how does your horse behave?

I have done the survey, but what is the point please?

As a general comment, the question about rating these things in order of importance isn't easy to fill in - too many points to sort out in my head, and in my opinion most of those things are equally very important. It may be better if you just ask people to, say, pick 5 that they think are the most important.

If it is for research, I'm surprised not to see questions about age, gender, type. So for example when my horse was 4 he wasn't good to shoe and pick out feet, but due to age/inexperience rather than other factors - now he is 6, this is fine. He still doesn't much like being clipped but I am confident that this and next winter we'll crack it. So the answers may vary depending on the horse rather than the training ability of the owner.
 
At this stage it is just a preliminary survey in order to better inform the planning of a research proposal I am working on. There is very little research that exists to tell us how most horses in the UK behave, and how owners feel about that. In this survey I wws particularly interested in the skills that are often not deliberately trained, yet commonly expected of the horse. This is just an amateur survey to help my planning process, I am finding the results really interesting and will be happy to share the findings once I have enough surveys completed.
 
Thank you for the comments on the ranking question, I can see your point, which has been raised elsewhere also, and will do away with that in future research. I understand your point about age, but this survey was not looking to offer any explanations about the reasons for horse behaviour, so much as establish what the current standards are and how owners feel about that. Future research would of course take age, breed, experience and all sorts of other factors into account, this survey really is just an early start of the research planning process for me, and I really appreciate your time and comments.
 
Abacus said:
I have done the survey, but what is the point please?

As a general comment, the question about rating these things in order of importance isn't easy to fill in - too many points to sort out in my head, and in my opinion most of those things are equally very important. It may be better if you just ask people to, say, pick 5 that they think are the most important.

If it is for research, I'm surprised not to see questions about age, gender, type. So for example when my horse was 4 he wasn't good to shoe and pick out feet, but due to age/inexperience rather than other factors - now he is 6, this is fine. He still doesn't much like being clipped but I am confident that this and next winter we'll crack it. So the answers may vary depending on the horse rather than the training ability of the owner.
Click to expand...

I started it but didn't finish as it was impossible, I deal with many different horses every day so while the first part was easy to do based on one horse, the rest about injuries, order of importance of behaviour was just not possible to do, what may be important or difficult for handling one horse may be less so for another, as for injuries I have received so many over the years that I cannot remember how most happened.
I think there are too many options and as above there is no information asked for about any individual horse or it's circumstances, mine is recovering from injury and his behaviour has changed since then so I thought it may be an interesting survey to do.
 
I started but to be honest when it got to the ranking, there were so many choices I just gave up. I don't mind doing surveys, but I do think they need to be easy with limited choices per question. I have enough work to do anyway that I don't need anymore and I won't be the only one.

That is meant as constructive criticism. If I have time later I will do it again, but it's a bit too focus intensive for me to do when working.

I'm another that would like to know what it is for :)
 
I did it but the ranking question didn't work - it just listed them automatically from one to whatever then wouldn't let me change them. In any case I would say it is impossible to pick a most important skill - most of those are non negotiable for me.
 
An alternative to ranking -- which is a headache to do when there are so many items -- is to ask people to rate each item on a 1-5 (or 1-10) scale of importance.

One other thing I noticed about the survey was it didn't really cater for non-ridden horses. Although in the minority, there will be many of those amongst respondents, I expect.
 
Haha Pip must be a saint. Only thing he wasn't 'easy' on was fly spray. He does have his momentary 'freak outs' but with day to day stuff he's very easy. I shouldn't take him for granted so much!

Also there should be a question about loading/travelling!
 
Ha! I had to answer don't know to a couple of questions for my subject horse I've had for 8 years! lol!

The ranking was hard and I changed my mind a good few times.
 
Wow my horse is an angel hehe

The ranking bit was a bit of work but interesting survey. Some of the questions felt a bit irrelevant as I do already school my horse constantly as a lot of us do.
 
I have filled it in but some of the questions were irrelevant as my horse is very green, most every day things like catching, leading, grooming and changing rugs he's very good at. I think the handling and ridden should be separate parts.. Also the ratings was very difficult and again should be separate sections and a rating of one to five of how important it is to you.
 
Done, though on 1-10 bit it doesn't say what is best/worst. Also need to add age, past history, as my horse is a rescue and although good in many ways he has had a run in with a tractor at some point which he is very scared of, work in process and 2years down the line I trust him not to dump me but I wouldn't take him on the roads on my own.
 
There should a question about leaving the horse in on its own or in the field on its own.
And how is it with food?
As for me these are very important!
 
My horse is fab too, but I found the ranking hard. I agree it might have been easier to rank each think on a scale of 1-5, or maybe to group into ground/ridden behaviours. Still, good luck!
 
How I laughed at this question!! :tongue3:

4. During your entire equine experience, have you ever suffered any form of injury (including minor injuries such as rope burn, bruising, squashed toes) as a result of any horses' behaviour in relation to the following skills? Please tick as many as apply.

During your entire equine experience, have you ever suffered any form of injury (including minor injuries such as rope burn, bruising, squashed toes) as a result of any horses' behaviour in relation to the following skills?

Catch in Field
 
cinnamontoast said:
How I laughed at this question!! :tongue3:

4. During your entire equine experience, have you ever suffered any form of injury (including minor injuries such as rope burn, bruising, squashed toes) as a result of any horses' behaviour in relation to the following skills? Please tick as many as apply.

During your entire equine experience, have you ever suffered any form of injury (including minor injuries such as rope burn, bruising, squashed toes) as a result of any horses' behaviour in relation to the following skills?

Catch in Field
Click to expand...

Go on, don't leave us hanging. What happened to you?
 
The one memorable time I had my toes squashed was many years ago while watching a class at Drymen Show, just north of Glasgow. I was stood behind the rope barrier next to another spectator on horseback (who probably shouldn't have been there, but what the hey!). I think she was talking to someone else, but in any case failed to notice when the horse shifted sideways planting a shod front hoof right on top of my foot. Fortunately the ground was quite squishy so it was less painful that it could have been. However, rather than yelping I politely said to the woman "Excuse me, your horse is standing on my foot." She was mortified and apologized profusely. :)
 
Done, but gave up on the ranking question, it filled it for me 1-24 or whatever.

The other question I thought was misleading was "have you ever had an injury". It seems that I have had a lot of injuries in my time, but I am long serving training horses, most "injuries" are minor, and I do train a lot of horses in circumstances that would increase the risk, ie horses that others have given up on.
 
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