Do you play with your horse?

Woolybear

Woolybear

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I've always had play time with horses, playing tag/chase me games in the field/paddock and toys, footballs, space hoppers etc. I think Its just great fun and brilliant for bonding.

Do you do it, what do you do and what do you/they get out of it would you say.
 
I play tag and chase, football, mutual grooming and, when it's hot, splashy with the water trough. I think it teaches them that hoomans can be fun and not always wanting work. We all love it!
 
We played running around having a hooley (until they got too old to bother), bitey (usually goes before a chase and it's what the shettie used to do to get game of chase going - it's more like patting and nudging really), mutual grooming (I end up covered in bruises when they forget I'm not a horse). Now they're old we tend to play 'sleepy time' when hold their heads and stroke them and they doze off.
 
My mare loves to play over jumps! I have to run an jump with her, then she runs off around the school bucking and fa****g to come back to me where she lifts her front feet to ask again, again! So off we go again. Seeing that black shape fly through the air along side me is unnerving and thrilling as I'm almost blind in the right eye!!
 
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Number of years ago we rescued a little section A from the sales. My OH would hide in the bushes and jump out and shout boo! Pony would run off then turn round and come back for more!! I worried that it would make him spooky when ridden but it no effect!!
 
Not really - but mine tries to play with me!

His favourite game is to nab the end of the electric tape if I am putting any up in his field. He shakes it then runs off with it.

He also likes to pull my pony tail, and if gets the chance, likes to dribble water on me when topping up his trough.

Tonight he 'stole' a piece of haylage twine out of my pocket - I put it back in and then he did it again!

He is only just 6yrs bless him, and his field mates are 'oldies' who don't wan't to play, so sees me as his entertainment!
 
I played with my horse one year and we were doing mirror images of each others movements loose in the small indoor school at the last yard but then he decided to rear up (no doubt playing - not nastily) but I kind of ran in the other direction and gave up after that. Scared me to death lol :)

Sometimes when I take his headcollar off I go 'ready, steady - GO!!' and he shoots off with a kind of leg high in the air around his head type of leap but I don't do it very often as I don't want to instill in him that its good to run off as soon as you take the head collar off! If I turn him out and he walks off I know that if I call him to me he will come straight back and that is wonderful when a horse trusts you enough to do that.

I wish I could play more with him but I am always worried that he might kick out in exhuberance and hurt me, guess I am a bit of a wimp! Occassionaly I have chased him in the field and he's kicked his heels up but no where within striking distance and I really don't think he would hurt me deliberately.

However that said I will never forget the life long pair of mares that when one had been away at hospital and had returned to its friend in the field, they were so happy to see each other they cantered off side by side whinnying and the one kicked out in sheer joy of being reunited with her friend and the other in attempting to get out of the way ran straight into a fence and broke its leg. so accidents can and do happen....
 
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When my dog plays with his football one of the ponies chases round after him, when the dog brings the ball back to is the pony races him back to us

The pony doesnt play with either the dog or the ball individually
 
I play chase games with my mare in the field and she loves it except that she goes a bit far and starts to rear and buck, but it's never nasty - just high blowing exuberance. Also once I picked up a stray black binbag from the field on a windy day and it was streaming out behind me. She thought this was great and gave chase - that was a bit unnerving!
 
I've 'played' with my three year old since he was a foal. Best fun is a big tarpaulin - he normally starts by stamping on the end as I try to drag it into the field or picking it up with his teeth. This is followed by lots of 'pawing' with his feet and then sometimes lying down and rolling on it. We then pull it over our heads and spook the other horses by being a big blue ghost thing! I also had a whole lot of those small windmill things that you get at fairs for children but had to throw them out as they were so chewed. When he was a foal he came under a big umbrella with me - until his mum carefully herded him away - giving me a look that clearly said 'NOT with my baby, thank-you'! I recently took him to his first 'proper' horse agility and he did every single obstacle without batting an eye. He was more worried by going to a strange yard with lots of horses and people he had never met before.
 
We used to play with Saffy in the field but it got a bit dangerous. She was virtually hand reared and thinks she can play with you like another horse, her bucks were getting too close for comfort! She loves it if you let her play in the school. I put up a couple of very small jumps and she will canter around jumping and bucking lol.
 
I play tug-of-war (unintentionally most of the time when he steals my mucking out stuff) and chase. I know when he wants to play chase, he'll run to me, stop a few metres away, act all prancey and wait for me to notice. Then I mock-lunge at him and he takes off down the field squealing and bucking, before coming back and doing it again.

I like to think it's a bit of bonding and just fun really. As long as the horse is being respectful and everything's safe, why not enjoy the time you have with them.
 
My 22 year old arab and I play mad loose schooling type games in the field, but not very often as he has to be in the right mood. I think he generally thinks it's all a bit undignified to be seen by the rest of the herd to be careering around like a circus horse, especially as he's head of the herd (that's what he says).

A few years ago I took on a laminitic section A mare that had been neglected and in pain for years. After I'd finally got her all sorted out her lovely character started coming out and oh wow, she loved to play! She got so quick at understanding my body language and hand signals in the school, she was an absolute joy and very intelligent. Wish I still had her, she would have made a brilliant agility pony.
 
Non-horsey OH was playing with pony last night... well pony was following him round the school like a dog... was meant to be drying off from his bath lol

OH thought it was hilarious bless him :)
 
My horse plays with everybody and everything that passes in front of his stable. Favourite games include having a towel draped over his head and then he waggles his ears until it gradually slides down over hisface and he then picks it up and waves it around until someone will put it back over his face. In the winter he also seems to enjoy my son strapping a headtorch around his nose so he can shine the light off thing in the stableyard once the lights are turned off......

I don't play with them in the field as they all rough house with each other constantly (current favourite game seems to be waiting for someone to roll and then "getting involved") & I know I wouldn't enjoy it in quite the same way they do!
 
annagain said:
I've tried - they just look at me like I'm mad.:rolleyes:
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Haha, Same, My horse has far better things to do with his time than be childish with people! (I could literally hear him saying that!)
My daughters old pony loved to play- we miss his silliness lots :( although newbie is quite happy to chase people round the field including over little jumps etc!
 
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