Do you think horses act differently with different people?

[Alphamare]

I often ride my hubby's horse during the week (mainly after the clocks change). He acts completely differently for me. He is a bit of a saint for hubby but a complete tit for me!

He is spooky, he sometimes rears and today he nearly killed me by flinging himself into oncoming traffic.

He seems to be very wound up when I ride him.

I don't think I have a fizzy seat or anything as my gelding doesn't do anything like this to me.

 

[Alphamare]

Just to clarify he has never done any of this to my hubby!

 

[noblesteed]

Yes! My horse is lovely for me, but quite lively and cheeky and fun to ride. He is a ploddy lamb for his new rider, a calm 13 year old. He completely ignores my husband when he tries to ride him, won't even walk in a straight line. He loves my calm Mum but is very unsettled by my hyper Dad! He squares up to the farrier and wrestles with him.
I think he is really sensitive to people's states of mind. He is a marvellous judge of character!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Do you think horses act differently with different people?

Yes

 

[_April_]

Absolutely yes!

I have someone who helps out with my horse as I am just getting over a long illness.

My mare is usually -so- well behaved but at the start she definitely was trying her out - nothing serious but she fidgeted at the mounting block, acted more marish in the stable and was just in general a bit more 'difficult'.
She's been helping about a month now though and they are fine together now.

It was the exact same when my mum started handling her and now she is fine. She was just trying her out. Yet my best friend handled her from the start with zero differences at all.

 

[FanyDuChamp]

Absolutely. Captain is a good boy for Elizabeth under saddle, he will do as asked in the school and goes nicely in outline for her and is very obedient to her. E's AI asked to ride him because E was rising too high in trot, he has huge movement. She got off him after 5 minutes scarlet and sweating, and said he was "the stubbornest most bloody minded horse she had ever ridden!" E. got back on and he was an angel again. He simply is a one rider horse. I think there are horses like that and sounds like your OH's maybe one of them. Captain will also be very dominant to anyone he thinks he can bully, he has been abused in the past and is very wary but also will try to intimidate people, he soon learns who he can and who he can't scare. He will then be fine with those he can't scare!

FDC

 

[Natz88]

My haflinger sometimes acts different for my sharer. He has his moments with both of us, but he has more trust in me I can do certain things on him that he doesn't like her doing, but in the 6yrs I have had him we have had many ups, downs & unpleasant experiences. He is different for her when tacking up etc, I can untack him leave him stood in barn with no headcollar, but if she has ridden him he would wonder of. We just have a special bond

 

[chestnut cob]

Yep! Mine seems to really dislike being ridden by anyone but me, although he's taken quite a liking to my new YO and is good for her (she's hacking him once a week for me so I don't have to ride in the dark every day). Has turned around to come home when hacked by friends, or more or less refused to move at all when schooled by others. He also seems to really dislike my instructor and won't work for her at all, if she rides him! :0

 

[Lolo]

Most definitely!

This is Cheeky and I:

(please enjoy my sister's comments!)

With me, he'd always do this at the start of the XC. He thought it was funny, and it often played to our advantage as he was very fast so this time pissing about meant we'd get closer to the optimum time! He never ever stopped though.

But you could put a baby on him and he'd be careful with them. When I started riding him I was a nervous wreck and he was so careful with me. By the end of our time he was a lunatic with me, yet would be used by my mum's friend and would potter along safe as you like.

 

[SpottyTB]

Yep! My girl is most deffinetly a one rider girl. She tends to nap and rear with other people, or be really fizzy/difficult to get going well. But I get on and she's straight in an out line, jumps perfectly and doesn't miss behave at all. It's the same handling wise with her, she's quite choosy about who handles her or strokes her. Im making her out to be a right tempemental old bag and actually she isn't at all she's very level headed and doesn't get mareish ever, she's just choosy about her people. I am lucky to be one of those favoured people!

 

[Marydoll]

I do think horses respond differently to different people, but i also think they respond to how we react to them .For example, we know If youve got a spooky horse under you, and are confident, youre less likely to worry and ride in a defensive way, on the other hand, if you tighten up and hang on, it can lead to the horse getting a bit wired and becoming agitated.

 

[tasel]

Definitely YES. Just like people... I guess.

 

[ausipaliboi]

without a doubt - YES!!!

I was the person who was always called on to ride a horse who had proved too much for everyone else. Almost a guarentee that within a couple of minutes I had horsey going around very pretty telling that butter wouldn't melt in its mouth. Naturally friends are calling both me and horsey names I can't repeat.

