Inexplicable horse behaviour ?

[criso]

TB tipping half her bucket of very expensive feed on the floor and fussily picking it up (but still wasting far too much for my liking) just eat it out of your bucket horse!!

Mine does that, I just make sure the feed bowl is on a clean bit of freshly swept mat so at least he has a clean surface when it does go on the floor.

 

[SpotsandBays]

My mini shet does this. If she has to come in overnight I usually put her hay on the floor as she struggles with nets. But then she pees on it! I try to keep it in a bucket if possible ?

 

[MissTyc]

That’s weird ?

Sure is!
Well-meaning people have told me it "means" X, Y, and Z - ulcers, pain, intolerable depression. But given that he's a fit, healthy, happy, competitive 16yo who has done this for the 14 years I've owned him, I think he probably just likes it.

 

[Gloi]

Not inexplicable but mine lifts his haynet onto his stable door and goes to sleep using it as a pillow.

He always wakes up when he hears me coming ?

 

[southerncomfort]

Another one mine does is come in to the stable specifically to pee when I've mucked out and put in nice fresh bedding. He waits for me to finish the bedding, stares at me, marches in to the stable, pees while staring then marches out again

Mine does this, except he then immediately lies down in it. Sometimes I only realise he's done it when I kiss his face and the stench us enough to alert me as to what he's done....and what I've just kissed. ?

 

[MissTyc]

I also have one who needs to "test" every water bucket on the yard. We have 10 buckets between tie up spots, and he has a little sip from each of them if he's permitted to.

 

[DizzyDoughnut]

If I put piles of hay out in the field my new boy goes to check every pile, picks his favourite, then has the tiniest dribble of a wee right on the edge of it then walks forward through it, reverses back dragging it as he goes then either stands and eats it with one foot holding it down or lies in it and eats round himself, he does eat every bit of it though, even the bit he had a wee on ? He also reverses right up to the hedge to poo and seems to like lying in it even though he could choose anywhere else in the whole field to have a nap.

 

[Season’s Bleatings]

Ours will wave his legs around when you give him his bucket feed, then when he stops doing that he tends to tip the bucket upside down / kicks it over. When he has finished eating what’s left in the bucket / on the floor he likes to lift the bucket, stand on it, pull it, bite it, and eventually chuck it over the door.
We get through a lot of buckets…

 

[DirectorFury]

If mine has an empty bucket in her stable she *has* to stand in it, but she has a specific order for which foot. She starts with her front left, then back left, then front right, then back right. She’ll stand for hours with her back right in a bucket, but every other foot only gets a maximum of a minute in the bucket . She’s only allowed heavy rubber feed skips now as everything else gets destroyed in about a week.

 

[Peglo]

Ours will wave his legs around when you give him his bucket feed, then when he stops doing that he tends to tip the bucket upside down / kicks it over. When he has finished eating what’s left in the bucket / on the floor he likes to lift the bucket, stand on it, pull it, bite it, and eventually chuck it over the door.
We get through a lot of buckets…

Mine does the leg wafting too. But too ferociously the other night and ended up in her bucket. Luckily doesn’t play with her bucket afterwards though

 

[bouncing_ball]

Mine does that, I just make sure the feed bowl is on a clean bit of freshly swept mat so at least he has a clean surface when it does go on the floor.

Mine has a tyre, a solid bucket and still picks it up / throws it on the floor and mixes expensive feed into the bed.

I’ve not really found a solution. His bed isn’t really far back enough to leave a shavings free space. Very annoying. Ideas welcomed. He does pick most but not all back out from shavings

 

[poiuytrewq]

Sure is!
Well-meaning people have told me it "means" X, Y, and Z - ulcers, pain, intolerable depression. But given that he's a fit, healthy, happy, competitive 16yo who has done this for the 14 years I've owned him, I think he probably just likes it.

Not an ulcer symptom I’ve ever heard of ?
I swear it’s all a bit covid like, we used to sniff or scratch our ear, now they are covid symptoms.
These days horses can look in the wrong direction and it’s ulcers ?‍

 

[criso]

Mine has a tyre, a solid bucket and still picks it up / throws it on the floor and mixes expensive feed into the bed.

I’ve not really found a solution. His bed isn’t really far back enough to leave a shavings free space. Very annoying. Ideas welcomed. He does pick most but not all back out from shavings

These work well though expensive. Someone at the yard has one and it's much too heavy to tip

https://www.littlefieldsfarm.com/pa...XQQCdraTzY-MDCLRjD4qTc_7fK1MtmXBoCYSkQAvD_BwE

Not for me as I need to be able to pick the bowl up as every so often he announces he can only eat if I hold the bowl for him and I want him to eat his supplements so I cave.

 

[Annagain]

Archie and Monty are both total opposites of each other. It's like they watch the other and deliberately do the opposite. Mont was amazing to ride but his one tiny failing was he wasn't 100% in traffic. It was Archie's best trait, I've never met a better horse in traffic. A was a million miles an hour, M a bit lazy. You can do anything to M and he tolerates it but he's very aloof - he internalises all his worries and just waits for them to go away, A has very strong opinions on being fiddled and will have quite the tantrum at times with but loves cwtches on his terms. There are only two things M makes difficult, worming and pulling his mane (we've learned to trim it with scissors now) which are pretty much the only two things Arch never complains about. Archie waits to come in to his stable to wee but won't poo in his bed (he leaves a neat pile at the front) whereas Monty waits to go out to the field to wee but poos everywhere. How can two horses who have been treated the same for so long be so different? So far, Charlie is bang in the middle of the two of them!

