What behaviour bugs you the most about a horse???

Question

Example: mine is a stall walker/stall runner followed by a hard to catch horse. If you've been around horses long enough, you have one! Please share.......

Mulereiner - Looks down to see if he can see Hell..... OMG too funny LOL

Answer 1

Pawing, out of anxiousness.

When we are in the showring, my mule decides he is going to have a 'mule mad on fit', its usually in cart, we are the first in lineup and he sees the gate.

He wants to go to the gate and I won't allow it and the mad on begins.

It starts with a simple pawing, then grows into bringing the head all the way down to the ground to see if he can actually see HELL in the hole he is digging infront of everyone in the stands. Then we have to switch legs......

If I get after him, then he gets alllll riled up and loses all self composure, so its a fine line. I let him paw and search for hell and usually hes over it by the next class.

Answer 2

I try not to get bothered by horse behavior, but love to learn the way horses think and why they do what they do, so I can better set up the situation for success. When a horse does something that most people call "annoying" I take it as feedback, the nice thing about horses is they comunicate in body language so you are constantly getting good,nutral or bad feedback. Why not learn from it so you can learn to be a better horse person?

Example

One of my horses used to be hard to catch, It used to make me feel very anoyed and all I could think was how much it anoyed me. To fix the problem I learned to stop think and ask myself "what am I doing or not doing, that is causing this horse to not want to be partners with me?" I also learned that almost any problem people experienced with there horses has aether to do with.
(1) lack of trust or esteem in the human.
(2) lack of respect for the humans leadership of lack of leadership from the human.
(3) lack of communication between the horse and human, or no communication even.

In my experience all horse related behavior problems can be fixed if you can understand why the behavior is occurring and what you need to do or not do, so you do not cause the action. When it comes to unnatural behaviors like cribbing for example this can only be blamed on the human or the environment/lifestyle the humans have provided for the horse.

I learned this through natural horsemanship and it has oppened many doors and taken me places I thought were impossable. I am an eager and constantly learning student of the horse, with the horse as my teacher.

Answer 3

My mare is a very hard to catch horse. Its not that she doesn't want to be caught (at least not all the time, lol) but she finds the "thrill of the chase" to be a grand game! She will let me approach her and then will gallop/buck away when I get within 5-8 feet of her. She doesn't go far, however. She'll stop maybe 50 yards away..and the cycle begins again. TOTALLY annoying for me, yet fun for her. I've found a little trick that aids in my catching her that I'd like to share. I bring with me treats (carrots/apples work best). When I'm approaching her, I'll take out one of the treats..bit into them as loudly as I can to announce to her "hey..I've got food!". I'll then take the piece out of my mouth and toss it to her..letting it land near her hooves. She'll dip her head dont eat the treat, and then I repeat this. When I know she's REALLY interested in whats left in my hand..I simply walk away. Almost always I will find her hot on my heals, lol. I then give her the remainder of the treat, and as she's eating I put the lead rope around her neck, then put her halter on.
She also has a nasty habit of pawing at the ground when she wants the world to know she's either a) there, and wants affection, or b) is bored and wants you to hurry up! (happens most often when she's cross-tied and I'm in the tack room gathering her saddle/bridle). You should see her stall! The floor on the inside of the door is at least 6-8 inches lower than the rest of the stall's floor due to her constant pawing. Ugh...methinks its time to go buy a rubber stall matt, lol.

Answer 4

I get bothered most by some people's behaviour about & around horses.

It drives me NUTS contending with the "expert horseman" that shares their opinion about everything with every horse on the planet and how to handle/ride/train, etc... but has never actually proven capable to ride/train/handle their own "crazy, stubborn, etc,etc..horse"....so they make up excuses why their horse doesn't act like wonderful, or why they can't ride it, and then tell you how to train & deal with your own horse.

Equally as wonderful are the people who can be seen whippng the crap out of their horse at a show ground, and making a huge, loud scene about it,clearly striving to impress everyone within eyesight with their incredible horse handling skills, and once again, of course, blaming the bad behaviour completely on the horse.


However, as far as the actual horses go..... hmmm.... Not so much a bother, it's actually kind of funny....my mare definetly has some blonde streaks somewhere that I can't see. She's a wonderful sweet horse and very very smart, but sometimes, she will just do the silliest things and then look at you like "what.....that wasn't me." Every now and then, every great once in a while she will just produce these totally blonde moments in life.
The other week, she pulled back on the cross tie, snapping the twine off the loop, and thus,standing there half-tied. She just stared at me, like "oops". Nutty. It was like she totally forgot she was on the tie, and just kept going somewhere, snapped the tie off, and stopped and thought "oh, yeah...".
Goofy girl.

Answer 5

Mine is being hard to catch. Sometimes you just want to get on for a quick ride or trail and can't do it because the horse is impossible to catch. It is no fun running around a field after a horse knowing there is no way you can catch it.

Answer 6

i recently moved my ponies across the city to be nearer to where i live, and now they are like different animals. so the things that bugged me before now are not an issue.
before the move, Winston would freak at sooo many things on the road, the worst of them all being his reflection in shiny cars! (this has caused him to fall 3 times!)
now i can let young inexperienced riders take him out with no worries. so i guess the worst thing about him at the moment is how vain he is!
Apollo's worst behaviour is sticking his ears back and looking permanantly grumpy, even though he's really a very easy going horse. no-one wants to go near him, and he really is so lovely. his really bad habit is stripping bark off the trees and killing them :o
my mum's horse was a crib biter, hated that habit.

Answer 7

When you practice very hard at home, then go to a show and they act like they've never seen a person standing on the rail before! My horse unfortunately gets ridden by other students (beginners) and he doesn't listen to them. So then he thinks that he can get away with everything everytime I get on him. I practically have to teach him all over again every day.

The other one is when they dunk their hay in their water bucket. Another lesson horse that is being boarded where I ride takes a mouthful of hay and dunks it in his bucket! Even when I finish dumping out all of the wasted hay in it and fill it w/ fresh water, he comes over and still does it!

But, you still gotta love the stinkers! LOL

Answer 8

What utterly depressing reading.
But, as you say, we all have a least favourite thing - mine is a horse who is pin point accurate with his tail - he swats me with it if I groom a ticklish bit. He aims right for my face. Once he hooked my sunglasses off - they flew across the yard, landed under the feet of another horse who promptly stood on them. It was like they'd planned it.
My other pet hate is the horse who always craps in the footbath just after I've cleaned it. He stands there with a dreamy look on his face, which means he's thinking about it; I stand waiting with a bucket to catch it; he changes his mind and starts eating hay, I get bored or lulled into a false sense of security, turn my back and splash - I swear he smirks.

Answer 9

The stable that I used to ride at in England once had this horse who would be very lazy and unresponsize to any aids, but if pointed at a jump, would gallop straight at it and the stop dead. That's not the bad part, as soon as you were useated or flat on her neck, she would do a HUGE catleap over it and then rear up, which, if you hadn't fallen off already, would send you flying. At first we all thought it was a rider's error but she did it with everyone who got on her. She was a right old *****, but she had amazing ground manners and everyone still loved her =]

Answer 10

i have to say, that my least favorite is horses that bite/kick/ruin their stalls.. we have a ton of horses on stall rest right now and they're all doing it, i also hate it when horses try to leave the stalls when you're watering. pain in the bum to keep the door closed with your foot and water and be a human wall all at the same time..