Funny horse behaviour -- they think about things

[Caol Ila]

I'm going to have to give you the dramatis personae for this to make sense.

R and B are two mares who live in Hermosa's herd. R is another DIY horse, and she's Hermosa's best pal in the field. We pair up with her owner for bring-ins and turnout when needed, so they are often coming in or going out together. However, we've never hacked with them. B is full livery -- so they usually don't go out at the same time -- but one of our regular hacking buddies. She's pretty dominant and not the friendliest in the field, and I rarely find Hermosa near her.

M and D are two geldings who we also hack regularly with -- as much if not more so than B. Obviously they don't live with Hermosa since all our herds are single sex.

If Hermosa sees R being led past her stable, untacked, probably going to field, she whinnies. If R has tack on, Hermosa doesn't say anything.

If Hermosa sees B's owner leading her out of the barn with tack on, she whinnies. But if B is untacked and probably on her way to the field, Hermosa ignores her.

If Hermosa sees M or D with their tack on, she doesn't say anything.

My interpretation:

The first is obvious. Hermosa likes going to the field and hanging out with her best pal. If she sees R going towards the field, she thinks she might go too. She has zero expectations of hacking with R because it's never happened.

She likes hacking with B, though she doesn't seem to like her in the field. But if B has tack on, Hermosa is hopeful she might get to hack with her.

She's indifferent about hacking with the geldings. If they have tack on, she might go out with them. She might not. Who cares?

 

[julesjoy]

I love these interactions, so interesting.

 

[ycbm]

I love it that you know her well enough to know these things.
.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Yes I'm sure they think about things. Four summers ago, My old boy and another old cob were targeted by a newcomer, who plagued the life out of them and swung on their tails, ripping a full 50% of each tail out from the roots. We eventually stopped the attacks by rugging and slathering in nasty stuff, however, fast forward three years, and my daughter took the tail ripper on loan for six months and did a lot of work with him. Old Dobbin was retired by that time, so they were never brought in together or ridden out, but have since become best buddies in the field. I can't explain why!

 

[Caol Ila]

Fin whinnies at his turnout/bring-in buddies. He also whinnies at humans who regularly give him attention.

 

[Wishfilly]

Not quite the same thing, but mine knows my car- in the summer we drive up to the field to feed. He sometimes calls or runs over to the gate when he sees it, before he even sees me. I recently changed cars and it took him a little while to learn the new one- he definitely doesn't do it for every car!

He wants to be friends with everyone so will often call to other horses regardless!

 

[seamoth]

I hadn't ridden my Mare for most of winter due to the terrible weather so I decided I would walk in hand for the first couple of weeks, my other two ponies went completely nuts, running around shouting and calling all the time we were out, this went on every time I took her out. Come to riding I started to put her tack on and both ponies just wandered off and took no notice, they knew she would be back if she had tack on is the only thing I can think of for this reaction.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

Mine can figure out knots. She knows exactly which end of the rope to pull it’s amazing how clever they are, and how much they retain and understand.

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[Squeak]

My old boy had a knack for opening stable doors. One night I'd forgotten to put the clip on his door and he got out and let his friends out but very specifically left the two horses he didn't get on with in their stables. He definitely knew what he was doing!

 

[Time for Tea]

My old boy had a knack for opening stable doors. One night I'd forgotten to put the clip on his door and he got out and let his friends out but very specifically left the two horses he didn't get on with in their stables. He definitely knew what he was doing!

Love this!

 

[criso]

Cleverer than mine. Loves being out. Occasionally if his fieldmates go for a hack first thing, he may have to wait for them before he goes out if there's nothing in the field alongside. He's convinced they have gone out to the field without him and has a meltdown.

He can untie knots though, doesn't necessarily go anywhere, just stands where he was tied up.

 

[fidleyspromise]

I love that you know this about your horse.

Mine know my car and my horses are currently split up so I go to one field and as soon as the car goes straight up the drive to F, I then have Ta charging around impatiently wanting his food so I now turn instead of going straight and go to T and T so F stands and waits until the car comes back and straight up towards her.
Within days of having Ta he knew my car and raced to meet me at the gate.

