Never under estimate the intelligence of the common cob...

AdorableAlice

AdorableAlice

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I have had her 10 months now and she is starting to be far more pleasant, I certainly don't know her that well yet but she is one of the more intelligent horses I have had over the years.

Caught her as normal this morning and leading her across the yard she is rather lame nr fore. She has been barefoot for a month now and is doing very well.

I tie her up, tell her to wait whilst I find one of the many hoof picks that are 'put somewhere safe' never to be found again. As I walked away she let out a shriek/scream rather than the normal low pitched mumbling she is prone to do. I turned round and she had picked up her lame leg and was madly waving it at me and at the same time she was bobbing her nose up and down touching her knee.

Who says horses don't talk !! this was a very definite 'oi you, my leg hurts, what are you going to do about it'. Sure enough there was a boulder jammed between her frog and wall which I prised out. She gave a sigh, rubbed her nose on my shoulder and stuffed her face into her haynet.
 
I like the intelligent ones!

Current horse does the most amazing body contortions to direct me to the exact spot to scratch her. Just call me mug!

My retired boy adores the top of his tail being scratched and would regularly pin me in the corner of a stable and force me to scratch it. Yup, I'm a soft touch!
 
While I would in no way dispute a cob's intelligence (I have one), I would argue it's not just cobs though!

My old Standardbred was prone to self mutilation on a regular basis, and always pointed out each new bit of damage, holding up the affected body part to be dressed with germoline.

One day he was very depressed and kept pushing his head into me, something he didn't normally do, and to me it was obvious where he was hurting. I called the vet out who asked me what the symptoms were, and when I told him my horse had a really bad headache, he asked how I knew. "Because the horse told me.." got me put on the 'barking mad' list.
However, a sinus infection was diagnosed, and the vet had to agree that he would indeed have had a headache.
 
Twinkley Lights said:
Sounds a bit like Lassie, she will tell you that the kids are stuck in the well next:D
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Te he, my cob would stuff the kids down the well if she didn't like them. She has opinions of gigantic proportions.

She is yet to be registered with a show name, but the suggestions have been Victoria Beckham, Mrs Thatcher and Madonna. I am dreading the day she meets her first ride judge. If she doesn't like him she will stamp on his bowler hat.
 
Ha ha Ihatework my lad does exactly the same thing is hilarious he always slightly raises his back leg before he moves to tell me wheree he needs a scratch which leads to people leaping out the way thinking he'll kick while he's turns himself inside out pointing where he has an 'itchy' and staring at them wondering why everyone is standing 7feet clear he's is the same about his bum too love's his bum being scratched and will swish his tail and the wiggle his bum for u to itch it lol I swear they are more intelligent than us sometimes. I'm stood there telling him how smart he is and he's got me there for ages just scratching away while he falls asleep. If I stop before he'd de itched he'll turn and point and nod his head as if to say hey your not done yet. Lol love the smart ones!!
 
Sounds brilliant!! Wish the horses I'm looking after would do that! Instead, I get them charging at me the moment I step foot in the field, almost knocking me over as they slide to a stop as their way of saying "I have a horsefly on me! Get it off!"
 
Fabulous! I do love the cob 'personality' shall we say. And without meaning to sound stalkerish in any way, how is Ted doing? I used to read hho alot but not post but haven't seen a Ted thread in a while since coming back online.
Mine had a foot absess earlier this year, he didn't go to the extent of being vocal but any time I looked in his direction he would lift the leg up and wave it, as if to say 'it's this one' as if I didn't already know!
A friends horse used to like having his sheath area itched :o He would frequently swing his bum at you and start waving a back leg at you, people that didn't know him found it quite disturbing.
 
chaps89 said:
Fabulous! I do love the cob 'personality' shall we say. And without meaning to sound stalkerish in any way, how is Ted doing? I used to read hho alot but not post but haven't seen a Ted thread in a while since coming back online.
Mine had a foot absess earlier this year, he didn't go to the extent of being vocal but any time I looked in his direction he would lift the leg up and wave it, as if to say 'it's this one' as if I didn't already know!
A friends horse used to like having his sheath area itched :o He would frequently swing his bum at you and start waving a back leg at you, people that didn't know him found it quite disturbing.
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Ted is very flattered that he is remembered. He and Alice have been abandoned since March due to my health blip. I just hope he does not have memory fade. He will be 2 in the middle of June. He has changed a little !

