Does your horse like you?

Yes definately, though not when I walk into her stable with her tack...

She is very much a people person anyway my mare, so she likes all human attention. She is getting more and more demonstrative of her affection for me as the years go on with her. She's lovely. :-)
 
Yes - mine regularily tells me so! He loves to rest his head on my shoulder and nuzzle me, even if just in the field.....he is hugely affectionate and the equivalent of a horsey best friend.
 
Yes, she doesn't try to kick me or chase me out of her field which she does to things she doesn't like (such as our geese!) haha.
I'm ill at the moment but with it being sunny felt well enough to go see her & she let me lean on her give her cuddles & when I sat in the field came & nuzzled me. If that doesn't show she likes me i'm not sure what could!
 
She really doesn't have an opinion of me I don't think, the word is "tolerate"....she will come galloping up and whinney, but that's only because she hopes I have food, as soon as she realised I don't, she soon wanders off. We rarely have cuddles, actually today, I felt abit warm and fuzzy inside when she gave me a smooch :)
 
My horses like me because I am familiar to them, I do things for them, feed them, scratch them, bring them in out of the sun/rain/blizzards, feed them etc, etc, etc, possibly also because I don't beat them ;) I don't kid myself that I am the ONE.

My mares, especially the broodmares are very gentle and one in particular likes me to be with her when she is in labour (but then so do my cats and the dogs) if I leave her she'll scream for me - sounds dumb perhaps but that's what she does. I am her comfort zone when she is in pain, my stallion also called for me when he was very seriously ill, now he can take me or leave me again.

Horses most certainly prefer some people over others, one of my boarders is a very well schooled, polite horse, but very aloof and I am merely there to serve his needs, when his owner turns up however - it is all lovey dovey, head on shoulder, whickers, snorts, slobbers - but then his owner always turns up with carrots. I don't treat which drops me right down the bottom of the like ladder ;) :D

I do trust my animals judgement, I was selling a homebred filly once, and when someone came to view her she attacked him, over the wall of the stable, I mean attack, ears pinned, eyes wide, teeth bared and she was coming over that wall! She hated him on sight, oddly enough so did my usually very laid back dog, when he glues himself to my side and rumbles with snarls then I take note. I listened to them both that day.

I have been on the receiving end too, a horse at a racing yard I was on hated me, I had never done anything to merit that, but he loathed me and would quite happily have chewed me up and spat me out. Nobody could figure out why, I didn't have that effect on any of the others :(
We decided that he must have had an altercation or two with a small, dark haired female at some time.
 
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Okay, I have three.

One likes everyone.

One hates everyone. I think he's coming around to me now he's retired and I bring him his tea, but he'll never be cuddly, and I wouldn't trust my face near his face :p

One likes me, and is afraid of everyone else. It's flattering if you don't mind clingy :p He nickers when he sees me, we chat in the stable, he's very cuddly and sweet but other people approaching him do cause bug eyes...
 
I always said me and my mare had a business partnership..

We didn't dislike eachother but we wasn't firm friends, just did what we needed to do for each other.
 
~My gelding is blimmin obsessed with me! he is just 4, so still pretty babyish, he follows me everywhere, which was good when I first tried loading him last year! if I go in the trailer hes a couple of steps behind me! wasn't so good when I tried lunging him and he kept turning in to look at me! was a little gem whilst he was away being backed though!

my mare, she only wants to know me now that she has cushings and im her personal itching post! shes old so cant get round to her back legs so well, so you will often find me in the field with her backed up to me wanting scratches and my gelding sniffing me as if he's asking why she's getting the attention

then my Shetland, he's scared of the world and life itself, I cant catch him but some days I can rub his nose and get lots of kisses, other days he will stretch his neck like a giraffe to take a bit of apple from my hand!

I think in their own way they all like me to a certain degree
 
I know you shouldnt put human emotions onto animals but my anglo definatly actually LOVES me im sure, he follows me around like a lamb, when im leading him and talking to him and walk into things he walks into them too lol, aparently while i was in hospital he seem physically depressed! If i walk off on him when hes eating his tea he follows me!(this is a new thing), He gets jelous of me fussing over the others, he snuggles me and gives kisses which he dosnt do with anyone despite being exceptionally friendly with everyone and everything and his eyes litteraly light up when he see's me. Hes so loyal, if only i could find a man like him! Honestly im not mad, he really is like this, of coarse he could jst be abit 'special', hes definatly not the brightest spark in the box! :D
 
PaddyMonty said:
I'm not sure like is an appropriate word to use in reference to horses. For humans its a conscious decision if we like some one or not. For horses it's a response to satisfying their basic need be it food, companionship or security. Yes the horses I am involved with exhibit behaviour that we as humans interpret as liking us but for each of them I am providing at least one of their 3 essentials.
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Ah well... this is where science falls down a little isn't it? Science says that horses can have emotions such as (and as all witnessed by me) anger, rage, fear, terror, lonliness, depression, disgust, joy etc etc... but it draws a line at actually saying that horses might possibly have the emotion of liking their human companions. Yet those of us who have spent time around horses all have anecdotal evidence of their horses wanting to be with them, perhaps if we apply 'Occam's Razor' (the simplest theory is the most likely to be correct) it's not that big a jump to believe that horses do indeed have the ability to 'like' certain humans.

