Are horses mean to some people?

In My Humble Opinion
1

What is your opinion of horses?

I’m far from a horse expert, but one of my uncles had a farm and owned five horses. I spent several summers on his farm and visited it too many times to count over the years.

I was a frequent visitor to the farm from pre-adolescent to late teen, and less frequent visitor into my late 20’s.

My experiences with his horses were always challenging and sometimes scary. I always thought they didn’t like me.

One of them would bite me if I wasn’t careful, all of them would try to run back into the barn when I mounted them.

I’ve had all of them get spooked at least once with me on top of them.

The oldest and gentlest one walked into the swimming pool one day and refused to come out.

My cousins, uncle, and me eventually got him out of the pool, but guess who was the only one to get kicked?

My cousin could do almost anything to those horses and she always claimed that they could sense my fear.

Although I did see the horses try that trick of running back into the barn as soon as she mounted one, they never tried that sneaky biting crap with her.

I had to be super cautious anytime I was in the stable, and I will admit to being afraid on a number of occasions.

A couple of years ago, I was around a completely different group of horses, and guess who got head butted by a horse with 5 seconds of approaching one?

Has anyone felt that horses just disliked you on first sight?

2

There are horses and ponies with nasty dispositions (often caused by the way they were handled), and I’ve seen them take advantage of people who are tentative or afraid. I’ve also seen horses who have a distinct dislike for one sex or another, again depending on their early interactions with humans.

An experienced horseperson will nip that behavior in the bud, and that is why the horse seems to “like” them more than they like you. Horses are fairly intelligent, and they quickly learn what they can get away with, and with who.

I’ve never had a horse that disliked me on sight, but I’ve instantly disliked a few horses, especially one “pony from hell” I had to train. :smiley:

3

Maybe the OP smells like glue. :smiley:

4

Many horses will take advantage of anyone who demonstrates a lack of horsemanship. I’ve seen “nasty” horses that never tried a thing with me but who would walk all over someone inexperienced.

5

What did you do when nipped? Run or attack… When my first horse bit me I grabbed the bridle and bit him on the soft part of the muzzle,snarling like a mad dog… I was 16 and had no fear. Never got bitten again.

6

Funny that you mentioned some horses being able to distinguish between male and female humans.

We used to debate how they knew the difference. My cousins and I always maintained it was because they could smell pheromones, but my uncle would just laugh at us and say, why would they care?

Once, I tried going into the biter’s stall wearing my cousin’s jacket and hat. Not a very conclusive experiment, he didn’t do anything, but it isn’t like he would try to bite me every time I was near him.

My girl cousin was the best rider amongst us by far, but only because she really loved those horses and was always around them.

One of them was always stopping to eat try and weeds when we went trail riding, she’d say, “Don’t let him do that!”

I could get him to quit for a few minutes, but if he saw some tasty looking weeds a little bit further down the trail, he’d stop whenever he wanted to. He never did that crap with her.

7

I’m sure I ran the first couple of times.

I later learned to stay aware of him and could keep his muzzle away from me.

That biting him back routine sounds peculiar, are you joking?

8

This is such a frustrating statement because it sounds just like my uncle.

I really don’t get it, I always tried to emulate my cousin, and I always listened to her on how to handle the horses when moving them around the barn or out riding.

She could turn her back on them in the barn and get away with it, I couldn’t.

9

Trade your horsehair jacket for a denim one and see if that helps.

:smiley:

10

Hell no! I wanted that 1000lbs of TNT with a lit fuse to think I was mean and dangerous. and ,as I said 16.

11

Unfortunately, you are not conveying the proper “I’m the boss, get the hell out of my way” presence with horses. Horses are herd animals, and the herd has a hierarchy. You need to be at the top of that pecking order, and you get there by not taking any shit from the ponies. You control their movement, just like a herd leader would. This needs to be established on the ground, before you get on them. Watch a group of horses in a pasture. When the head horse gives other horses a look and a pinned ear, they get the hell out of her way. This is how they need to see you. Otherwise, you’re really not safe. Biting is absolutely a sign that they don’t respect you. “Like” isn’t the issue, respect is.*

If you’re interested in continuing to spend time with horses, you need to learn how to handle them so you don’t end up hurt. Check outClinton Anderson’s books for some good groundwork exercises.

*I want my horses to like me, too, and they seem to. They nicker when they see me and approach me in the pasture. But respect comes first. Nobody likes people they don’t respect.

12

Horses will know if you are afraid or tentative. My sister “hated” my horse. In truth she was afraid of him. He was a jerk to her, which just fed the cycle. I was his boss, I never had a problem with him. The thing with horses, is they are bigger and stronger. You can’t MAKE them do anything. You have to establish dominance and they will respect you. A fearful person won’t do that. A horse is a herd animal. In some ways, they are like dogs. They have a social structure. But unlike dogs, you can’t establish dominance by physical presence. You have to conquer their brain.

13

People think horses are a machine, like a tractor. You get on and you turn the switch and if you press the pedals they go until you say stop.

Nope.

They’re animals with training to do certain types of tasks. If you make no effort to understand their language, they cannot understand you. If you ask them to do something they do t know how to do, they will either try their best (which will probably be scary to you) or they will nope out and dump your ass (which will be scary to you). It takes years of practice and many mistakes to learn to communicate with them adeptly (hence the saying “seven falls makes the rider”). Once you develop skill of observing horse body language, it will seem to the ignorant that you are doing “nothing.” In fact you are constantly communicating with your body posture, voice, and actions.

Take three years of weekly riding lessons. At the end if this time, miraculously, horses will “like” you.

Take the “constantly eats in a trail ride” thing. you don’t think the horses is giving any signal he’s going to so that – that’s because you are ignorant. Experienced people will note the signals before they happen. They will see it in the flick of an ear, a fractional turning if the head. It will be very obvious when to redirect the horse so that trail snacking never even has a chance to happen.

14

I think I understand your problem…you should be riding them.

Seriously, horses sense fear in humans and will try and take advantage of it.

15

The farm is long gone and I’m not around horses anymore on a regular basis. I never read any books on the subject, but I’m sure that would have helped. My uncle and cousins sure as hell couldn’t explain it to me.

I did what they did, but the horses weren’t fooled.

I did get hurt a few times, but nothing serious.

16

You can’t fool a horse.

17

Also , you have to understand , as grazing prey animals, horses have basically two motivations
A. Run like hell from any danger
B. do as little as possible at all other times.

They are insane clever at achieving B. Any action they do that gets them less work, they will repeat. Pretty much forever until it ceases to work because you gain the requisite skill.

Liking or not liking has little to do with it. If a horse notices you lack the skill to make it work, it will not.

18

Horses are a “Lead,follow or get out of the way!” type of animal.
I am in a pasture,I am walking to the corner. A horse is between me and the corner.
Do I walk around the front of the horse?
Do I walk around behind the horse?

Do I make the horse move out of my way?
I’ll be back to tell you what I’d do and why.

19

It’s funny because it’s true. The little game of holding their breath juuuuust as you are trying to cinch the saddle so the saddle will slide off. I knew a horse that would roll with rider, saddle and all at the beginning of all trail rides or cattle drives. You had to pay close attention because he didn’t give a ton of notice. Once things were under way and he was away from home, he would stop doing it and just work.

20

Front and yes, move outta the way, ya knot head.

How did I do?