Why do horses Whinnie?

Question

I was walking a horse who had just gotten his hooves clipped and he was sore and he was limping. But I was leading him to a spot where he can graze and just about the time we got there he whinnied really loud. Why do they do that? Was he in pain or what?

Well it was a therapeutic prgram for disabled kids and he came from the vet, the vets wants to rehabilitate him but he is 25 years old and is fairly underweight..... I think he will be fine but it will be a while until he can be ridden by anyone but he went right over to the grass eagerly when I brought him over and immediatly started grazing so maybe he was excited or something

Answer 1

When in pain, horses will scream. A whinnie is a form of communication, he was calling for other horses.

Answer 2

neighing is a way of communicating. he was probably doing it to tell his barn friends to come out and play too. There are different types of neighs and learning each one just depends on the horse. you have to know the horse a little to understand it There is the nicker that is usually heard by humans at feeding time or play time or when greeting a friend. If they are greeting a friend, they will usually put his nostril to the others horses nostril and blow. They most likely will arch their neck and stand tall and proud and blow and nicker at the same time and then give a squeal. it can be kind of startling at first but you get used to it. Then there is the neigh of "oh i feel good" which will usually be done when he is turned loose and playing and running around. He might neigh out of nervousness which is high pitched and can sound almost liek a scream. mares reserve a certain neigh for their babies and that all depends on the mare. I personally have never heard that one. Stallions have a special neigh reserved for when they are excited and think that they are going to go breed. The stallion that I worked with was very sweet and easy to handle but about scared the crap out of me when I brought him back to his stall the first time. He started prancing and had his head drawn up really high and his back shortened and literally screamed. It was really loud and shrill and nothing like I had ever heard before.

Answer 3

Horses are a herd animal they tell eacjh other of danger where the good grass is they dont like to be alone. They get seperation anxiety from their paddock mates etc just like they get bonded to a person. I breed horses and want to say when a horse likes u it will often fart on u so u can smell it. Its sex, hormones ,whether its in season or not, even down to just smell this good grass ive been chewing compared to the smell of ur paddocks grass. They arent complicated but generally smarter thatn the people around them so idiots cant understand them then just do wrong things to em .TO whinnie is a hey to all around. A status thing. Esp near food the call out to either attracts others or tell em its mine stay away. But herd animals generally share

Answer 4

Normally, when horses whinny, it's because they're looking for some other horses. Like he's lonely. Why do dogs bark? Several different answers.

Answer 5

Maybe something spooked him. It's possible he was in pain, too. There's really no way you can know for sure. Maybe you should consider getting him checked out by a vet or something.

Answer 6

horses whinny when anxious or excited. if he was stressing about something, i.e. being separated from his herd, etc, that would be anxiety. if he was excited about food, it's more likely that he would nicker, but it's still possible that he would whinny.

Answer 7

Horses whine when their friends are near .They don't like to be alone .If he saw other horses then he was probably saying hi .They normally stay together,In groups. they know that they are safe in a group .

Answer 8

ask him lol xD poor horse

Answer 9

I think it is communicating. He was trying to tell you something, maybe thanks.