Have you ever disliked a horse based purely on 'vibes' when it wasn't doing anything actually wrong (or not worse than a horse you do like)?

[LaurenBay]

I have had Horses who have been foot perfect but I haven't clicked with. I knew I had found my mare as I just had this feeling the second I sat on her, despite her not going as nice as some of the others I had tried. I just felt at home with her.

 

[bouncing_ball]

Yes because it doesn't do the horse any good to have a rider on that either doesn't like it or can't ride it. We all have certain horses we ride and look after every day along with a bunch we will sit on when their normal riders are off that day/week. Not everyone can ride every horse and there are some horses I quite simply won't sit on because not only would I not be able to ride one side of them it could potentially be dangerous.

The jockeys don't always get a choice - they usually get the most horrible of the rides because they can deal with them, they do grow to like them as would anyone when you have to ride and compromise with a horse every day. They then get various random horses that they would ride in a race or need to school at home. Mostly to get a second opinion on how the horse is going.

I am not working today as I am working the weekend so Derek is on Big Midnight as more of a check in on him before he runs next week. One of the young lasses is on Champles but I am not sure she will ride him again today as she got off him yesterday - he is fresh as paint and was throwing some shapes that wouldn't concern me but does concern her. There's no point upsetting horse or Rider for the sake of it.

Thanks. I see lots of lads / lasses exercising on Epsom downs. I’d always wondered when seeing horses leaping about / misbehaving if they rode who are told or get some choice.

 

[Spot_On03]

There's loads of horses that are nice I've met over the years, but just haven't clicked with. Fine on the ground but ridden wise just don't get on. Much like people; some you like and some you don't.

 

[HorseyTee]

After my accident years ago, I worked at a RS and took some lessons to get me back into it.
Most of the horses were the same, like soulless robots really, but 1 I just loved and would always try and turn out/bring in, feed, tack up ect this horse. I ended up loaning it and loved that horse...even though it was much the same as all the others. I can't even tell you what it was I liked that the others didn't have...I honestly don't know.

 

[DizzyDoughnut]

There is only a few horses I've actively disliked, once, back when I was a groom there was one horse who no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get on with and he made it clear the feeling was mutual, so I just avoided him as much as possible, aside from the odd times I had to ride him when to his credit he would behave like a true gent but the minute I got off he would let me know he still didn't like me either. There was a mare on my old yard who I wasn't keen on she was just so needlessly dramatic it was annoying, I don't even know why it annoyed me my own welsh pony is also prone to dramatics and that I find fun, but he has a sense of humour and just does it to amuse himself or to highlight that he thinks whatever you've asked him to do is pointless or boring.

 

[Cob Life]

I get on really well with 2 of my instructors horses but her better one who is actually an easier ride I just haven’t clicked with, he still goes nicely and doesn’t put a hoof out of place, I don’t dislike him but we just don’t click like I have with the other two

 

[exracehorse]

Yes .. when viewing to buy. Horse is fine on paper. But I’ve hated the movement or build under saddle. Tried a lovely young mare but incredibly narrow with a pony like gait. I have to feel like we are as ‘one’. Like a good shoulder. And can sit into the horse. Don’t like a straight back either where your sitting on ‘top’ rather than in. It’s funny .. some feel like your favourite pair of slippers. Some you get on are immediately a no no

 

[eahotson]

Horses that I have disliked have tended to be in pain.(or later proved to be so).

A client's horse, for instance, I liked riding him on the right rein, not on the left. I mean, on the left I was edgy, even though the horse was simply a bit stiffer on that rein and wasn't doing anything naughty. I wanted to get off, a cold feeling. On the right, fine and cheerful.

I suggested a performance workup, that was done and the horse did indeed have some minor issues, for which the vet suggested physio. Sadly, the physio exercises (lungeing over raised poles) that were supposed to be done actually seemed to make the situation worse and the horse started to show lame.

The owner wanted to stick with the program whereas I wanted a further vet assessment, so I parted company with that client as I felt uncomfortable with working an increasingly lame horse. I don't know the outcome but I am sure, personally, that we originally caught something early before lameness came, but when the horse was in some pain.

I think that mares do often have pain associated with cycles.

I think that there is often a lot of undiagnosed pain in ridden horses.

 

[lucy_108]

I don't think it's dissimilar to people...there are some people I meet who can be pleasant and do absolutely nothing to offend or give me any reason to dislike them but I just don't get a good vibe (maybe that's just me haha!).
I have the same with horses. I remember getting a little mare on loan and we just did not click. She would go and jump etc. ticked all the boxes but there was a distance between us and I could not put my finger on it, never could. She ended up going back due to an injury but I didn't even miss her when she was gone, really weird as I usually get cut up when one leaves. Not every horse is for every rider and vice versa I think.