I used to hack past a golf course and one day i passed as mr FP was driving and turned into it. I had to quickly divert my horse as she started to chase after the bloody car recognising it as mine.

Ti used to untie herself and go for walks. Newly arrived on 2 separate yards and I come out with my tack t0 find pony GONE. I rush around and first yard she found someone's feed bins and helped herself to apples munching through the bag so they were nice and mushy. I bought new ones and left a note as I had no idea who anyone was. Second yard I came out with tack and she was GONE. She was around the back of the stables happily munching grass.

Til when I first got her would on a daily basis pull the rope over the post, pull the gate inwards and escape onto the yard. Come onto the yard, park and look for Til. It was cute as once you saw her she'd trot off behind another object. Got the gate eventually so she couldn't open it and the horses were all near the gate waiting to come in and a bird scarer went off. The horses shot back up the field and were in a gateway to another field so Til was trapped further up that field unable to get past any of the horses. I tried shouting but none of them moved. I went away to do something and came back less than 5 mins later - Til had gone all the way up that second field, popped over a cross country jump and come back down that field where there were no horses and stood waiting at that gate to be let in.

She also chewed through baling twine, opened large sliding doors and jumped up into the stables and started munching all the feeds (she was 14.1hh and these feed were for horses 14.2 up to Clydesdale so where she got a quarter large square scoop of feed daily, these horses has 1 to 3 scoops in their buckets). The buckets were placed in the stables at night ready for the morning - after that we also closed the stable doors. She had eaten about 5 feeds so over 5 scoops of feed containing oats, barley, maize, sugar beet.

 

[Caol Ila]

God, sort of off-topic but it's my damn thread.....I hope Fin doesn't do what he normally does and remembers the one incident of bad sh1t and forgets the hunners of times of good sh1t.

I was hacking him towards the park, with OH as foot soldier. He was as relaxed as an old trekking pony. Then I heard a weird, loud *whap, whap, whap...* noise behind me, and he did a big spook. OH ran back to see what it was. It was a Mini with completely blown and shredded tyre. OH strongly advised driver to pull over where she was, because she was scaring the horse and a hazard to herself and other road users, and it's illegal. Driver seemed oblivious, failing to comprehendi he said, and continued to drive forwards. Fin did another big -- but still controllable -- spook. OH ran back to the driver to tell her to not bloody move. Ideally, not until the AA could get there, but for our purposes, three minutes would have done the job. She was in a safe place to stop with hazards on. Driver said she only lived ten minutes away and did not stop, at which point Fin tanked off up the road with nothing resembling brakes. Not ideal on a sunny Sunday, when the park is busy, but luckily every other driver stopped. I managed to do a pulley-rein/one-rein stop before the t-junction and steered him towards the carpark, thinking I just need to get this horse off the road ASAP. The vehicle with the shredded tyre continued to "chase" him (in his mind!). He tried taking off down the road again. I pulley-reined him and managed to stop, then reckoned I might have more control off than on, so jumped off. Wrestled him into the carpark and spent ages walking around, trying to reinstall his brain (and Hermosa was meant to do 12k today but did 10 because this faff delayed her ride). OH and I debated whether to double back and go straight home or do shortest route home through park and decided on latter, since he often chills out on his 'normal' park routes. He remained aff his tits until we passed our yard's turnout fields en route home.

He's going out with his 21-year old rock solid pal tomorrow. I am hoping he isn't a mess.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

So not only inconsiderate, but willing to risk both yours, Fin's, and anyone else's lives who risked coming in his way had he completely panicked. Besides that, as you said, it was also illegal, and even though she didn't care about that it was a hazard for other road users that she just "had to" continue, one could've thought that it at least would've mattered a bit more to her that she was also a hazard for herself. *Sigh* Poor Fin.

I so wish you could've turned Fin around, and aimed him at her car like some old fashioned Destrier, that, and preferably a lance pointing straight at her, would've made the scene sound much more satisfying.

Hope all goes as well as possible when you, and him, goes out with his rock solid pal.

 

[Caol Ila]

I did report it on the BHS app as a 'near-miss.'

