Horse/pony homing instinct???

suffolkmare

suffolkmare

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Hmmm... we went out for our 2nd hack from our new yard yesterday, and in a different direction to the previous route. My boy strode off all keen and purposeful so my friend commented he seemed to know where he was going (as he left them behind!) which made me wonder as I think we were pointing in the right direction for his old home. He was at the previous yard around 10years, with the same buddy (I feel a bit mean so no nasty comments please), but we moved after the colic episode as different grazing was recommended and it was time for us to "fledge" from the RS environment having bought him 2 yrs ago. He didn't dump me and run (haha!), but would he be aware of his location relative to his old home, about 10 miles as the crow flies? I'd be interested in any tales of horsy homing instinct, and how long you think it will take for him to consider our new yard as "home"? Just to say he was very well behaved and seems very happy with his new friends and lovely big paddock (although it is a mud-bath!) Mince pies on offer now it's nearly Advent!
 
I took my old horse on holiday with me to the New Forest one summer. We went out for a solo hack in a forestry inclosure we hadn't been to before and I got hopelessly lost in the rows of identical conifers. Eventually I just dropped the reins on Paddy's neck and left him to it. He made a beeline straight for the exit and took me home :)
 
Any route I ride my pony on he always knows the shortest way home. There's a lot of different routes but if I give him the choice he always know which is the shortest way back, even if we're miles from home and the difference in distance on a choice of routes is only a couple of hundred metres. I'm not always sure of the shortest route but if I measure them later he's always right.
 
Mine always know the way home and are quite capable of getting there without me!

We used to have an endurance ride that was annual but always used the same track. The two of mine that did that ride knew the route off by heart and also where all the water troughs were.

I guess we just forget that memory was the key to survival for wild horses and ours still have it.
 
My guys also always know the way back (either to home or to my trailer if I have taken them miles from where I live). Horses have great homing-instincts and can always find their way back to wherever they want to be I've found.
 
Yup! Anyone who remembers Ned running off...he took a completely different route to the one I'd taken him on a few days before and still managed to end up at home, even though he'd never gone that way!
 
Whenever we hack in that direction, my lad always stops and looks at the two yards where he has previously lived.

I have had him six years and he was only at each of the other yards for a year each.
 
Reminds me of a story I heard from a Russian tourist in Bath a few years ago (you get all sorts 'ere). She'd spotted me carrying a saddle out of my vehicle to take indoors as she was passing and stopped for a chat. Her niece, she told me, in Russia, had taken her horse with her when she went to university. She'd travelled him with her by train, it was an 800 mile journey, and when they arrived he'd been stabled close to the university so she could care for him. He seemed very unsettled and 2 weeks later she fell off when he bolted and he galloped off and disappeared. Just over 3 months later he turned up at his original home, thin and exhausted. He'd been spotted over that time galloping along roads, through woods and farmland, even swimming through rivers, always uncatchable. Nobody knows how he knew how to get back, especially as he wouldn't have able to see where he was when he was on the train, but he obviously knew his 'true north'.
 
Thank you! I hadn't thought through the survival aspect, but it would make sense that he would understand "home" to be where his most recent experience of food and company was based. He would have memories of the old place but if given a choice (or was loose) would be more likely to come back to where he had breakfast. I guess in the wild they are quite nomadic and given more space will use it as necessary to find enough food and water, building memories of summer/winter pastures according to climate.... I need a cuppa now! Btw, loving the stories, :D
 
EEK! Gala just read your story and feeling a bit freaked out, it's my worry that if he got loose he would head straight back to the old yard regardless of the major roads in the way, :( so I can only hope he does feel well enough settled with his new friends and routine!
 
Oh no, sorry Suffolkmare, feel guilty now! Sorry to make you worry. I'm sure your boy will be fine, it'll help that it's winter now and with a full tum of food and a nice comfortable stable he'll feel settled enough to stay.
 
Horsey homing instinct is amazing. I used to work at a trecking centre. One cold morning I set off with a group on Dartmoor. About an hour from home it started to snow really heavily, within minutes I could no longer make out my familiar tracks & the snow was so heavy I couldn't see where I was going.
Que complete panick from me, but after a few minutes decided to trust my horse, dropped my reins, she did an about turn & marched us straight home.
 
I was also someone who thought you'd been dumped and horse had run home!

Sadly a few hours ago we found out that our Ted does indeed know his way home, rider got off because he was being an arse and he legged it home, along what is a very busy country road with blind corners, passed the livery yard (I'm actually pleased about that) and ended up in our yard! So yes, I think they know their way home!
 
When I used to take my daughter hunting, it always amazed me that they aways found their way back to the lorry. She used to let the pony show her the way.
 
Whenever ive fallen off any horse, if they don't stand looking at me wondering what im doing on the floor, they always bog off straight back home lol

One of my previous loaners took my horse to a fun ride and ended up seperated from others and lost, she swears my clever boy got them back when he refused to let her guide him down a fork in the road and he headed in the opposite direction (hes a shire, if he wants to go one way, nobodys going to stop him! Lol) and he was right! God knows where they would have ended up if he hadnt of bin so adamant!
 
Id not been on a yard very long when i went for a long hack to explore and totally lost my sense of direction and didnt know which road to take when we reached a crossroads. I gave my mare her head and she strode with purpose down the road she had chosen and we ended up back on the road id been trying to get to for ages!

I learnt my lesson and bought a map but she always knew when on a circular ride when we had gone past the half way point as she would always step it up a gear, even if we had never been there before.
 
Holzdweaver said:
Id not been on a yard very long when i went for a long hack to explore and totally lost my sense of direction and didnt know which road to take when we reached a crossroads. I gave my mare her head and she strode with purpose down the road she had chosen and we ended up back on the road id been trying to get to for ages!
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I got similarly lost when we first moved here. I pulled over onto the verge and ferreted in my pocket for my map. My lovely cob, far from knowing which way to go, started neighing mournfully. I think that it was horse speak for 'Help, she's lost, I'm lost, anyone out there? Help!'. He carried on neighing until I worked out which way we needed to go, then he moved off at my command with an audible sigh of relief!
 
A few years ago my friend had bought a cob and my pony was reasonably new. We took both in the lorry about 10 miles away to hack home. When we were about 2 miles from home both wanted to go across a field, not the allowed bridleway. However we could see that if we could go that way it would have been a far shorter distance. They were both very angry but as soon as the route turned back toward their new home they took us there pretty quickly.
 
My mare has sat navigation built in. Last year she was at a very local hunter trials, rider fell off, she jumped out of the course and galloped for home. It was very scary, she could have caused a massive accident but thankfully she didn't meet any cars along the way.... It was quite possibly my worst moment of horse ownership.

How she knew where to jump out of we will never know,
 
Wow, more fab stories, and glad they ended (more or less) happily! Some cases seem very hard to fathom, maybe scientists should look at horses as well as migratory birds! Off to sort more mince pies, and mulled wine!
 
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