I think Ned was protecting me this morning.

Shantara

Shantara

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Ned's in a pen with another horse at the moment, because of the fields. Good news - Ned's mud fever is under control! Yay! First crisis dealt with for now :D

Ned is fine with this horse he is kept with, 17+hh, ISH Toby, so it's a good little arrangement. However, Toby doesn't really like people and I HATE going near him.

Anyway, I had to muck out this morning and Toby seemed a little jumpy. I had to push the wheelbarrow in the gate and Toby put his ears back. Ned saw this and made Toby back up to let me in the gate.
While I was poo picking, Ned stood inbetween me and Toby the whole time, never letting either of us out of his sight, looking at me with ears forward, then back at Toby with ears back. As I moved to the back of the pen, Ned moved Toby to the gate and kept him there. Toby managed to push past Ned once and he started walking towards me. Ned came charging over and ears back, pushed Toby back to the gate again.
Finally, when I was done I walked towards the gate and Ned moved Toby out the way for me :D

I feel so flattered that Ned would do this for me.
Does anyone have a horse that does anything similar
 
My mare does this too. Hers is just pure jealousy of me going near another horse though, lol. Sounds like you have a really good bond. :)
 
Bless Ned looking after you like that :) mine has done similar when leading him to the gate the grouch bag gelding tried to have a go at me and my normally totally placid wimpy horse put himself between me and the other horse, ears back teeth bared. Thankfully that nasty horse has left now so calm has returned to our little field :)
 
Aw :) Honey took a kick for me in the field once. She never bothered before or since but the horse was very close that time and double barrelled quite high so would have been nasty if he had caught me. Then she turned around and looked at me and got caught straight away (that doesn't happen often!) and was really sweet for the rest of that day and kept nudging me with her nose.
Still don't know what happened that day, someone gave her some happy pills maybe because shes generally in a very uncooperative grumpy mood normally! :p
 
It's so sweet, to think that horses will protect us :)

It used to be me protecting him from Monty (A little 14.3 bully haha) so maybe he's repaying the favour. It's quite odd to see a 15.1 tell a 17+ what to do!
 
Thats so sweet Nah, I really do think he was protecting you :D

My mare has just started wickering to me when I go on the yard .... Its got to be one of the best feelings in the world :o
 
That is really lovely.

Bailey has done the same for me before. He was 2 and a half and was in a field with another gelding who had been taken on by a lady from a dealers where he was in a bad way.

Bailey is very placid and laid back and is always the horse who gets bossed around. Over the period of a few weeks [leading up to Christmas] he would get in between me and this other horse. I liked this horse and he never did anything to make me wary, but if he came near me, Bailey would always put himself between me and the other horse and make a point of chasing him away and seeing me safely into and out of the field.

At first people thought I was being silly when I told them what was going on, but on a couple of occasions, people were in the field with me and would agree that Bailey was acting as a shield.

I didn't think anything more of it, and didn't feel the need to mention it to the owner [no kicking etc]. On Boxing Day, she went for a hack and he bolted with her, eventually jumping into a tree where there was barbed wire. He shattered his leg, she broke her back, fingers, dislocated her elbow amongst a few other things. It turned out he had a brain tumour.

Still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up on end when I think about it. Bailey knew something wasn't right and acted how he thought he should to protect me.

Makes a change though; normally he runs behind me and stands there before nudging me in the back as if to say, "Go see what it is mum!" :D
 
Awww, that's lovely, OP.

As I am rapidly falling into the category of 'one of those women who does nothing but stroke her horse' (he has managed to wangle himself yet another off-games note by throwing a shoe not 5 days after having it put on), I am delighted to report that all the time spent on the ground (4 months and counting) has actually paid off. Mr S chased the playground bully away when I was filling haynets the other day, and then stood guard. Was particularly pleased as Mr S spends most of the day being chased by the playground bully who refuses to let him eat.

To confirm it wasn't a fluke, Mr S also made sure that the playground bully was not party to his love and cuddles session yesterday lunchtime, too.

He may be a uck-fupped 16.2 monster, but he's definitely my uck-fupped 16.2 monster. I just hope that when we have managed to complete the 12 weeks of lunging programme we started mid-November, I have the guts to get back on him and have some fun.
 
Yes, & my mare has done it with kids in the field too. But, although it won't be a popular opinion, I think its usually down to protecting their food source (or the possibility person may be a food source) than protection in a way a human thinks. Combined with herd interactions & hierarchies. Eg stay away from my foal, my food, you've been pushing your luck all morning go away, etc.
 
Nah what a lovely horse you have. I would have cried!
My share boy relies on me to protect him from his TB bully field mate and I had one of the newer livery horses join us one day when TB was being threatening. Problem was I was stuck between the two softies and wasn't entirely sure how much protection I could provide without getting trampled in the process. but yes, they both seemed to know that I might provide some protection. Hope they return the favour one day:)

Fineandandy.. Amazing story. He just knew all was not right :)
 
Littlelegs said:
Yes, & my mare has done it with kids in the field too. But, although it won't be a popular opinion, I think its usually down to protecting their food source (or the possibility person may be a food source) than protection in a way a human thinks. Combined with herd interactions & hierarchies. Eg stay away from my foal, my food, you've been pushing your luck all morning go away, etc.
Click to expand...

I agree with you; I think it is down to looking after their herd leader as you've said :)
 
fine_and_dandy said:
Makes a change though; normally he runs behind me and stands there before nudging me in the back as if to say, "Go see what it is mum!" :D
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This made me laugh, I can just imagine it as he nudges you and then looks over your shoulder with eyes wide and nostrils flared and then looks at you as if to say ''Go on then ... '' :D
 
Aw, some lovely stories here :)

Littlelegs - I agree! As much as I would love to think he did it because he wuvs me, I do think it's because of some sort of herd politics or something. Food wasn't about so it wasn't because of that, so it must have been some sort of "She's my boss, let her do her job and leave her alone!"
 
Aww, good Ned. So sweet when they are protective.

My boy's next door neighbor is a right grumpy one and tries to bite every human in reach. Even though it's his best friend my lovely horse won't let him bite me and tells him off :)
 
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