Horse that gets up hind legs first?

Solveig

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Joined
1 April 2006
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185
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N. Ireland
www.shine.net
My new young horse gets up like a cow , back legs first. I have never seen this before. Has anyone experienced this?
Why would she do this. It makes her stumble forward each time she rises and looks very odd.
 
i have to say it is funny. but when i say young - she is almost 4. I think this is her chosen method by now.

she is a strange one to be honest - she also lies flat on her side when i turn her out in the sand school and slides her head under the fence so she can reach the grass on the other side. at first i panicked when i first saw her thinking she might get stuck - but she seems rather skilled at doing it so now i just let her get on with it.
 
yes she was - the breeder was a cattle farmer - rough and ready type - the young stock were turned out with the herd.
im thinking that she picked it up from them but i thought that it was instinct that made them get up front first rather than taught behaviour.
 
There you go then! youngsters are incredibly easily influenced, its the same with vices an older horse will rarely copy but youngsters 9/10 will pick things up.
 
It's weird isn't it? One of my friends used to have a KWPN gelding that did exactly the same - always got up hindlegs first. She had him from a 3 year to a 6 year old and he did it right from the off and never changed. No idea if he'd ever been out with cows, he came straight from Holland. He did other odd things too - would kneel down, put his forehead on the floor and smear his head in the mud. Fantastic horse though - the sweetest natured thing I've ever come across. I guess some horses are born to be different!
 
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