When to bail.

[stangs]

The native breeds seem to look after themselves first, and listen to the rider second. A native will co-operate with you and be the horse of a lifetime, but you are never completely in charge!

This is why I vastly prefer natives (particularly moor/forest-bred). I don't want a horse who's been bred to be trainable and blindly obedient; I want a horse who thinks for themselves, knows the land, and gets us out of trouble if needed. If we disagree on what constitutes as trouble, that's a training issue and they've always got a valid reason for their concerns.

Why ride a horse trained to have no opinions when a bicycle also has no opinions and is cheaper?

 

[Highmileagecob]

Very true. I just wish their opinion of what might kill them tallied with mine sometimes.

 

[paddy555]

This is why I vastly prefer natives (particularly moor/forest-bred). I don't want a horse who's been bred to be trainable and blindly obedient; I want a horse who thinks for themselves, knows the land, and gets us out of trouble if needed. If we disagree on what constitutes as trouble, that's a training issue and they've always got a valid reason for their concerns.

Why ride a horse trained to have no opinions when a bicycle also has no opinions and is cheaper?

this. Not necessarily natives but a thinking horse.

my bike has no opinions and was little help in looking after me when I rode onto a patch of hidden ice and came off. It could have stopped, refused to go and told me there was a problem but, no, if went blindly on doing as it was told.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Very true. I just wish their opinion of what might kill them tallied with mine sometimes.

Haha.

It’s like different breeds of dogs, some you love, get their traits and can work with their quirks-some you can’t and that’s fine.

 

[paddy555]

I listened to a WS podcast today that said “you can’t teach a stressed horse anything” this is something I’ve found on my own working with the mares, if they’re stressed or upset we have to bring them down to a level of calm and then call it a day.

Karl Greenwood made a video (think you have to buy it) of teaching his Spanish stallion to accept the rider having a pack on the rider's back containing fireworks. As the horse cantered along the rider lit the fireworks and the horse cantered about with the fireworks going off. (it was for part of a display)
He went through every step of starting from total scratch with the horse learning to accept plastic bags flapping as it cantered to the fireworks and then lighting them,
It showed on each stage him pushing the horse just to the point of fear where it could still learn but not over that point which would have been panic. At each stage the comfort zone slowly expanded until t he horse reached the fear zone.

Sorry CI not about pigs just about fear.
One of mine is TB x Highland. When we meet pigs the TB part wins easily

 

[Caol Ila]

He's usually got a lot of sense when you're out and about. I was cantering after some other riders, and we hit a patch of ground that had been churned up into a bog by too many people cantering there over the winter, when it was saturated. The other horses plowed straight through, but Fin slammed on the brakes, walked through the bog, then calmly resumed trot/canter when we got to better ground. "You do you," I said.

He does enjoy the exciting line up rocky steps, though. Gypsum used to cut around to the side, where the track kind of wends around the steps, but he tackles them head on. Just leaps up them. I just throw the reins at him and get into two-point. It's entertaining, albeit nervewracking.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Re the slope/steps/steep thing-both of my Exmoor and the fell will just go up head first, fast as possible. The exmoor will actually go down them the same way lol. Both will be wary over boggy ground if they don’t know it, both will tackle burns but they are kept in a field with one and are crossing several times a day-often at speed.

 

[Caol Ila]

Those native hind ends sure have some power.

He also won't run if he thinks the ground is too rocky. More than once, I have watched friends disappear ahead because he said, "No, you idiots. This ground sucks."

 

[brighteyes]

You know that point when discretion is the better part of valour? I give it about 20 seconds and if 5h!t is about to be lost anywhere past 15, our lives aren't worth losing too.

This is with a horse I feel I know well, and who processes stuff quite predictably. That thing where you can practically hear and actually feel their heart thumping is my cue.

 

[brighteyes]

Pigs are different and some just never get it. We used to have loose pigs wandering down the road on one of our local rides. Lovely pigs and very sweet owners just not much idea. I had 2 horses. The arab used to see them and run very rapidly towards them and then stand and lick their backs. (obviously he didn't see the teeth on the boar that I did).The section D ran even faster in the opposite direction. Those horses never changed. Piglet time was a nightmare. The arab just planted to watch them, he was in love and could we have some, sec D ran faster than he ever thought possible.


When I got my 2yo haflinger I had a pig. The horse was around 10 when the pig died. He never got closer that 50 yards under protest and after 8 years of the pig he was still terrified.

Loose pigs -???

I had a mare who wasn't bothered by pigs or emus and a gelding -Irish TB which was terrified of black shetlands. Or black sheep.

 

[paddy555]

Loose pigs -???

.

yeah loose pigs, the olden days of farming
quiet road,, the owners let them out to go to their field. Pigs knew the way. Off they went. When and sometimes if the owner remembered they would walk down and let the pigs into the field. I let them in sometimes and I'm sure others did as well.

In the evening for the return journey they knew the way and if no one came pushed the gate and did it themselves.
They were very lovely pigs. If we met them on their journey, which took them a long time as they like to stop and investigate everything, the arab would lick the bristles along their backs. Both horse and pigs appeared happy with this arrangement,

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Those native hind ends sure have some power.

they really do. I am lucky in that the field I rent has a drumlin that runs from one end of the field to the other, cuts it in half diagonally, so there is always a bank to go up and down unless they go the long way around-and neither usually see the point in that unless the ground is perilous ie too wet, hard underneath but wet on top etc. The bank is 50ft high at its highest so with that and the burn they have plenty of geographical enrichment.

 

[Caol Ila]

Aye, Fin's field also has a 50ft bank. It's more of a cliff. The yard has two gelding herds -- the fat native herd, and the less fat and less native herd. All the fat natives seem to manage their cliff. The other herd is in a much flatter TB/warmblood friendly field, lol.