Well, it's not my imagination nor a coincidence!

Taught my big lad to pee on command in a bucket. Becomes in from the field each night on his own, knows which stable is his, his feeds always ready in the corner, he picks his feet up to have them picked out one by one when asked, then when he's almost finished his tea I just whistle and he goes over to the middle of his bed and happily pee's in a bucket :-) I got fed up of soaking wet beds and as hes 16.3/17 h its rather a large bucket full ! Makes mucking him out sooooo much easier. It took a while to encourage him to do it but he's a pro now at 23 this year :) he also does the cocking his back leg for a good rub to get rid of the mud between, his naughty tric is when its time for worming, he knows before ive even gone in, he stands a the back with his head as high as poss, he knows ive got no chance of reaching !! funny old creatures, if only they could talk ;-)
 
Our ever obliging standardbred will lower his head, open his mouth and use his prehensile upper lip to get hold of the bit when bridling up. Very useful when my novice husband has got the bridle all mixed up and is trying to work out what goes where!
All of my horses pee when I whistle: when you're at a post ride vet check and you know they haven't weed in a while emptying out helps to drop their heart rate.
Joe drops his head for hair rearranging when I out his bridle on - then he has to have a cuddle before we start the ride.
 
My NF does your zip up if you say 'Brr it's cold!'
My husband taught him to do it, it's hilarious!
He also grabs elastic toggles when you walk past & stretches them fully before taking great delight in the human squeal when he lets go.
 
Probably a massive coincidence but my pony pooed on the yard the other day and immediately turned and walked over to the poop scoop and picked up the little rake. She's never played with it before nor has she ever picked anything up. If it wasn't a coincidence, cleaning up after herself would be an amazing trick for her to teach herself so she got a treat for that in the vague hope she's go a bit further next time and scoop the poop.
 
I was plaiting my boys forelock the other day and he was being shuffly and impatient. In indignation I cried "just put your head down". He promptly did, right on the floor and I had to sit on the box to do it. Did the same thing last weekend too - was very pleased with him - my life a lot easier!
 
My girl lifts her hooves for picking out in order, but i dont have to move around her as she offers the offside across to me - so its NF, OF, move to NR, OR
 
My boy unzips your pockets and nicks the treats, sometimes it's not treats but he'll give it a good go anyway. So far he's almost eaten car keys, phone, hoof pick and was successful in eating a handful of plaotinf bands.

He also takes is headcollar off when he's ties up or unites himself. I now cross tie him for my sanity.

...Oh wait this was meant to be helpful things, no Louie is just annoying.
 
muddygreymare said:
More a trick gone wrong but I used to do carrot stretches with my mare and taught her to bow... Now if she gets a carrot she will bow then look at you with big puppy dog style eyes if she doesn't get another treat as a reward :P
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I did the carrot stretch thing, and now everytime you go to do up surcingles you find Nugz half on the floor with his lips doing a guppy for the supposed carrot :D
 
On the subject of tricks gone wrong, while my pony was on rest due to a tendon injury, I taught her to "say please" for a carrot. Basically that means waving each leg one after the other high in the air ! she now says please whenever she fancies a carrot, and is sometimes in a field that has a public footpath running through. The walkers often walk through eating their lunch and she follows them waving her legs around!
 
Milkmaid said:
My NF does your zip up if you say 'Brr it's cold!'
My husband taught him to do it, it's hilarious!
He also grabs elastic toggles when you walk past & stretches them fully before taking great delight in the human squeal when he lets go.
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My old boy does the toggle thing!! I swear you can hear him give a dirty snigger as it thwacks your leg : D
 
Billy grabs the end of the shavings folk and tries to help me.

He also grabs my jacket and pulls me about, head butts me whilst trying to muck out, picks his headcollar and rug up and throws them on the floor then turns to look at me with that face that says 'ha ha ha ha, look what im doing!', and never ever ever moves off that square of muck you need to get too when the rest of the stable is clean!:D

He also does the jacket zippy thing....

At my old livery yard lots of people had storage boxes outside their box; my neighbour used to put her hay net in hers, we would always hear billy dragging the whole box over to his door, lift the lid and steal the net!

He truly is Billy the B*****D! But we love him.
 
