cheeky never naughty or unsafe.
 
Anyone can and does handle Cairo - he may be big but he is very well mannered. He does now need to be given a little more room through the gate as his eye is not was it was.

Chancer - again nearly anyone and most of the time he is never a problem. However, as he is still young he can do the odd skip and jump so I tend to avoid very small kids handling him.

I expect my horses to be able to be handled by anyone who has some idea of what to do.

The only horse I had to be a little careful of who handled going to and from the field was my big WB mare Fleur. 95% of the time she was excellent, but on occasion could be lively, hence again I had a no kids rule and only more experienced people with her. In the stable anyone could feed and deal with her as she was a kitten.
 
Interesting replies.
Anyone can do anything with my three - we normally feed them, hay them, groom them, change rugs, pick out feet in the field, and they are expected to stand still for all of this without wriggling (although sometimes the urge to walk away overcomes them
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at which point we pursue them and remonstrate with them).
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I do the same as you, from the age of 20 months I have expected Chancer to be fed, rugged, feet picked, fly sprayed etc whilst loose in the field - he normally does have his dinner to eat whilst doing it, but not all the time.

I expect him to be groomed and tacked up loose in the stable and I often untack him loose in the school and he knows he is not move until told he is done and can go roll.

To date, all mine could be dealt with like this, even Fleur. Does make life nice and simple if you can have horses like this - no worries about who can do them if I can't.
 
Absolutely not, no, no, no
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Let anyone near my baby boys and girls? Never
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Honestly now. When we get one in i am the only one that handles it to get to know all its quirks. If they are well behaved and want to know people my children help with them. The phsycologicaly affected ones - only me and everyone is banned from the fields until i gain their trust. Most of ours have had very bad experiences with people, that is why i am the way i am. When the horse is ready, visitors we know, are allowed in contact with them - to see and stroke on the neck
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If we have one that i think would have a better future in a new home doing something then they gradually meet people but only a potential loanee is allowed to come and start doing something with it. Before i get jumped on i am talking extreme behaviour in our residents.
I did allow a couple of teenagers come and help with a couple of mares they knew before they came to us- put me off for life!!! I stopped them comeing and one came on so well she has been re-homed and is enjoying a ridden life, the other has stopped its luny fits and has started ridden work.

Before we had these types of horses and i had my own i also had a shop. A lady asked if she could ride one of them in return for looking after them - living out may i add and little to do. She became a nervous wreck. They had totally mis-behaved and took the mickey. Cedric destroyed her new grooming box and ran off with the brushes throwing them everywhere
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They have never behaved like that before or since. I just laughed but she realy was a nervous wreck.
 
I'm not on a yard, so there is only me, but I wouldn't have any problems with other people handling either of my horses.

Jerry prefers to be left alone whilst eating and that is fine by me. But during this time the kids normally go on 'Milly' duty whilst I am poo picking. This involves keeping her away from Jerry's food until he finshes.

It's quite sweet seeing 6yr old telling my 17.2hh to back up! (and she does)

So, as long as the person handling is going to treat my horses the way I would want them to be treated, I or the horses wouldn't have a problem.
 
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Interesting replies.
Anyone can do anything with my three - we normally feed them, hay them, groom them, change rugs, pick out feet in the field, and they are expected to stand still for all of this without wriggling (although sometimes the urge to walk away overcomes them
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at which point we pursue them and remonstrate with them).
S
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Aaah, thats a different matter
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!! They CAN be handled by anyone and they would be expected to be as well behaved as they are with me. However, I don't LET others handle them!!
 
Anyone can handle Ben he is fab, 7 year old led him in from the field, I was stood beside her mind.
I only have one friend who does him if I am away and only she will do him I do not trust anyone else on the yard from what I have seen them do to their horses and others.
 
Yes, I couldn't bothered with a horse that couldn't be handled by anyone vaguely competent around horses. I find in reality it's the owners that are precious not the horses though!
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Mine is very headstrong and sensitive and this can scare some people if they don't know him, so they tend to hold him very tight and he hates this
I Handle him, my OH does, One person on the yard and his joint owner and thats it.
He has to be lead by someone who knows him and is completely relaxed, its not worth the risk of him shattering someones confidence.
I don't have a problem handling him though.
 
Ours can be handled by anyone, when the group is established we hay etc. in the field, always change rugs if not in at night. However we have had the experience of them becoming bargy, snatchy and all round pains when some-one else was putting them out. We think this was because she allowed (possibly encouraged?) this behaviour. Now it is just sister and me who deal with them. The only other person who we did rely on, who dealt with them brilliantly, unfortunately is not physicaly well enough to do it any more (unofficial foster daughter who no longer lives at home)
 
At our current yard only my friend handles him. Its not that I'm fussy, just that he can be tricky and will take the P if he thinks he can get away with it. Apart from my friend, the other owners are families who are used to dealing with the kids ponies and I think they would struggle to deal with him if he decided to mess them about.
When I was on a yard with more experienced adult owners and staff I didn't mind who handled him.
 
Any of my friends that I trust (about 2 or 3 who have known him since I got him 6 years ago) can handle him, but they know his quirks.

When I went away to Abu Dhabi for 2 months I left him with a competent teenager who hadn't known him very long and I explained the 3 golden rules:

1. ALWAYS lead him in a headcollar.

2. Avoid bathing him - he rears and snaps his baler twine if he panics and buggers off back to his field which involves crossing a main road

3. Don't gallop in open spaces - he WILL buck

Came back to find he had run off with her several times ("well I didn't think I needed the bridle after he hadn't run away after 2 weeks"), bucked her off after she tried to gallop him in a field ("I trusted him not to because he was being good when I rode him the other day") and disappeared off, luckily not to the field but across the yard, several times when she tried to bath him.

She's not the first person to think that "trusting" him will make a difference and he wouldn't dream of being bad with her. I've had the little git 6 years and whereas I don't lead him with a bridle, I do gallop him and I do bath him, I can spot the little warning signs of bad behaviour a mile off because I know him so well.

So in short, I don't think I trust hinm with people or them with him anymore after I now know that they just ignore the warnings I give them about him anyway. It's just not worth him getting loose because of their stupidity and getting hit by a car all because they didn't listen to me. At least if something happens when I'M handling him its my own problem and I'll have to live with it. If it happened because of someone else I would be down on them like a ton of bricks.
 
Yes, though I am on part livery. I don't h ave a problem with it and see no reason I should be worried about it. I know that those who do handle him are good with horses, so I am ok with it. I have only had a problem once and that was when the 'Yard manager' (17 yo!) threw a headcollar at him and I flipped.
 
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