I once had Hermosa spook at a car dragging its heat shield which was 'chasing' us, but I got the driver to stop and she wasn't in a complete state, so I was able to double back and ride passed it while it was stationary. Then the driver could drive away from us, rather than come up behind us. However, yesterday Fin was such a mess that I wasn't able to steer him towards the vehicle, and the driver seemed unable to remain stationary for long enough anyway. At one point, I tried turning him towards it, but she rolled forwards, and we spun and tanked.

 

[SEL]

I wasn't expecting to read that update on here. That sounds awful and I think you did well to get poor Finn back under control. I'm underwhelmed at the moment by the inconsiderate drivers I've met recently (beeping at me to get out of the way on a single track road), but what happened to you could have caused a serious accident.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Is it worth asking around for dashcam footage and ask the police to throw the book at her for dangerous driving? Many police have colleagues in the mounted division and take these incidents seriously. Poor Fin, and poor you - it definitely rocks your confidence when idiots like this are around.

 

[Caol Ila]

Is it worth asking around for dashcam footage and ask the police to throw the book at her for dangerous driving? Many police have colleagues in the mounted division and take these incidents seriously. Poor Fin, and poor you - it definitely rocks your confidence when idiots like this are around.

Don't know where you'd start? I guess the community Facebook page, but you might take a slagging from the 'horses shouldn't be on the road brigade.'

I snuck it on this thread rather than start a new one. To avoid the HHO 'your horse should be de-sensitised enough to put up with anything and people should not have to stop what they are doing' brigade.

 

[Highmileagecob]

I hear you. But as the recent footage from London shows, horses are live animals and react unpredictably.

 

[Fieldlife]

God, sort of off-topic but it's my damn thread.....I hope Fin doesn't do what he normally does and remembers the one incident of bad sh1t and forgets the hunners of times of good sh1t.

I was hacking him towards the park, with OH as foot soldier. He was as relaxed as an old trekking pony. Then I heard a weird, loud *whap, whap, whap...* noise behind me, and he did a big spook. OH ran back to see what it was. It was a Mini with completely blown and shredded tyre. OH strongly advised driver to pull over where she was, because she was scaring the horse and a hazard to herself and other road users, and it's illegal. Driver seemed oblivious, failing to comprehendi he said, and continued to drive forwards. Fin did another big -- but still controllable -- spook. OH ran back to the driver to tell her to not bloody move. Ideally, not until the AA could get there, but for our purposes, three minutes would have done the job. She was in a safe place to stop with hazards on. Driver said she only lived ten minutes away and did not stop, at which point Fin tanked off up the road with nothing resembling brakes. Not ideal on a sunny Sunday, when the park is busy, but luckily every other driver stopped. I managed to do a pulley-rein/one-rein stop before the t-junction and steered him towards the carpark, thinking I just need to get this horse off the road ASAP. The vehicle with the shredded tyre continued to "chase" him (in his mind!). He tried taking off down the road again. I pulley-reined him and managed to stop, then reckoned I might have more control off than on, so jumped off. Wrestled him into the carpark and spent ages walking around, trying to reinstall his brain (and Hermosa was meant to do 12k today but did 10 because this faff delayed her ride). OH and I debated whether to double back and go straight home or do shortest route home through park and decided on latter, since he often chills out on his 'normal' park routes. He remained aff his tits until we passed our yard's turnout fields en route home.

He's going out with his 21-year old rock solid pal tomorrow. I am hoping he isn't a mess.

Easy to suggest with benefit of hindsight, but I think I would have Fin turned around, let the car go first, and then followed it hopefully slower, than it, so Fin didnt feel chased.

 

[SEL]

Easy to suggest with benefit of hindsight, but I think I would have Fin turned around, let the car go first, and then followed it hopefully slower, than it, so Fin didnt feel chased.

But once a horse starts to run in panic from whatever is "chasing" it then taking it towards the predator just doesn't compute in their head.

I can get off my two cobs in that kind of situation but my Appy would react much like Finn and there's no reasoning with her when her brain goes.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Once a horse is in full flight mode, staying on board is a challenge, never mind turning and stopping. Thank goodness it wasn't a bad outcome. Drivers need educating, having a horse through the windscreen doesn't bear thinking about.

