Would a horse remember its neighbour from 6 years ago?

ATrueClassAct

ATrueClassAct

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Basically in summer me and old lady have to move again. At current yard she hasn't formed many bonds with other horses since she's been on box rest most of the time. She is to be moved in June most likely, provided she is sound enough too. I'm worried like mad about inducing stress lamintis To her since she does get worried about me leaving her. On new yard we have found, it's 45 mins away journey from where we are, is her old next door neighbour from first yard we were on and she has known the girl who owns this horse for about 10 years now. Is it Likely she will remember the horse/girl? She did everything with this horses up until he moved off the first yard 6 years ago. :/ worry time all over again!
 
Yes, horses are meant to have a good long-term memory, especially for the very good or very bad stuff. In the wild they have to remember which direction to head for better grazing according to the season/ drought, etc. It will be interesting to see her reaction to her old friend, and I hope she comes sound soon ready for the move :)
 
Well she should remember him very well then! Haha. She was always the typical moody ginger mare with him when he was next door in the stable but used to love hacking out with him! And yeah, I wonder if shell neigh to him straight away, his owner is lovely as well so she will give pony lots of welcoming love! And thank you :) been a long road!
 
I was always told horses had a ten year (roughly) memory-probably just a myth but yes i think your horse will recognise her old pal :)
 
yes. Taz recognised and whinnied to a old field mate he hadn't seen in 8 years every time we hacked up the road when we moved yards :o
 
Yes... a few years ago I bought back my daughter first pony, and had he transported over to Spain where I now live, the only one of my horses that had know him was Freckles (though she never liked him much) ... they had not seen each other for 6 years ... and as we walked him up the track, Freckles saw him and came cantering up the the fence whinnying... all the others took no interest... so Im sure she remembered him
 
Yes mine did we where at a show last year and was stood next to a lady on a bay horse who I had never seen or met in my life, My horse Larry kept looking around looking at this horse I was like Larry you dont know this horse... Turn's out it was his old stable friend they where stabled next to each for a number of year's before I brought him.. It was very strange but lovely at the same time as he remembered her :D
 
Awwww :) that's lovely Oldenburg27. Not sure if she "likes" him...she's abit of a loner but he was heavily involved in her life for 5 years! Will be interesting to see how she reacts to him :)
 
I bred 2 brothers and they were raised together until they were 3/4 years old. They went their separate ways, being started and ridden. One day at a PC ode their new riders parked next to each other.......and they definitely recognised each other and had a great re-union!!! To the amusement of everyone around who know their story!!!
 
Oldenburg27 said:
Yes mine did we where at a show last year and was stood next to a lady on a bay horse who I had never seen or met in my life, My horse Larry kept looking around looking at this horse I was like Larry you dont know this horse... Turn's out it was his old stable friend they where stabled next to each for a number of year's before I brought him.. It was very strange but lovely at the same time as he remembered her :D
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Absolutely! the same thing happened to me!!^^^^
 
Interesting!

My mare last year as a 4yr old was grazing in the next field next to her mum who she hasnt seen or interacted with since i bought her at 10 months old........last year they where grooming over the fence, i wondered if she knew that it was her mum?! :)
 
Yes! I rode my boy past a field and he started looking over towards it. A little pony came cantering over and they both whickered at each other - it was his best friend from years ago who was a child's pony and got sold on . It was lovely to see
 
When doing my equine degree we learnt that horses remember a smell of another horse or human and don't forget them so in theory yes she should remember :).
 
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Firewell is absolutely correct horses remember by smell. They have an amazing ability at differentiating between different smells even though to us the smell is the same.
 
I moved my old boy to a yard that he had lived on two homes and 18 years previously. There were two other oldies there who had the other freezemarks in a series of 3 (He was 478X they were 477X and 479X). At that yard mares and geldings were kept in separate fields but were in stables next to each other. He ended up between the two again. He and the gelding recognised each other instantly and re-formed the bond they had in the field, but he couldn't give two hoots about the mare who was just in a stable next to him. Whether he recognised her but didn't care, or whether not being in the field together was a factor I couldn't tell.
 
There's no reason to think a horse's memory for other horses they've known is any different to ours.

So would you remember someone who lived next to you 6 years ago? Would you remember someone who sat next to you at school 6 years ago? Would you remember someone who served you in a shop 6 years ago? Would you remember a member of your family who you hadn't seen for 6 years?

Answer is most likely yes to the ones you had a lot of contact with, no to the ones you didn't... Unless the ones you met only a few times made a big impression.

The other part of the question is how you felt about them. If you didn't feel very strongly, one way or another, you probably won't react much when you see them. If you liked them, you'll act pleased to see them. If you didn't like them, you'll still not like them.

Horses are the same. They remember, and they either like, dislike or have no particular feelings about other horses. Except we tend to say "Oh, they were next door to one another for years but they didn't even greet one another so they mustn't have very good memories" instead of "Oh, they were next door to each other for years but didn't greet each other, so they probably weren't friends" :D
 
harrysmum said:
Absolutely! the same thing happened to me!!^^^^
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It was quite strange as I had not seen the horse when i went to see larry as she was out, we where standing in the middle of a ring in a hunter class so me and the Lady started talking as we where in the line up..

@Atrueclassact Larry hates other horse's, the other horse never took any notice of Larry until we got out the ring and then they had a kiss and a sniff of each other.. :D
 
Thank you everyone for your lovely stories :D
I hope she will be okay then, I just want to make her move as stress free as possible! She'll be happy to see a friendly face though :)
 
I can't remember who it was on here who posted a year or two back about visiting her children's first pony after a number of years. The lady wasn't sure if the pony would remember her, but as soon as the pony her heard her voice it whinnied and trotted over and the greeting she received made it evident the pony remembered her well. I remember a lot of people commenting they were in tears after reading, as was I :)
 
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