Does good looking = thick? Discuss!!!!

[Hovis_and_SidsMum]

I'm bored can't you tell?!!
My friends horse is on box rest at the moment following an operation so I leant her Hovis' treat ball to let him have something to do.
J is gorgeous looking but looked at the ball like he hadn't got a clue what to do with it. I got down on my knees and pushed it around for him to get the idea and left it. The following morning it was still full of treats and he was still looking at it bemused.
Omar was still in so i gave it to him to play with - same reaction. He knew treats were in it and wanted them but couldn't figure it out at all. Omar is stunning, absolutely stunning to look at and obviously very dim.
My hairy bog trotting destroyer will have the treats out of it in 5 mins flat. He is not exactly gifted in the looks department but has the cunning of a fox (especially where food is concerned).

So does good looking = thick??!
Are cross breeds more intelligent in the same way as mongrels are more inteligent than pedigree dogs?

 

[peanut]

My horse has brains and beauty

 

[Sarah1]

First of all Hovis is stunning!
I think it's more a case of the native/heavy breeds having a bit more common sense & probably being a bit brighter than the WB types. Natives & heavies do seem to be a bit more wiley!
Before I upset anyone with my comments about WB's - I'm allowed to say that cos my boy is part WB! He can be as dumb as a brick somedays!!!!!!! Altho can figure out the treat ball...

 

[Eira]

I have always said Sol is beautiful thick .. I am now led to believe she is more intelligent than on first inspection ..

She has a permanent injury which means I wait on her hand and foot while she gets to graze and sleep ..

Clever .. I think so

 

[Pinhead]

Ditto roops!!

Though he is ID x TB... maybe its the cross breeding in him, but he'd have those treats straight away!

 

[Chico Mio]

Ah well, FB looks thick, he has an Eeyore quality to him, but is, in fact, more cunning than Professor Cunning, lecturer of cunning at Cunning University.

He has been known to steal a bucket of feed from a wheelbarrow left too close, whip it into his stable over the door where it tipped on the floor and then, when we went to go in and retrieve bucket, he had locked himself in, using the inside bolt, giving him time to wolf the lot before we could get in!

He also worked his treat ball out in two minutes flat..

 

[JLD]

re my post before yours - my hairy bog trotter cant get them out quick enough so stamps his ways through it makeing extra holes - dont tell Hovis - its getting expensive. however he really really doesnt get anything that hangs up just bangs his head on them and gets scared so not sure he isnt thick just driven by fat horse instinct !

 

[miss_c]

Genie had the treat ball figured out in seconds (although to me she's beautiful, but as a Welsh D not everybody's cup of tea!). Everybody used to say that Mazzie was absolutely stunning, but she just didn't get the treat ball at all. I rolled it for her, it made a noise, and she snorted and leapt to the back of the stable and never went near it!

 

[Sarah1]

At our last livery yard the horses could reach each other over the partitions - we had one of those hanging likit things up in the middle stable and my horse & my nieces pony figured out how to get a side each so it wouldn't swing about while they were trying to lick it - my lad is ID x WB and the pony is an Irish Sports Pony with what we believe is plenty of Connemara in him! The TB had to use the wall for his cos he has no mates!!!!!
Even if he wasn't so socially challenged I doubt he'd have figured it out as quickly as the other two!
As I said in previous reply my lad's as dumb as a brick some days unless there's food involved! He does things like tripping over poles on the way out of the school after having ridden over them a million times and then looking shocked like 'who put those there'!

 

[Flame_]

My young mare is very pretty, and fairly blessed with brains, but she does show the dumb-blood in her every time she goes in and out of the stable. I have to "place her" and remind her to lift her legs up over the little step or she trips over it EVERY TIME and nearly goes flat on her face.

 

[Elle1085]

my horse is stunning and the most intelligent horse i've ever known which makes owning and riding him a constant mental challenge but he wont play with toys only things he's not allowed. He's a westphalian, i also know a show pony type who's gorgeous and seriously clever at 2 years old. The thickest horse i've ever encountered was a welsh cob

 

[Silverspring]

So are you saying all bred horses are beautiful and all non bred horses are ugly? I wouold beg to differ having seen some ugly little pink papers ponies and some gorgeous unknown parentage horses.

As for intelligence I think it depends on the horse and the perspective. Some people think a horse is clever if it is easy to train, I know plenty of trainable WB they do what they are told when they are told. Ask them to get themselves out of a fickle and they'll fall flat on their (pretty) little heads!

The same in reverse, some people think TB's are stupid as they run from their own shadow yet give them some confidence and they won't be doing rotational horse falls on cross country course, they know where all 4 legs are at any given time and can wiggle out of most situations.

In short...no.