 

[Caol Ila]

Easy to suggest with benefit of hindsight, but I think I would have Fin turned around, let the car go first, and then followed it hopefully slower, than it, so Fin didnt feel chased.

In a subsequent post, I do say that I've successfully done that with my other horse in a similar situation, but in this case, he was too panicked to have a lot of steering. Like I said, I did try that, but the vehicle continued rolling forward, making the noise, so we just spun and shot off in the opposite direction.

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

That was rather stupid of the driver to put every one in danger like that.
It's all very well to say your horse should be desensitised to everything, but I'm personally not going to slash a tire and get some to drive around them like that. I got rather annoyed when a pair of idiots thought it was a fun idea to turn up at a show jumping competition in inflatable T-rex costumes. Some people were like "my horse wouldn't bat an eyelid, yours should be desensitised" (weirdly most of these people had both feet firmly on the ground at the time...). On Little Madam, I couldn't have cared less but on 6yo Enormosaurus at her second competition, it was not fun. Not to mention all the small kids on ponies who were stressed enough without having dinosaurs thrown in the mix.

 

[fidleyspromise]

I'm sorry you had that experience - my horse is 21 and can deal with almost anything thrown at her but I've no idea how she would react to that. Stupid driver put everyone at risk including herself.
Titchy - why would anyone thing that was a good idea?

My horse above has had lorries trundle past at 60 not batting an eye and then one day I had my friends daughter out on her pony. A lorry came from behind coming into a 30 and kept coming. I waved him to slow down and he ignored me. The pony cantered up the side of me, the rider kicking my horse as she was so close leading to us both cantering with lorry beside us. I stopped my pony within a few strides and her pony stopped beside me but I was ready to grab her rein to stop her. We were approaching a cross roads to a 50MPH. Next day I took my pony out and a smaller lorry came from behind. My pony tried to take off and I ended up backing her into trees and hanging onto her mouth. The lorry was snail pace and went past. My pony was worked up all the way home. After that for about 7 years my pony would tense when a lorry was near. It's only now she's started to relax and ignore them again.
I hope you've been out and had a good experience with Finn.
I've noticed drivers being more inconsiderate every year.

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

Titchy - why would anyone thing that was a good idea?

I have no idea. I think they were teens and thought it would be fun. I don't know if they were associated with any of the participants but they definitely weren't known to the organisers (my riding school). I was just sitting there counting Enormosaurus heart beat through my legs and praying she wouldn't explode. As her nickname implies, she's massive and we were in the warm up with some much smaller ponies, it could have been a disaster. She actually managed to contain herself but I think we were millimetres away from boiling over.

 

[Goldenstar]

They are clever they watch us and learn stuff .
Blue learnt how to open bridle way type catches by watching me
He then opened the gate when he fancied getting out , I then tied it shut however Sky can do knots in fact he’s very good at them so now I have fix the knots so they cannot be pulled on to the field side of the gate .
If they were not in starvation inducing ( that’s their take on it ) small paddocks they would not bother with the gate .
They both remove their muzzles no matter what I do .

 

[Equi]

They’re very clever. Hectors field buddy lives in the top yard, so generally I find it’s easier to bring him up and tie, get buddy and then bring him over and untie H and off we go. H gets very animated and nickery when he knows I’m going to get the buddy, but I tie up in the yard frequently without this behaviour. So he clearly knows a) what time it is and b) what my movements indicate eg when I lift buddies head collar it means out time!

 

[Goldenstar]

Different animal but my dog knows which car I am going to use by the keys I pick up .

 

[Caol Ila]

Well, Fin is cleverer than I thought. Took him on a hack with his buddy and he was perfectly calm and normal. He did not get worried on the bit of road where he got scared, nor was he bothered by cars coming up behind him. Tbh, I'm not sure he even registered yesterday's terrifying noise as a car. It never actually got that close to us. He's come along. He used to really hold onto bad experiences and get very spooky wherever he'd been spooked before.

Here's a photo of his hacking buddy's arse.