My own Warmblood once stopped me, by blocking, from getting too close to an area where a barbed wire fence (on a neighbour's property) had snapped and pinged into his paddock, while the Cob gelding once defended me from a particularly nasty lamb that wandered into his field.... the same Cob has defended my OH from a mini-digger and the particularly irate husband of another livery, in fact OH feels that had she let Cobby go during that confronation he would have without doubt, attacked the chap involved. These things happened, and perfectly true, which means that there's just a chance that horses (if the relationship is there) will put themselves at risk to defend those that they care about. The signing, a couple of years ago, of the 'Cambridge Declaration of Conciousness' adds a little scientific weight to the argument that there is more to animal behaviour than just instinct.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
 
Of course horses can like humans! My horse likes carrots but dislikes pears. Why can't he carry that same emotion through to people?
 
Pigeon said:
Of course horses can like humans! My horse likes carrots but dislikes pears. Why can't he carry that same emotion through to people?
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Best response so far!

I am pretty sure that my horse likes me . . . he calls when he hears my car/my footsteps/my voice . . . he seeks me out in the field - just for a fuss/a scritch . . . he is just generally happy in my presence - I would call that "like" . . . and I don't think it's just because I feed him either . . .

P
 
My horse loves everybody. He's just very friendly, and approval and affection mean a lot to him. It is very sweet but I feel bad for him that he got me who can take that or leave it. Flame thought I was a PITA and mostly told me to get lost. That made me find her awesome.
 
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Me and my horse are mates....we get along. When we ride it is a different relationship. He knows when we work we work. I had to retire him this week, now we csn really just be mates. However I am in charge, he understands his place, it is what would happen in the herd.

In order to help him I would never mount from the ground, I would climb on to a gate and swing across. He would stand for me. Once I had mud on my foot and I slipped, my horse caught me with hiis shoulder and then pushed me up the gate with his neck. I must admit I did hear a big sigh when he was doing it..........!?
 
Follows me round the field doing our checks, he has his nose on my back and he panics if he gets left behind ;-)

When I didn't see him for two days because I was working (yard checked him) and then went to see him, he spotted me in the field, did a big scream/whinny and came galloping over to me :-)
 
I am pretty certain my mare likes me. I have owned her since she was only 10 months old and I feel like we have gotten to know each other very well. She comes galloping down the hill when I call for her, is happy to give anything a try with me and if she's unsure she "asks" me first rather than get in a tizz about things - has made for a very unspooky horse !! I just feel that she appears relaxed and at ease around me and looks genuinely happy to see me and tries so hard. My gelding? Not so sure. I'm not certain that he likes anyone haha !! I love him to death, don't get me wrong, but he's very arrogant and opinionated for a gelding and also seems very moody. If he doesn't feel like doing something one day, he won't do it but will go on to be a superstar the following day which can be very frustrating. He's easy to catch but very rarely will walk up to me in the field but does look for me when I'm walking around the barn. I think since having my mare I've realised what a true "bond" (I don't really like that word but can't think of a better way to phrase it) with a horse is. I have a trust in my mare I don't think I will ever have with my gelding. She's such a good fun, reliable horse who I never have to worry about because she always wants to please. I think for me, this is how to know that your horse likes you - how much effort they will put into your relationship and interactions. My mare is always interested in what I'm doing and is 100% focussed on me all the time, whereas my gelding appears at times to have his own agenda haha !! It's lucky we love him so much - he can be such a diva and full of quirks, he'd be simply infuriating if he didn't have the talent to back it up !!
 
I hope so! Some days I think they generally get annoyed if I onyl have time to feed them etc, and if I can't ride that day, but I do think they generally like me and respect me more than others.
 
My horse doesn't just like me, he loves me, showing jealousy towards my OH, but not my daughter, (OH pointed it out) chases my other three away if I'm fussing them, grooms me when I scratch his special place and follows me like a dog, it's mutual though, after four years, I still think he's better than a lottery win
 
I don't know if it's like, love or leadership. Away from home if i step out of sight mare screams for me, even if she's with horse or human friends.
Both greet me loudly and enthusiastically when I arrive and rush up to me in the field
Gelding comes for snuggles all the time.
 
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