He has started to develop a character as his confidence builds. If he was human he would have frogs in his pockets and nits. Poor Alice puts up with endless bottom biting and when she is snoozing he jumps on her head and he nicks her tea.








 
Hey you two legged servant thing. Who you calling common! I'll have you know that I'm not in the least bit common. In fact I'm quite the gentleman nowadays and I seldom make my two legs cry or swear at me anymore.
Respectfully ..the cob previously known bas ASBO ;) :D
 
Lovely post :D

I too have a 'common' cob and I often ride & lead. Recently I've had a problem with one of the gates we come across as it just won't stay back when I open it so it's really difficult to get 2 horses through when it's slamming closed as soon as it's opened. I can often get the ridden horse through but the unridden one gets left on the wrong side of the gate once it slams shut and it's a real kerfuffle to try and then push it open, ride back through, grab the loose one and do it all again whilst holding the gate open.

My very intelligent cob has worked out that if I go through & the gate closes she just waits for me to push it back open and walks herself through! What an angel. Needless to say if my TB gets left when it slams shut she just stands there watching me struggle :rolleyes:
 
crabbymare said:
I really hope you havn't told your cob s/he is "common" your life will be made hell if you have :D
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Of course not, I always make sure there is something in front or behind the common, and on a really naughty day it might be you xxxxxxg common bxxxx.

We found out, within the first week of ownership that she requires rhino proof housing, mega warp electric fencing, a 10 digit number lock on the feed room door and never leave anything that can be used as a weapon in her reach.

I have cracked the resistance on the lunge though, the equiami trounced her leaning and the brightest yellow fluorescent lunge whip makes her shift her common arse nicely.

Her main vocabulary consists of, no, shall not, will not, cannot, make me, don't want to, thinking about it ask me nicely, the occasional might and the not so occasional pxx off. Plus of course, FEED ME.

This picture is a 'make me' moment.
 
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Ah - you've got to love the cob! Thanks for the Ted update. :D i love to hear of his antics. My cob had sugery on Tuesday under a GA. We all know the problems with waking up and the 'flight instinct'. It was carried out in an indoor school so no 'knock down box' but vets were all prepared with ropes on tails and lunge lines etc..... He comes round.... sits up like a dog......looks around for a bit...........waits a bit longer to make sure he is awake enough and climbs to his feet looking at vets wondering what all the fuss is about! :eek: Such a dude! :D
ps lovely school......flexi-ride?
 
Not just cobs either. I watched this little scenario last winter.

My cob and two liveries loose in our little stable yard. Haynets in the feedbarn, whch is open fronted but has two sliprails across the front.

Cob: Levers out one end of the top slip rail, so it then hangs lopsided.

TB (17.2): reaches his great snaking neck right into the barn, seizes heavy haynet and drags it to front of barn, by the bottom slip rail (still in place)

Dartmoor: drops to knees and attempts to pull haynet under bottom rail. Sadly, the net is too fat. Dartmoor steps back

Cob goes forward, flexes her immensly strong neck, and picks haynet up.
TB grabs other side and they liberate the next over the lower end dof the dropped rail.
Dartmoor pulls net, in reverse, to middle of yard. They all tuck in. I hadn't the heart to take it away from them; but we now have 5" slatted doors, which they are just practising how to undo!
 
Rose Folly said:
Not just cobs either. I watched this little scenario last winter.

My cob and two liveries loose in our little stable yard. Haynets in the feedbarn, whch is open fronted but has two sliprails across the front.

Cob: Levers out one end of the top slip rail, so it then hangs lopsided.

TB (17.2): reaches his great snaking neck right into the barn, seizes heavy haynet and drags it to front of barn, by the bottom slip rail (still in place)

Dartmoor: drops to knees and attempts to pull haynet under bottom rail. Sadly, the net is too fat. Dartmoor steps back

Cob goes forward, flexes her immensly strong neck, and picks haynet up.
TB grabs other side and they liberate the next over the lower end dof the dropped rail.
Dartmoor pulls net, in reverse, to middle of yard. They all tuck in. I hadn't the heart to take it away from them; but we now have 5" slatted doors, which they are just practising how to undo!
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That has just made my day :D

Horsey mission impossible. Brilliant :D :D
 
But don't let him hear you call him a COMMON cob!! Cobs are very uncommon :).
Wasn't a cob who did this at my yard a couple of years ago - trundled up to the field gate by the yard just as the farrier was packing up to leave, and waved a front foot very deliberately to show us that the shoe was missing. "Don't let him go without replacing this 'ere missing shoe!!"
 