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Ha this is a good thread! Nero picks up his bucket for me (to fill up!) and he definitely helps (he thinks) me move the electric fencing, he pulls on the tape and pulls out the fence posts too. Unfortunately he he also makes the decision as to when it's time to move it too gggrrr
 
My horse also does the toggle thing some of them can leave fairly hefty bruises I cut all toggles off now. He likes to chat along with you while you have a natter outside his stable, makes me giggle to see his lips going up and down and his head nodding, especially when you stop talking to watch him and he stops aswell. When he has his head down eating his grub and I want to get by I just say head up and he lifts his head for me. Whenever I ask him to get back or move over and need 1 more step I just say and again and he takes another step. One of my favourites though is saying do you want your bum scratched and he'll turn his bum on you and hold his tail to the side so you can give him a scratch. I've had a couple of people say to me they think he's going to kick them until I tell them he just wants some itching done.
 
I have a mare and a gelding and the mare is in charge when food is involved, so when I have to feed them in the field I feed them very far apart. When they see me walking towards the field with buckets, they both canter into their relevant feed spot and wait. Its funny to watch.
 
diamonddogs said:
I did teach her to sod off scrounging when I hold up my hands and say, "All gone!". She definitely understands it's for real as well, cos she mooches off with what I call her Homer Simpson lip!
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I think this must be embedded in animal's brains - every horse and dog I have had has undertood "All gone" (and has sulked)!
'
 
You all have such nice well mannered horses , My old ponyclub pony turned hunter and point to pointer, went in for some pretty dirrect action. This was in the days of heavy metal buckets . The guy who was supposed to fill his bucket in the morning walked past the door, walked back again, next time he walked past ,he was floobred by a 15 3 hh anglo arab with a bucket in his mouth. Fortunately he loved the horse as much as I did and considerd that he had had a polite warning!:eek:
 
What clever horses we all have. Mine pops the empty bucket over the door for me to pick up :D

Also respond to"over" and pick feet up in order for me to pick them out
 
Mine picks his feet up in turn without being asked......puts his nose in the headcollar, lowers his head for taking bridle off (not so much on lol), moves without being asked while I muck out round him, and removes all hats from my head - he seems to hate them...:-)
 
Jeff can open any zip and remove the contents of any pocket. He then has the sense to spit back out the polo mint wrappers once he has mangled them round his mouth to remove the mints!

Gray stacks his buckets up in the corner of his stable and flings his rugs off of his door.

All of mine, no matter how excited they are, know to stand stock still next to the gate whilst I clamber up and on. Once on anything can happen but I do appreciate not having to jump onto a fidget!

Horses are strange critters!
 
Ok so my horses do not do anything helpful! I have one who likes to pick things up in his mouth and also unties himself oh and also 'helpfully ' removes grazing muzzles from the fatties.
 
My mare lifts each foot and holds it up to be picked. She also moves out of my way so I can brush back her bed - including lifting feet away so I can brush shavings from under her hooves. She then stands stockstill in readiness for me to put her treat ball in. She moves over without my asking when I muck out whilst she's still in her box with me. She always drops her head for her headcollar - though she doesn't need to she just does, I can actually put her head collar on one handed (as I found out when I had a hand injury). She also actively takes the bit when I put her bridle on... she did this only the other week - the first time she'd had a bridle on in a year (fora photo-shoot as she's retired now). You have to love these clever horses.
 
Mine winds up the pony next door so that he kicks out at the stable walls, then pricks her ears in glee when his owners tell him off.
 
Bennions Field said:
Taught my big lad to pee on command in a bucket. Becomes in from the field each night on his own, knows which stable is his, his feeds always ready in the corner, he picks his feet up to have them picked out one by one when asked, then when he's almost finished his tea I just whistle and he goes over to the middle of his bed and happily pee's in a bucket
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Mine too! very handy trick with a boy. My mare does it does it too but the last bit always goes a bit haywire and tends to end up down my arm so I have to judge leaving the last bit...

Nessa4 said:
I think this must be embedded in animal's brains - every horse and dog I have had has undertood "All gone" (and has sulked)!
'
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I have 4 dogs, 3 cats and 2 horses and they all know that. My chickens however never believe me.

My boy poos in a line at the back of the stable (gelded late) and also in one spot in the field.

Both lift their legs for feet or girth stretches, put their heads inb headcollars and brides too. Though the boy did go through a phase of grabbing the bit then flinging the whole bridle as far as he could - he's a monster! He also knocks down jumps on purpose if you leave them up in the field - poles, fillers and wings flattened!

His best trick is to chase dogs - we have a footpath which runs through the field but walkers still insist on letting their dogs off for a blast in the field. Imperial soon sees them off though!
 
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