 

[Hovis_and_SidsMum]

Not at all..
Merely all the traditionally good looking horses i've met haven't been the sharpest knives in the drawer!
Chill! This was merely a light hearted thread allowing us all to poke fun at sterotypes.
The TBs on our yard are as thick as two short planks when it comes to common sense. We've had to rescue them out of various scrapes they've gotten themselves into more times than i remember. I've also watched them allow the horse next to them to snaffle their haynet through the bars and then stand looking forlorn until someone retrives it for them!

 

[louisevictoria]

lighten up

it is a tongue in cheek thread

 

[Silverspring]

[ QUOTE ]
lighten up

it is a tongue in cheek thread

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah and here was me thinking it was a thread for everyone to post about how gorgeous and intelligent their own horse was no matter what the breed

Since that seems to be the generally response and no one else seems to have looked at the over all situation...I have a pure bred Arab with Egytian bloodlines traceable back to the 1700's, she the smartest horse in the whole wide world and totally gorgeous...so in short no

 

[Hovis_and_SidsMum]

I haven't said once hovis is beautiful!
cos although i wear glasses i would have to check the prescription!

 

[megwan1]

the welshy i had on loan was so beautiful really good lookin (perhaps a tad femine actually think he was gay but thats another story) was totally dim!!!! bless him though it was that cute sort dim although he did work out that the treat ball produced food if he bounced it off every wall of the stable but he was thick

 

[Festive_Felicitations]

The smartest mare I have ever met was a Chilean Criollo mare
incredibly pretty by any standard, very sharp with a phenomenal memory.

I think the dumb blondes of the horse world are chestnut arab mares (the more white sock the worse).
The mare I have in mind did actually have a flaxen mane and tail. There where days when you could see the bafflement and confusion on her face it was funny but at the same time a bit depressing. But she was a lovely mare, just a bit ...blonde...
But on average I find geldings to be thicker, had their brains removed? =)-

PS I am blonde and therefore claim the right to bag myself out as much as I like =)

 

[Silverspring]

[ QUOTE ]
I haven't said once hovis is beautiful!
cos although i wear glasses i would have to check the prescription!

[/ QUOTE ]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

 

[brighteyes]

No. Or, possibly, yes.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

 

[pottamus]

My welshie is a handsome fellow and is far too clever for his own good...he tends to pick up new things quite quickly once he has got over the fact he is usually scared of whatever it is and once he does something once he is fine. But he is a cheeky little so and so that pushes the boundaries all the time and is not daft at all!

 

[tabithakat64]

Fudge is beautiful and brainy too

He worked out in seconds that you don't have to roll a treat ball round for hours to get the treats out!
You just jump on the treat ball and if you use enough force it will break and you can eat all the treats at once

Same goes for Lickits and stable licks and also veggie kebabs

 

[Kenzo]

[ QUOTE ]


So does good looking = thick??!
Are cross breeds more intelligent in the same way as mongrels are more inteligent than pedigree dogs?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there is a clever individual in every breed and type, I think it's more down to their pedigree and how they have have picked things up from being a foal and the environment etc

However I do the the hot blooded breeds have less up there when it comes to craftiness and intelligence in my experience.

 

[annret]

[ QUOTE ]
my horse is stunning and the most intelligent horse i've ever known which makes owning and riding him a constant mental challenge but he wont play with toys only things he's not allowed. He's a westphalian

[/ QUOTE ]

My horsey's very pretty and SO intellegent and a westphalian too (though mostly Trak blood) and can empty a treat ball in minutes, even when I fill it with treats which in theory are too big to come out again. She rams the ball in a corner and bangs it against the walls till it's empty.

I think German bloodlines are more intellegent than Dutch and Belgian, judging from the horses on the yard.

 

[Shazzababs]

Fitz is pretty, and brainy too especially when it comes to food. He is half CB though and they are food obsessed as a breed!

When he was on box rest I moved his hanging treats so he could't shove them against the wall and gobble. He then proceeded to stand on his back legs and shove them against the ceiling instead.

I've got some pictures somewhere....

 

[BankEndRescue]

Todd is stunning and a clever boy

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

Wouldn't give my sharp as knives coblet a treat ball

- would be empty in next to no time!!

Is totally food motivated - can undo all the stable doors when she wants too.......decides when its time for food by whinnying loudly and constantly......

My big beautiful dumb blood on the other hand

.......he is probably even more food motivated than my coblet - just not quite as qucik when it comes to working out how to get at it!!

The other day I was letting them out on to some longer grass for a treat and he stood in the corner of his paddock staring at my mares bum disappearing down the field while I stood at the open gateway calling him so he could join her - only took him 5 minutes to work it out.........

 

[spotty_pony]

My pony is good looking and very clever.