What makes a horse "a handful"???

[twiggy2]

only in panic would horses push and shove (panic is not competing), they cannot risk damaging the legs that enable them to flee.
enclosed places are not generally where horse would choose to put themselves and rarely in the wild do horses come across a high value food source such as the one that comes in a bucket-therefore the behaviour stated as being natural competing behaviour cannot be as such situations would not arise in the natural world

 

[PolarSkye]

In my opinion, horses are only 'a handful' in the wrong hands.

I haven't read the whole thread, but . . . never a truer word and all that.

Pops can be handful in the wrong hands . . . he's big, clever and sharp . . . but he doesn't have a nasty bone in his body and if he knows where the boundaries are he's a lamb to handle (and ride). When being led, you don't know he's there . . . you honestly could lead him on a piece of cotton (most of the time) . . . I really notice this when I handle the other horses on the farm and they don't automatically follow me/turn when I turn/step out of my way/avoid barging and I rarely feel him on the end of the rope. HOWEVER, I made him that way . . . I expect good manners, so I get them. Anyone who saw him either when I first got him or when he's being an idiot in the field would say he is a handful . . . it's all a matter of perspective and handling.

P

 

[doriangrey]

only in panic would horses push and shove (panic is not competing), they cannot risk damaging the legs that enable them to flee.
enclosed places are not generally where horse would choose to put themselves and rarely in the wild do horses come across a high value food source such as the one that comes in a bucket-therefore the behaviour stated as being natural competing behaviour cannot be as such situations would not arise in the natural world

I disagree that horses only push and shove in panic, I think they push and shove for many reasons - heck, they might even like it but let's not make the assumption that they can think for themselves and we'll do it for them The wide open spaces doesn't do it for me either. A close herd will stick together and be very tactile if they are comfortable with each other. What is high value feed? In crappy scrub a thistle might be high value.

 

[alicesmith]

i agree with SpringFeather. i don't think i'd ever call anything i spend time with at the moment 'a handful' ('a nightmare' or 'a huge pain in my butt', maybe) but i can see how some of them could be 'a handful' for certain people.

 

[alicesmith]

I disagree that horses only push and shove in panic, I think they push and shove for many reasons - heck, they might even like it but let's not make the assumption that they can think for themselves and we'll do it for them The wide open spaces doesn't do it for me either. A close herd will stick together and be very tactile if they are comfortable with each other. What is high value feed? In crappy scrub a thistle might be high value.

I know a bunch of horses that push each other about for reasons we humans could never understand!

 

[Echo Bravo]

To me a handful means a happy horse, full of life, not nasty, just a jogging a little bit, which the op horse sounds like, some like to have a buck and squeal whether you are sat on them or just turning them out, but not a nasty thought in their heads, because many horses don't have a nasty thought in their heads till they meet a human being.