I certainly don't say I am such a fantabulous rider that its my mad skills which do this - bahahahahahahahahaha!!! I don't know what I do and why it works but it generally does. My current boi only became mine because, as above, was called in by a friend to fix this (*fill in the blanks*) ahem horsey who naturally went like a saint for me. She'd had enough and daughter wouldn't get back on so now he lives with me!

I know horses who would refuse to let men get on their backs. My old horse would buck from standstill the instant my backside hit the saddle and continue any number of highjinks during our rides but I could put a complete beginner of any age on him and he would just plod one hoof in front of the other and rider always felt awesome!

 

[Noodlebug]

without a doubt - YES!!!

I was the person who was always called on to ride a horse who had proved too much for everyone else. Almost a guarentee that within a couple of minutes I had horsey going around very pretty telling that butter wouldn't melt in its mouth. Naturally friends are calling both me and horsey names I can't repeat.

I certainly don't say I am such a fantabulous rider that its my mad skills which do this - bahahahahahahahahaha!!! I don't know what I do and why it works but it generally does. My current boi only became mine because, as above, was called in by a friend to fix this (*fill in the blanks*) ahem horsey who naturally went like a saint for me. She'd had enough and daughter wouldn't get back on so now he lives with me!

I know horses who would refuse to let men get on their backs. My old horse would buck from standstill the instant my backside hit the saddle and continue any number of highjinks during our rides but I could put a complete beginner of any age on him and he would just plod one hoof in front of the other and rider always felt awesome!

It must be wonderful to be so gifted!!

 

[Alphamare]

Thanks everyone. Glad it's not just me! He is a nice horse but we just don't seem to gel.

I will also check myself and make sure I'm not tense or hanging on his mouth. I don't normally since he gets wound up and then rears if I use anything more than the lightest touch.

Crazy when I have seen OH hanging on his mouth when he was first learning to ride, was horsey bothered!

It's me. I was just wondering if it was something I was doing.

I actually plan on having a lesson with him see if the instructor sees anything or has any advice for me.

I don't really enjoy dancing into traffic on a busy road!

I guess I just don't give him confidence. Which is weird because my own horse is a sensitive soul who does seem to get confidence from me. Also hubby's horse is older (traffic safe, for anyone but me!) and should know better?!

 

[Shantara]

Yes! When I hack Ned out, he's wonderful and rarely spooks, but when his other lad rides him, he goes very fizzy. However, when I show Ned, he's not as confident, where as his lad can get him around with much less trouble. (He has very very good leg wrappage)

I watched another girl ride him last week and I could NOT believe how she rode him. He's never bolted with me, but she allowed him to gallop passed my horse, who everyone knows is extremely strong and easily excited, luckily I managed to hold him. She really bothered me XD haha! She also didn't do his rug up properly or his headcollar, but that's another story
His face looked entirely different to when my and his boy ride him too!!


Also, the other horse I rode on the ride mentioned above, we don't get along But he's in love with another woman! He's perfect for her, haha!

 

[Oberon]

I find this video interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hYJJt9xckY&feature=related

 

[rossiroo]

Yes, and it can be quite embarassing !

 

[Megibo]

Yep.
With me she's herself, with tiny tots she is more safe than a riding school veteran and with more anyone else she susses them out for the first few mins and behaves appropriately.
e.g. lady up my yard rode her and is rusty, so moose realised all she had to do was walk about calmly and that's what she did!

 

[Paint Me Proud]

undeniably.
Chico will prat about if other people bring him in or turn him out. For others he will refuse to walk through mud and attempt to jump it.
For me he just plods on through

 

[Zarkaz]

YES

My pony is the daftest saftest pony ever. Little kids who have never rode can ride him, lead him around blah blah blah but when i got a sharer a couple of years ago he changed. He dragged her about with his head between his legs, didnt listen to her when riding, was always spooky and chucked her off (he has only thrown me 3 times in 7 years of owning him!) . So i used to get on him just to prove to her that he was quiet. In the end she became scared of him and ended the share. At the same time i had put my horse on loan. He was a nice ride forward but quiet and had excellent stable manners but my loaner brought him back within 3 days and said he had thrown her daughter, reared and lashed out at her husband and kicked her! When i got him home he was still the same old horse. Everyone said she must of been lying because he was a dope on a rope

 

[cob&onion]

I def think i have always had a bit of a hot seat, some horses seem really wound up when i ride them even though am a fairly quiet rider.......
My TB is scared and seems really timid around my OH for some reason?

