Dogs and Horses- A warning to all!

[echodomino]

its like letting a child play with the traffic.

Am I not supposed to let them do that?? Lol - sorry couldn't resist.

The way I see it is if we're not careful we won't do anything for fear of the worse happening

 

[GinnieRedwings]

No, it's not a nice thing to see a horse trying to stamp on a dog with the intention of killing it but that's what happens when no dog/horse proofing is done. As much as I hate the expression, technically speaking, a dog is a threat to a horse, there for it's only natural for a horse to react that way if it's not been socialised with dogs

I'm with ED on that one.

My horses are socialised with dogs. They don't fear them as predators, so mostly they ignore them - with the exception of the 2 year old who thinks it's a lot of fun to chase them - which is turn teaches the dogs to stay out of her way, so no worries there.

My little terrier puppy has been round the horses off lead since she was 8 weeks old. At that age, she was scared of them and developped her own horse sense without putting herself in danger. Other people around me thought I was nuts, but at now 6 months old, she treats horses with respect, doesn't chase them or bark at them or generally come too close to them - she doesn't fear them but is cautious not to be in their space, which is exactly what I was trying to achieve.