Horses and Great Danes

monkeybum13

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This morning whilst walking my horse out in-hand (box rest and 10 mins walking) we passed a man with a great dane and stopped for a chat. Madam thought it was a great excuse to have a little snooze whilst we chatted. Anyway when we got back to the yard I said to another livery how we'd passed a beautiful great dane and the livery said that she hoped madam hadn't been frightened as their horses normally spook and other liveries agreed that their horses are 'scared' of the great dane.

Anyone else have a horse that cannot stand great danes or am I on a yard with a bunch of wussy horses?! ;)
 

QueenOfCadence

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We have a great dane and our horses love her XD. I think that they might believe that she is a disformed, small pony :p. She's an absolute sweetheart around other animals :). My horse's greatest fear is pigs. We have a big, black, fat pig and our yard and the horses HATE the sight of him
 

Booboos

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My neighbour who run a livery yard had two great Danes (gorgeous horses) and all the horses seemed absolutely fine with them. Trust R to throw his toys out of the pram the first few times we hacked past but even he got used to them eventually!
 

Naryafluffy

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Donkeys on the other hand...

Same here, Donkeys = running down the middle of the road in a blind panic, Great Danes = watch them because they might pinch your carrots and will need to have a hoof stamped at them!!!
I take my bosses ridgeback up to the yard on a regular basis (he's huge and well over breed standard, I joke that someone has stuck a ridge on a great dane), none of the horses bother with him and the bloody idiot insists on following the smaller dogs who run under my mares belly, I am waiting on him doing it with his tail in the air and getting into trouble for tickling her.
 

suestowford

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My friend's GD was scared of my horse! But that was because my horse liked to play with the dog, and the dog wasn't used to this galumphing behaviour from a horse.
 

Suziq77

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Horses tend to be "scared" of anything that their rider looks at, tenses up and thinks "oh god he/she's definitely not going to like that" ...if you ask me....
 

fallenangel123

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I have Danes and horses, all get along fine most of the time. When my new mare arrived she gave them a bit of a snorting at till she worked out what they were, now she just ignores them.
 

sport horse

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I have kept Great Danes and horses for years - never had a problem except for young danes chasing foals - good sport but very frowned upon but no different to any other breed of dog - you have to train them.

Horses are naturally suspicious of something new and pick up vibes from their rider/handler.
 

lachlanandmarcus

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My Haffie is fine with all dogs EXCEPT golden retrievers and golden great Danes. She seems to think that they are her baby but also that they are her baby gone evil! She makes a weird crooning noise and wont leave them alone but also leaps around a lot! She is fine with any other colour Great Dane!!

We tried to break her 'golden thing on lead' fetish with a blanket on a lead rope in the manege. Big mistake, it took us an hour to get that blanket out of the school, she wouldnt let us near her 'baby' :-OOO)))
 

flirtygerty

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My boy is I hate to say, a bully, loves throwing terriers across fields or trapping our old aggressive gsd in a corner, fought our mare for two days solid when he first came, trashing our electric fencing in the process.
Yet meeting donkeys and Dexter cattle for the first time he fled to the bottom of the field and hid behind our gentle 17hh Tb, another one of his victims
 
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