Explain this?

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Abacus

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I have 2 horses, which until October lived together happily for about 18 months and were good mates in the field. One is 16, the other 6. In October I put the old boy on loan to a home about an hour away.

Over Christmas, I took the young chap over to visit the old chap, and go for a hack. The young boy has never been there before. The route involved varied roads with motorway and lots of quiet lanes, many of which had horses in fields alongside them (stay with me, this is relevant).

He travelled quietly for the hour, and then about 50 yards from the yard gates, started calling and whinneying very loudly. I'm not an expert in horse language but I would say he sounded excited and not especially worried. When we got there I saw that the old boy was tucked up in his stable, right in the middle of an American barn. There was no way the young chap could see him, and as I said, he had never been there before so didn't know we had nearly arrived. He wasn't just calling to horses in the fields at random, as there had been loads of those along the way, and he didn't call out to them.

Any thoughts?
 
Abacus said:
I have 2 horses, which until October lived together happily for about 18 months and were good mates in the field. One is 16, the other 6. In October I put the old boy on loan to a home about an hour away.

Over Christmas, I took the young chap over to visit the old chap, and go for a hack. The young boy has never been there before. The route involved varied roads with motorway and lots of quiet lanes, many of which had horses in fields alongside them (stay with me, this is relevant).

He travelled quietly for the hour, and then about 50 yards from the yard gates, started calling and whinneying very loudly. I'm not an expert in horse language but I would say he sounded excited and not especially worried. When we got there I saw that the old boy was tucked up in his stable, right in the middle of an American barn. There was no way the young chap could see him, and as I said, he had never been there before so didn't know we had nearly arrived. He wasn't just calling to horses in the fields at random, as there had been loads of those along the way, and he didn't call out to them.

Any thoughts?
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Mine does this whenever he sees/hears/smells horses nearby. If he heard his old friend reply that could explain the reaction?
 
Yup, he knew the old boy was there - how? Dunno, horses have better senses than we do. I had two mares that were together for several years, weren't particularly fond of each other. I sold one mare and about 4 years later we were at a dressage clinic, my mare started calling frantically and bouncing about anxiously; sure enough, there was the other mare around the corner warming up. She ignored my little mare completely, but my mare was definitely anxious to talk to her.
 
Whenever I've travelled my one horse away, he's always started neighing to his mate back at home when he's about half a mile away on the way home -and he can't see out because it's an old trailer with a tiny front window, and the haynet covers it. I have always wondered how he knows.
 
When we retired my childhood pony she was put in a field about 1/4 mile away from another horse who she'd been a surrogate mum to when he was weaned 10years before. Within a few mins he appeared, having jumped everything in his path to get to her.
No idea how he knew, they must have special senses!!
 
So interesting that this is quite common.

I have another one to add; the old boy knows where he is going in a lorry. For a good few months I took him to a dressage clinic every 2 weeks which was 40 mins from home. After that, whenever we went in a different direction - either straight from home or turned off part way on the journey - he was stamp, snort and whinny - as if he was put out that we weren't going where he expected. I'm sure he knew the way, even travelling backwards with a small window on the drivers side. Clever lad.
 
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