Greeting horses

RubysGold

RubysGold

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Just curious :D When you ride with other people, do you let the horses get close enough to touch noses when you stop to chat.

I was just wondering cos I know a lot of people dont mind, the other day I rode in the arena with someone and when we'd pretty much finished we stopped to chat. And she let her horse go to touch noses with mine and I had to ask her not to.

I just have this thing about it. Them squealing goes right through me. I dont let them touch noses when Im getting headcollars on in the field, or if their near each other on the yard and DEFINITELY not when Im on their backs, they know I tense up :rolleyes:
 
Nope, I too am worried about the chance of catching something if its an unknown horse - or the chance of injury if they lash out.
 
If its a friends new horse we're hacking with I usually let them touch noses for a minute when we meet in a controlled manner, I find it makes them less grumpy about being near each other and my mare can get quite unnerved by other horses (she would always want me to walk between her and them to lead past them in the field etc, silly hoss).

I wouldn't if it was a random horse on a hack or something, only those we need to see regularly. That does include some ponies in a field round the corner we pass regularly on a path, before I let her familiarise herself she would call and get very strong (in a nervous way) and now she doesn't care if they're cantering around and calling 2ft from her face.
 
No because my mare is a brat and I can 100% gaurantee she will strike out with her front legs even at horses she knows well. Not worth the risk imo especially with unknown horses.
 
My sister and I let our horses do this - however, they have known each other for many years - in fact since my sister's mare was born 11 years ago, my horse was in the next door box and was her "nanny".

Even when they had been apart for a couple of years at different yards, when they met again, they quickly got back into routine, sniffing each other's noses and then having a very long and vigorous mutual groom.
 
The horses from our yard to not have a problem, but anyone else no. I get very cross when people ride into our yard on their horses to me this is not on. As already said you do not know what they might have.
 
Funny, that's topic of my blog post this week! http://horsesunderourskin.wordpress.com/

In terms of horses greeting each other, yes - if they know each other, they should certainly say hello. My horse isn't a robot! I say hello to my friends (who are sitting on top of their horses) when we meet, it would be very strange to expect my horse to somehow not acknowledge that there are any other horses present!

I have spent a bit of time teaching him about the greeting that I find acceptable when riding though - so "hello and sniff" is allowed, squeal and strike is not.

I would discourage him from greeting a strange horse when out, simply from a health point of view - and since it's hardly fair to spend 20 minutes chatting to a person while expecting my horse to pretend there isn't another horse there, if I knew the person riding, I'd just say hello and head on past :)
 
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