 

[NinjaPony]

Horses are all different, some you like some you don’t, even if they haven’t done anything ‘wrong’. Now I don’t have my own ridden horse, I’m riding at a equestrian centre once a week and riding lots of different horses. It’s really showing up what I get on with and what I don’t! Some I ‘click’ with quite quickly, others I just can’t get along with. As a rider, the ones I don’t like as much are still teaching me a lot, but I know I would absolutely not want to own them!
I remember when I rode a friends Welsh cob for her when mine was out of action, it was very kind of her to offer her horse but my god I just found the horse impossible and pretty awful to ride! She loved him, they got on really well but I couldn’t stand its attitude to work and it wasn’t enjoyable at all…

 

[Shilasdair]

Just like people, there are some horses you instantly like, and some you don't.
Horses too, take likes and dislikes to people - mares in particular can be fussy about who they bond with.

Having said that, the opposite is also true - and you can have the 'love at first sight' experience with them.

 

[Tarragon]

I don't think that I ever really dislike a horse, though some scare me and some I don't trust. However, there are some that I definitely feel that I have a real connection with, even before I ride them. Something in their eye

 

[Schollym]

Wondering if I'm crazy or anyone else has had this experience?

Basically when I started riding again at a local riding school (having not ridden for 20 years but having had a reasonably good standard before then, to give you an idea) they put me on 'A'. I liked A and he seemed a good fit for me level wise, but that first lesson was a bit of a blur of remembering how everything works, so I didn't have a chance to get to know him at all. Then the next week A had a minor medical issue and couldn't be ridden that day, so they put me on 'B' instead.

Now objectively, A and B are very similar rides. Both are slightly lazy riding school horses, prone to be a bit cheeky in the hope of getting out of work for a few minutes, but neither of them are plods and can be made to get their acts together with a bit of a firm hand.

In spite of this, for some reason I like A but I just don't get along with B at all. I rode her for about 5 lessons and every time I got this incredibly negative vibe off her, like her whole attitude was just 'ugh'. Even once she was working decently, and the instructor actually praised what I got out of her, I still felt the vibe coming up through the saddle was 'ugh fine'. Even in the stable, as much as I would try to make friends with her while grooming, tacking up and untacking, I felt like she was just rolling her eyes at me the whole time.

It sounds ridiculous but honestly it really ate into my enjoyment of riding. I found it really depressing to have to ride an animal I felt so strongly didn't like me at all, so much so that I ended up asking to be switched back to A, who by then was healed up and back in work. The riding school were happy to oblige (I didn't tell them why, just said I liked A better), so since then I have been riding him and even though the ride isn't actually all that much different, I enjoy him sooooo much more. Even though his behaviour is very similar to B, I get a much cheerier vibe from him, like yes he's a little lazy and will try his luck, but it's all in good fun and he doesn't really mind me or the work deep down.

Writing this all out makes it sound even crazier to me. I hasten to add that I'm not normally one to talk about 'vibes', and as a child and teen I spent 10 years running around a large RS and livery yard, riding all kinds of different personalities and don't remember ever feeling anything remotely like this.

 

[Schollym]

Wonder whether it was a gelding/mare thing in this case. Horses do have opinions about people, my old gelding who I bought from the riding school where I kept a pony, really disliked the guy who had been riding him regularly whereas he was fine with everyone else. I think that this particular person was too whip happy. We have three mares now and my mare gives my husband a hard time if I go and do anything one of the others, she also flies across the stable at the mare next door if I am in with her ( makes putting rugs on awkward) Rest of the time not an issue. The pony used to give my daughter a hard time if we were both in the stable but was fine if I wasn’t there.

 

[YorkshireLady]

Yes - I tend not to dislike many horses....but with a few exceptions but are some you can instantly not feel happy on and want to get off. I rode a friends horse...and I just always felt it could do something really not good even though it didnt...I would prob say with what happened later that it was an issue it had that gave me that feel.

I also years ago had a RS horse that I just could not click with - head girl loved to tell me how well she did with it BD. That is fine it really wasnt going to go well for me! It actually wrongly put me off warmbloods for years

 

[Schollym]

Very old fashioned of me, but I always look for a kind eye.

I’m quite freaked out by wall eyes too and have never bought a horse with one. There’s a coloured zebra marked horse with clear eyes that comes up in my Facebook newsfeed (called siebra I think) that you wouldn’t get me within 20 metres of!

I had a buckskin, who had a blue streak through one eye, you could only see it with the sun on. He was lovely

 

[Cortez]

You (or at least "I") don't have to like a horse to do well with it. The horse I was most successful with in competition I didn't like at all, and didn't enjoy handling either (he was our stud stallion). He didn't misbehave or cause any problems, quite the opposite in fact, but I was delighted when he was sold and left the farm.

 

[Ceifer]

Very few horses I’ve disliked. None on vibe alone. One mare we used to have on livery over the summer and I dreaded her arrival. Leading she’d be incredibly spooky, jumpy and pull away with little provocation. Ridden she was piggy, napped on her own, was slightly better in company but spooky and would fly buck on the road. She was terrible for the farrier and flattened him when he was clenching up her final hoof.
In fact everything you’d do with her was a problem. The owner, a teenage girl loved her and didn’t see a problem with her even after she got run over by the mare.