 

[little_critter]

My daft old boy walked straight past a working tree harvester then shit himself and took off because he saw a cat ?

Ditto, my old mare was fine being in a field as a crop sprayer unfurled it's spraying booms in front of her, but was genuinely terrified of a large boulder in a gateway.

 

[windand rain]

Did a 25 mile TREC trail and being kind got off to walk a mile home before getting on to ride through the finish as I got on crazy mare spooked violently at a leaf blowing along the road towards us. It was tiny but ultra scary I guess. I thought she would be tired I was but fortunately neither of us hit the deck

 

[Widgeon]

A friend's horse will come into the yard then within ten minutes she will have a huge wee all over the rubber matting so it splashes up on her legs and runs into the other stalls where other horses are tied up. She does this almost every time she comes in. To bring her in she has to be walked through her own field, then through another field, so you'd think she'd stop and wee there - but no. Got to wait until she's on rubber matting.

 

[J&S]

Our companion pony is 100% in all traffic and biggest vehicles but the wrong coloured/shaped blade of grass can have her practically sitting down. Veteran coloured mare NEVER ever has rolled right over, its not just an age thing. Companion pony, though rather portly and flat backed, can roll for England. TBH they must be rather boring as they seriously don't have any really odd habits! My sadly deprted NF mare had a quirk people used to comment on, when she drank from anything (bucket/trough etc) she would plunge her head in nearly to her eyes. According to an old Western Cowboy book i had, this is a sign of braveness and was something they used to look for when they chose a horse.

 

[LaurenBay]

my late mare would only let me put a bridle on her if she was facing a certain way. Any other direction and she would be a twit.

 

[Ceriann]

I have one that pees before turnout - so annoying. It’s like she hears me coming and let’s the floodgates open!

I have another who is a saint - doesn’t bat an eyelid at motorbikes, quads, artics, chinooks, farms contractors but is terrified of prams. Rare to see them but it’s a proper meltdown when we do (even in the distance) ?!

 

[SatansLittleHelper]

My Mini Shitland, ShitPig, won't allow the others to wear fly masks. He rears up and removes them, every single time ???
My cob pushes his foot through the slatted fencing and stands there waiting to be "rescued"....the first time he did this he had got genuinely stuck and we made a big fuss to keep him calm, he clearly enjoyed the attention as I know he can remove it himself perfectly well ??

 

[bouncing_ball]

These work well though expensive. Someone at the yard has one and it's much too heavy to tip

https://www.littlefieldsfarm.com/pa...XQQCdraTzY-MDCLRjD4qTc_7fK1MtmXBoCYSkQAvD_BwE

Not for me as I need to be able to pick the bowl up as every so often he announces he can only eat if I hold the bowl for him and I want him to eat his supplements so I cave.

Thanks, the problem is he’d push most of the food over sides into his shavings bed. He shoves his food violently with his nose!

I fancy one of these to try but don’t exist at a sensible price in the U.K.!

https://www.statelinetack.com/item/horse-spa-water-n-hole-bucket-rim/E021736/

 

[criso]

Thanks, the problem is he’d push most of the food over sides into his shavings bed. He shoves his food violently with his nose!

I fancy one of these to try but don’t exist at a sensible price in the U.K.!

https://www.statelinetack.com/item/horse-spa-water-n-hole-bucket-rim/E021736/

Because you've got the semi circle dips it's actually quite difficult to push up the sides because they have to push up out of the dip then it's likely to fall in another crater on its way to the side. However it's expensive enough that I'd want to try first.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

https://www.statelinetack.com/item/horse-spa-water-n-hole-bucket-rim/E021736/

Looks very similar in principle to the Road Refresher water bowls for dogs. Those work very well.

 

[MagicMelon]

Mine just have an annoying habit of somehow pulling the haynet off my big round bale of hay which is outside in a feeder for them at all times. They get half way down and start yanking at the net enough it starts lifting up and eventually off the rest of the bale so then of course it goes everywhere and they stamp it into the mud. Such a waste!

 

[Fleece Navidad]

Yep one of mine does this too and has even been known to leave what’s left in the bucket to go and hoover up someone else’s (exactly the same) leftovers.

Mine went through a phase of leaving some of his behind and going around the empty buckets looking for scraps, and would turn away from his own if shown it. But put it into one of the empty buckets and suddenly he couldn't eat it quick enough ?

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Gray just takes the absolute mickey out of anyone who is vaguely scared of him. He wouldn't ever touch you or hurt you but you would get mud clods from his feet flung at you and he pelts towards you, spins and bucks at you inches away before belting off back across the field. It probably doesn't help that I play tag with him ???

2 of "my" horses at work see the tack coming and go for a pee. One of them dunks his head in the water bucket as far as he can. It doesn't matter if it is filled an inch or to the top his nose will reach the bottom.

 

[Hepsibah]

Harry used to put his nose on his cannon, just above the fetlock before having a drink. Every time.

 

[scruffyponies]

Danny sucks his cheeks in for a good 10 minutes after eating a treat or mint. Makes it look like he has no teeth.
At a previous yard there was one who liked to get hold of the end of a running hose to drink. He would take it all in, not spilling a drop... the only way you could tell the hose was on was his stomach gradually filling.

 

[ycbm]

Harry used to put his nose on his cannon, just above the fetlock before having a drink. Every time.

I often wonder how they learn things like that. I imagine he was thirsty one day with no water around, rubbed his nose on his cannon, and someone just happened to fill the water bucket right at that moment. What a shame we can't ask them
.