 

[muddygreymare]

My mare is totally different with different people! She's usually perfectly behaved for me and fab to ride but with my sister she can be a total arse sometimes but she'll never do it with me. She also goes into 'beach donkey' mode if she has a novice on her but can do some pretty good work with an experienced rider. She is very much a one person horse and goes best for me out of everyone though and on the ground as well she's very cuddly with me but with others she's a bit more wary. Suppose it's just what makes her, her, and I'm not complaining when she likes to be sane with me

 

[Libbyn1982]

Yes!! My last loan horse knew exactly how to push my buttons, the worng way, and we'd be forever arguing but he'd be a saint for his owner.

Toby and I get on very very well indeedy but he can be a bully to the point that when I go away I am forever dreading the phone call to say he's mudered someone on the way to the field!!!! I think it can definately come from knowing each other. He knows that when he pee's about I dont react so he gives in. If he thinks he can scre you he will, little bugger!!!

 

[skint1]

I sure do. With both the pony and the mare, they unfortunately seem to really take advantage of softness or inexperience in people and so they are very different depending who is handling them. Even the saintly Basil will sail a bit close to the wind if he thinks he can get away with it tbh!

For example, both have usually been reasonably good for the farrier, vet, dentist and most other people but were always pigs to me, I struggled to get them to do anything at all tbh. It wasn't until I realised that in fact I was in more danger of making my fears of being kicked/bitten/trampled come true by not being assertive and confident and changed my behaviour (and this took ages) that they started to behave better for me and now I feel a lot more confident than I did, I think they feel more relaxed around me if that makes sense.

I've seen them do it with others since too.
We've had kids come and view pony as potential sharers/loaners. They can all ride well enough but don't have a lot of experience in handling ponies, he takes advantage of that fact. He pulls them to the grass, he puts his ears back when they go to tack him up, and the more he sees its having the desired effect the more he does it, he's never kicked or bitten, but you never know do you. Equally if you get a kid, even a small kid, with the right confidence he is as meek as a lamb and as good as gold, sadly not many kids of that calibre are looking for share ponies on old run down farms.

It's like when we sent the mare to her loan home this summer, at home she was fairly chilled to handle and was fine hacking about but if she felt challenged she blew her top so my daughter decided to rehome her as a hacking horse.

The mare got to her new home and immediately challenged her new human, who backed down and I believe it was downward all the way from there. In the end she behaved appallingly under saddle and put the poor person in grave danger and I think by the time mare was returned to us, the loaner was completely demoralised and intimidated, I know how she felt, because the mare did it to me too at one stage. When we got her home she happily went in to the stables, hacked out alone on a road and all the things she refused to do at the loan home, and though she does have her face-ache days on the whole she's gone back to being chilled.

 

[Alphamare]

I wish I could explain his behaviour by novice was or fear or softness but I am none of those things. I am a fairly capable and competent horsewoman. I've been riding my whole life. I guess if it were just me riding him I would have just assumed that was how he was. But it isn't. He was great with his old owner. Several loaners. My hubby. Just not me! Horses!

 

[Fellewell]

I find this video interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hYJJt9xckY&feature=related

Brilliant! That's a perfect example of how body language and general demeanour play a huge part in horse behaviour.

 

[Marydoll]

I really like Endo, hes brilliant at what he does

 

[LaurenBay]

Yes.

My old share mare adaps for her handler/rider. She is teaching my 11YO cousin how to ride. Plods on and does anything asked of her. I get on and she picks up the pace, occasionly a few bucks but thats it. She knows I don't like anymore then that. Her owner gets on and she is forward, bucks, bounces on the spot etc. Owner loves a changeling ride and Nelly knows it!

It was only the other week when all 3 of us rode her in the space of an hour (taking turns) she went from one extreme to the other pretty quick.

Horses like her are worth their weight in gold!

My Horse is the same under saddle for anyone. But plays up for others on the ground. She never plays up with me anymore.

 

[clairew]

Millie will be good as gold if anyone else rides her, although I don't think she's that keen. Flint is a total knobber if anyone else rides him - I was told one girl who wanted to ride him looked like a cannon ball hurtling between his ears when he bucked her off, naughty boy! Flint is a bit of a wazzock for anyone else handling (comes in from the field sideways), and Millie is really not keen on other people - nearly impossible for anyone else but me to catch her, which I take as a compliment!