Something for you all to ponder ..

[Montyforever]

Ive never been the most confident around horses! (except for my own) Once they start playing up i freeze a bit and it takes me ages to work out what to do and by then its shutting the door after the horse has bolted

So, where i work we have a few horses which i turnout/bring in and they are all very different.

We have a welsh cob mare who is flighty,spooky but never does anything nasty, i hate handling her, i dont even know why i just do Shes never hurt me, and is a sweet mare so i dont understand why?!

Second horse is a TANK of a cob, mahousive and chunky with it, gelded late and very stallion like, Terrifying to watch him, he rears, bucks, kicks, bites, barges, pushes you over and is a nightmare to handle. Hes hurt me more times than i can remember! But he does it and it doesnt bother me .. not even slightly!!

The only thing i can think of is i am totally in love with said tank And the welsh mare is "just a horse i work with"

So do you find some horses bad behaviour you can handle without a thought, another does the same and you are terrified?

No comments on horses behaviour please, i dont own them so only correct behaviour they tell me too

 

[Ilovefoals]

Not sure if it's the same as it didn't scare me, but I bought a gelding I really didn't gel with. He was a total fidgit, fussy, a worrier, didn't stand still for a second. He'd dig himself to australia at a show when tied to the lorry and would never stand still to mount. In the end I sold him as at 12yrs old, I just couldn't get him to change. It wasn't til after he'd gone that my OH pointed out that my mare I've had 10yrs does ALL of the same things! I'd never even noticed. But she is my dream horse who I love to bits which is kinda what you are saying. Love is blind eh?!

 

[fine_and_dandy]

Is it the predictability of them?

You can predict that the gelding is going to behave as he does as he does it all the time and therefore you know what you are dealing with?

On the other hand, the mare, who is a bit more sensitive and flighty - you know that she might spook but you don't know when or where and therefore are on your guard a bit more?

I always preferred geldings to mares - less sensitive! I have had a mare who I loved to bits but I just couldn't take the mood swings (as non mareish as she was!) and the sensitivity. I had a gelding who was a lot more anxious and would spook at nothing but I knew that was him which is why I just got on with it, where with her it was mood dependent and sometimes she would be fine and other times she would be really silly.

 

[lynds81]

I'd guess it's the whole "love is blind" thing.... I've got a mare who is spooky, stressy and a bit of a witch to handle at times (she's fine now, but used to rear and bolt when leading in or out during the winter if the weather was bad) and I have never had a problem with her, I just hang on and put up with it. My Mum refuses to handle her and is terrified of her, but then she doesn't really like her....

However, my Mum used to have a horse, that I never really liked, who was bolshy and used to be a complete tank, who I always hated having to handle (never really been frightened, but didn't like it), but never ever bothered my Mum, who loved her to bits.

 

[miss_bird]

It is the love thing, my old mare is a complete baggage, in every possible way, yet i love her to bits and think nothing of her showing me her back end.
Yet other horses will do something silly like fidget whilst i am grooming and i am like "for the love of god would you not just stand still" which is mad as my old mare would not stand still whilst you were mounting and soon as your foot was off the floor she would be trotting off.
Do not how to explain it, but i think we just accept somethings with some horses and other things with others

 

[L&M]

I think it is because, like people, some horses you gel with and some you don't. My welsh cob is strong, semi-rears, bucks and often tanks off with me hunting - people look at me as if to say ' God she's brave'! However I know him inside out, and when he is going to play up , and often laugh to myself at his antics as I know he is actually harmless. Fortunately he is only 14.3hh - it might be a different case if he was 16.3hh!
As a YO i help my liveries turn out/ring in in winter and am wary of a couple of the more feisty ones, although they have never kicked out etc....