Tell me, whats it like to have a nice/easy horse?

kerrieberry2

kerrieberry2

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 June 2009
Messages
2,651
Location
Basingstoke
Visit site
I have 3 and they are all brats!!!!!!

after lasts nights weather, I've sorted out the stables in the barn, put down nice beds, hay nets, salt licks and buckets of fresh water and tried to bring them in!

Firstly the Shetland is uncatchable so tried to get him to follow the bucket, which was fine until he got a certain distance from the field and ran back in, gerrr!!

Then the horses were inside eating and the boy was kicking the stable door and walls with his front feet and the mare just kept pacing around.

I hid in the tackroom for a bit but was worried they'd break out and the Shetland would be upset on his own! so had to give in and let them out!

Going to start feeding them all in the stables so they get more used to it and hopefully in time they will stay in!
 
Mine are lovely, but that's because I don't confuse their needs with mine. I like a nice warm house to live in, they like a field and their companions to live in
 
It's wonderful ! We were out in a full on hail storm today, and we both loved every second ! He didn't bat an eyelid, just said " I think we should go home now mum", and his little legs carried him back to his stable as fast as they could.
 
I have a selection. There's always someone being ultra sensible and someone being an utter arse. They take turns and you can't rely on who will be being sensible. Just recently it's been my homebred 18 month old who has been showing everyone else how to be good and the 30 yo who has been a twit. It all changes.

Making a huge change in behaviour all in one go is a big ask for many horses though. If you want yours stabled you'll need to do it in stages rather than just expecting them to cope. Mine all walk in politely from the field as a herd and go to their own stables with the minimum of fuss and assistance (when it's all going well) but that's because that's their routine. We still have the odd silly day when they collect in the yard and then the neighbours do something helpful to spook them and they all end up back in their fields again at high speed.
 
I still remember the day we tried to stable our 30yo after he had stitches in his leg. Came down the next day to discover he had pushed the back wall off our wooden stables! They're pretty solid, but then again, so was he! :D
 
Tinselface said:
I still remember the day we tried to stable our 30yo after he had stitches in his leg. Came down the next day to discover he had pushed the back wall off our wooden stables! They're pretty solid, but then again, so was he! :D
Click to expand...

oh dear that's not good!

my mare used to be stabled when I first had her but she was such a highly strung girl that I always had to turn her out to have a gallop/buck and Fa*t before I could ride her! so 12 yrs ago I started leaving her out and she was much happier but the farmer wants them in, from Nov - Feb and I've blagged it this long!!

think ill just have to go with feeding in daily until they get used to it and until the mini man is brave enough to come in as well!

I love them all dearly, just hate the thought of them out in the wet and mud
 
It's hard work to get them like that.

I always say 'make it easy for them to do the right thing and then reward them for doing it'. It annoys me when people say 'aren't you lucky, they are so easy?' It takes fore-thought and consistency.
 
It's hard work to get them like that.

I always say 'make it easy for them to do the right thing and then reward them for doing it'. It annoys me when people say 'aren't you lucky, they are so easy?' It takes fore-thought and consistency.
 
Mine take it in turns. Lately the 21 year old has been a brat. Squealing and leaping on way in from paddock, banging door for food etc and the 4 year old has been perfect then tonight 4 year old was shocking and 21 yr old was all smug being an angel :)
 
I maybe biased but my chap is so easy to to do! He is a very much been here done that but as the saying goes "old head on young shoulders". He is only 7 but everyone who's met him thinks he's at least 15! Would not change him for the world :0) In all fairness I have had a couple of neddies with issues before him.
 
I am lucky enough to have two - they are both irish cobs but the turbo charged variety, but with manners to burn. My 11yr old son can ride either so we swap and share between us.

We have ridden out every day during the storms and took them on a Hunt ride today - neither batted an eyelid at the blizzards, jumped everything put at, and we always come home safely and with a smile on our faces.

They are quiet in the field and stable, good to hack out and handle and generally a pleasure to own........having had a few 'bad un's' in the past I never take these two for granted and wrap them up in cotton wool.

They would be very hard to replace.
 
It is all nice and easy until the day they wake up and forget all of their manners.... particularly the 23 year old going on 2 - then they seem to know every trick in the book! lol

Have to say though if your horse generally has an easy laid back temperament it helps, but horses certainly aren't born well behaved.
 
kerrieberry2 said:
the farmer wants them in, from Nov - Feb and I've blagged it this long!!
Click to expand...

Oh well if the farmer wants them in that sucks a bit,but there's few horses that will be happy to change their routine. My mare is laid back about everything and doesn't care, but my gelding has to build up gradually if he's to be stabled, start by feeding him then leaving him in slightly longer after each feed. If the same needs to happen next year it might be an idea to try to bring them in nearly every day over the year just so they're used to it
 
Mine is the same, I can't bring him in, but I'm lucky enough to have the option to leave him out all year round with haylage in the field. He won't eat and loses condition if I try to bring him in, he's much better out with a good rug!
 
Hmm! Knobberpony has a long history of being very difficult,but apart from a wobble 3 months in,we now have an understanding.She will do anything I ask of her unless it involves being stabled,so she lives out and is very happy.Our loan boy is apparently bargy,bolshy and hard to catch,but I don't have any trouble with him.
 