Nugz isn't a cob, and has yet to the lassie thing. But I know when his frogs are a bit whiffy as he will reach down and round to inspect his hoof and will do the flehman thing if they need attention :D

And he does the greedy Labrador thing of looking at your pocket, then looking at you, and then looking at your pocket and back again as if to remind you to give him a treat :D
 
My ISPXTB is very smart. She can undo the latches on her field gate (My YO was shocked as even she struggles with them :o) she either lets herself out or goes in the other field (resting one where she knows the good grass is) have had to change the gates now, but even then she has gotten herself out twice.

She can also take off her muzzle and I don't mean spends ages rubbing it etc. She walks straight to a fence, puts her head through and then slowly drags her head back so the headpeace slips over her ears and then it falls off :o she did this 3 times the other day whilst I stook and watched.
 
Ted is very flattered that he is remembered. He and Alice have been abandoned since March due to my health blip. I just hope he does not have memory fade. He will be 2 in the middle of June. He has changed a little !

He has started to develop a character as his confidence builds. If he was human he would have frogs in his pockets and nits. Poor Alice puts up with endless bottom biting and when she is snoozing he jumps on her head and he nicks her tea.
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Yay, a Ted update. Without meaning to state the obvious, he's grown! Sounds like he's giving your mare a run for their money in the 'personality' department.
Sorry to hear about your health, hope you're on the road to recovery/recoved now.
 
AdorableAlice said:
Te he, my cob would stuff the kids down the well if she didn't like them. She has opinions of gigantic proportions.

She is yet to be registered with a show name, but the suggestions have been Victoria Beckham, Mrs Thatcher and Madonna. I am dreading the day she meets her first ride judge. If she doesn't like him she will stamp on his bowler hat.
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Please, please, please may I come and see that?! :D She is gorgeous from what I have seen so far and Ted is growing well.
 
I went to get my sisters tb out of his feild once when his feild mate (another tb) tried to trot up to me but was lame.....he looked it on both front legs......cue me running over and going 'oh which leg hurts?' As you do and lo and behold he picked up his leg that had his shoe inserted into his hoof at a rather odd angle:o
 
AdorableAlice said:
Te he, my cob would stuff the kids down the well if she didn't like them. She has opinions of gigantic proportions.

She is yet to be registered with a show name, but the suggestions have been Victoria Beckham, Mrs Thatcher and Madonna. I am dreading the day she meets her first ride judge. If she doesn't like him she will stamp on his bowler hat.
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What colour is she? We were torn between 'The Iron Lady' and 'The Iron Maiden'. She was a stonking great big grey cob with strong opinions.
 
Haha great thread!

Reminds me of a yard I used to ride in. All the ponies lived out on 15 acres of windswept hillside. Down by the yard there was a hay meadow, which was separated from the ponies by a 5 bar gate.

One spring the YO went out, and all the ponies were in the hay meadow, but the gate was still shut. Even the tiny 12hh were in there.

This kept happening so one night YO kept watch. She witnessed Annie, a very clever piebald cob cross lead the herd down to the gate, open it, let everyone through and then shut it with her bum!!

Annie also used to regularly let herself out of her stable in the winter, and then go round letting her mates out too :D She was a fab pony, very funny, although very opinionated too!
 
Some great stories here! Annie sounds like Merrylegs in the Sean Bean Black Beauty film opening all the doors! And the horse shoe waving at farrier is also very amusing!

I put a new sport wrap boot on our TB a bit too tight when we first got her and she stood there waving her leg at me like 'muuuuum!' until I realised and loosened it at which point she just went back to standing quietly, droopy lipped!
 
When my WB managed to massively injure his off hind requiring cleaning and dressing 4 times a day he quickly worked out that if he gave us easy access the whole horrible process was over much quicker!

Cue 17hh of stonkingly huge horse neatly picking up, swinging round and resting his off hind hoof in the middle of my chest so I could clean and dress his wounds in a matter of mins.

Unfortunatly he seemed to think this was the way to go with this leg for years after the wounds ad long healed......oh we have scared many a farrier and vet in our time:-)

I too have a very clever but opiniionated Cob Mare she has just started to have proper schooling by a lovely lady who shows cobs, Dottie has decided that she quite likes to go head up and tanking, schooling lady very patiently (thank god she is a better woman than I am!) is having lots of "no we are not doing it like that" conversations. Cue Cob growling like a dinasour!

Schooling lady is winning and the Cob is looking lovely!
 
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