Horses From Abroad

[Chavhorse]

Had a really interesting and funny exchange on here last week with a lady who had brought a horse from Holland and could not understand why it was terrified of the white lines in the Roads even though it was used to hacking out in its previous home and was asking if we had whilte lines over here.

I pointed out gently that all the horses here are never ridden on the roads but on cycle paths but I bet her horse had no problems with Bikes, joggers and Scooters.....100% correct.

A friend of mine brought her horses from the UK to Cyprus and it took ages to persuade her mare that the straw was for eating and not to rake over the ground and lay down on.

Has anyone else bought a horse from foreign shores and what strange little quirks did it have that must have been due to its origional country of residance?

 

[ironhorse]

American quarter horses, regardless of whether they are bred in the USA, or not seem to hate the cold and the wet. Give them a day like yesterday when we're all sweating and suffering in the heat and they'll perform their heart out!
My mare (imported in utero) is like jekyll and hyde dependent on what the weatherman says!

 

[Saucisson]

Haven't really noticed any differences in behaviour but my little horse is trilingual?

He was born and raised and broken in Flanders so knows his basic commands in Flemish. We got him at 5yrs old and bought him to live in the French speaking South. OH only trains/lunges in French so he knows all the gaits and basics in French now.

His English generally consists of “Stand still!”, “Good boy” (after which he WILL expect a treat) and various curses and expletives.

We know he still remembers his Flemish because we go and see his old owner (and his ole Mom) for a week every year (they live near a competition course) and old owner gives him commands in Flemish and he understands.

Clever horse

 

[micramadam]

Horses are much cleverer at humans with languages. Ours are bilingual - Dutch and English.
And.....our horses are used to white lines as they are ridden on the roads (through the village).

 

[Chavhorse]

Oh yes the many language speaking horses;

My poor confused boy, born and brought up in holland, trainer is Dutch but a western trainer so uses both Dutch and English, I am English so use whatever comes to mind;

"and trot" "draaf" "good boy" "gooed so" "dat is braf" "walk on" Stap up" etc basically he is really good at understanding Dinglish!

Plus I spent many years in Greece so the poor little sod also gets "Ella" (Come here) "Bravo" and "Oki" (brilliant word for no which is pronounced O,I Nie (means yes) and Endaxi or Dax (which means ok)

I can normally be heard saying "draaf, nie ni nie dax, Oi, goed so, dat is braf nie nie nie and woooooo"

 

[JessandCharlie]

Yes, my horse is dutch, so quite often have nice long conversations in dutch with her! Had a few irish horses in the past who have not liked mints and one who would cower (sp?) in the back of her stable if you offered her one (although she loves them now!)

 

[Lollii]

I brought an Oldbenburg warmblood, he had come over from Germany a couple of days before I choose him, when I first got him he couldn't canter in straight lines out on hacks, he would try and put his head to one side and he changed his leg while going along ... I think he maybe had just be ridden in a school - in circles ...... he is fine now, he got the hang of it

 

[Saucisson]

Yes, my horse is dutch, so quite often have nice long conversations in dutch with her! Had a few irish horses in the past who have not liked mints and one who would cower (sp?) in the back of her stable if you offered her one (although she loves them now!)

Ha ha, yeah, ours won't go near mints.

 

[JCWHITE]

True, English mare has to set the example when polos are offered,
My French horses dont have such bad habits, till they come to me.They soon get the idea though!
I joke about my youngster, she is French cross Spanish and is spoken to in English.Truly European!

 

[Azabache]

My boy was born in Portugal, moved to Spain as a 2yo and then horrible me brought him to the Uk as a 4yo to enjoy our lovely weather. Whihc he regularly moans to me about. He was very suspcious of carrots at first. Adding straw to his bed meant - ooooh extra dinner portions! If there is any poop, coarse hay he'll be happy to finish it off. Rugs were new to him, but he was surprisingly good with those. It took ages for him to walk beside me as they walk behind in Spain. One great thing that I kept going from his Spanish days was the whistle. Depending on the type of whistle it can be used to encourage them to calm down, say if they spook, or for a downward transistion or halt - brilliant for dressage tests if done discreetly enough!

 

[Fairynuff]

I brought my boy over to Italy from England when he was 5 and he could not get his head round being ridden on the 'other' side of the road. WE would start out roadwork on the righthand side and by 500 metres we would have drifted back over to the left handside! He now speaks perfect Italian and has even picked up the accent!!!

 

[Weezy]

Mairi I had the same prob when I brought Chico over here, he was brilliant to hack, on the RIGHT hand side of the road LOL!

 

[KT1]

I have a Criollo from Argentina - at first he was scared of logs - think he was seeing snakes - didnt take him long to get over it though - ive had him 3 years now - in some ways its hard to believe hes travelled half way round the world - hes such a great bold horse.

 

[annaellie]

Yes, my horse is dutch, so quite often have nice long conversations in dutch with her! Had a few irish horses in the past who have not liked mints and one who would cower (sp?) in the back of her stable if you offered her one (although she loves them now!)

Ive had 3 horses that have come from Ireland and not one of them would eat mints for a while you would of thought I was offering them poison

 

[lillith]

I have to admit I liked that about the irish horses I worked with, not always in your hands or pockets looking for sweets.

 

[Nocturnal]

Ive had 3 horses that have come from Ireland and not one of them would eat mints for a while you would of thought I was offering them poison

Lol! I noticed that about BB wouldn't touch a polo for anything. Then I offered him a spearmint polo, which he obviously thought smelled a lot better. Now he loves normal polos too... don't they have polos in Ireland??

 

[blitznbobs]

I had a dutch horse which was fine with single lines but go near double yellows and it had a fit...we finally decided that he thought he could get his foot stuck between them!

Blitz