I was worried I had paid far too much for my current horse, but TBH he is easy to ride, easy to do, laid back, lovely character on the ground, anyone can ride him, and he has literally taken me round some B.E novices with ease, and have used as a trek lead horse at work. I am not sure you can put a price on something that will jump round 1.15m track for fun, then go out for a quiet hack in the countryside.
 
My boy is super easy. He was on box rest for 3 months a couple years back, our first walk out he was a little on his toes but he never barged or tried to pull away. He wasn't ridden for 8 months, popped his tack on and off we went for a little walk in the open forest. I didn't take him out of walk for 12 weeks.

He's been to 9 yards in almost 10 years as he has moved about we with as I've done school, college and various jobs. Sometimes he's lived out 24/7, other times he's been stabled 24/7. Yards have varied from super posh, very busy competition yards to a makeshift stable in a cow shed. No matter where we go I put him in his stable and he's immediately settled. A complete novice can ride him and he'll be your typical unflappable riding school type and then an experienced rider can get on him and he'll right be off the aids. He's point shoot whether it's 0.2m or 1.20m.

He also helps me with the babies, whether it's tolerating them out hacking whilst they spook sideways in to him or standing next to them whilst they're having their first clip or set of shoes. He's always rock steady and is a god send with the tricky ones.

I'm very lucky to have him. :)
 
My cob is normally nice and easy but lately has become an arse cantering side ways down a road untyeing himself taking himself to the field then running back to stable as far to muddy for him. Hes getting worse with old age
 
puss said:
but lately has become an arse cantering side ways down a road . Hes getting worse with old age
Click to expand...

I have one of those, but he is better to ride in the summer.

The other is the most polite, easy, well-mannered horse to ride and handle whatever you do. However he is a field ornament as he broke 3 years ago and the thought of buying another and it not being like him is why I have given up competing.
 
Charem said:
My boy is super easy. He was on box rest for 3 months a couple years back, our first walk out he was a little on his toes but he never barged or tried to pull away. He wasn't ridden for 8 months, popped his tack on and off we went for a little walk in the open forest. I didn't take him out of walk for 12 weeks.

He's been to 9 yards in almost 10 years as he has moved about we with as I've done school, college and various jobs. Sometimes he's lived out 24/7, other times he's been stabled 24/7. Yards have varied from super posh, very busy competition yards to a makeshift stable in a cow shed. No matter where we go I put him in his stable and he's immediately settled. A complete novice can ride him and he'll be your typical unflappable riding school type and then an experienced rider can get on him and he'll right be off the aids. He's point shoot whether it's 0.2m or 1.20m.

He also helps me with the babies, whether it's tolerating them out hacking whilst they spook sideways in to him or standing next to them whilst they're having their first clip or set of shoes. He's always rock steady and is a god send with the tricky ones.

I'm very lucky to have him. :)
Click to expand...

Fancy lending me your boy for when mine is backed in March, sounds like he'd be a good grand par to hack out with the baby ;)

I think my mare doesn't help, she's always been a massive stress head, so her being unhappy in the stable is defo brushing off on the boy!
 
puss said:
My cob is normally nice and easy but lately has become an arse cantering side ways down a road untyeing himself taking himself to the field then running back to stable as far to muddy for him. Hes getting worse with old age
Click to expand...

sounds like my mare, she used to love going side ways and the fast possible pace! She is perfect in every way, except for being stabled and being ridden haha! otherwise she is a total dream to handle! bless her, she's to old to be ridden now though, so its only the stable that's her issue now!
 
Shysmum said:
It's wonderful ! We were out in a full on hail storm today, and we both loved every second ! He didn't bat an eyelid, just said " I think we should go home now mum", and his little legs carried him back to his stable as fast as they could.
Click to expand...

Aww bless, this was us today too. For a time I couldn't see at all I had to keep my head down as the hail and wind was evil so we turned around and flew home as fast as could! Stupidly i thought aww how nice a christmasy hack in the snow...

My 3 are all easy I'm afraid and two of them are rising 2 but ask me in 3 or 4 years It will be a different story.
 
I'll lend you mine for a weekend :biggrin3:
They come to a whistle (as long as you only whistle early morning & just before dark)
Tiny Fuzzy will always be lead Fuzzy, sometimes walking, other times trotting or cantering down - like today.
Both like to come in & will just wander into yard & into stables - tip: if you lob a thin slither of carrot/apple onto the floor it makes them keen to go in each time.

Just keep working at it regularly with them & it wont take long.
FLF learnt in under a week that if you follow the little pony when the mad woman whistles, you get something nice ;)
 
It's lovely, mine live out though the little one goes in a stable to eat undisturbed while I'm there, the only problem I have is twice, yes I did say twice this year I've had to use a head collar to walk her out and I'm not gloating just very very lucky.
 
*hic* said:
I have a selection. There's always someone being ultra sensible and someone being an utter arse.
Click to expand...

lol Oh my god, this!! I think they have conferences in the field. The old one bloody escaped last night when I was putting his hay in the stable, climbed round the wheelbarrow and made a dash for it to eat my leather headcollar.... (he has a thing for them)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top