Your oddest Horse Experience

Our old gelding used to fake a limp to get out of riding... or walking, or anything... After watching him a few times, we started making him work regardless whenever he faked it.

We always knew when he faked it, too... cause he would limp on one leg for a minute, then stop, then pick it back up and limp on the other leg... lol.

Horses don't fake things. They don't have the capacity for lying or cheating. If they are limping they are lame and you as an owner needs to find out why. People can fake things all the time but horses are genuine and honest.

I do agree that horses do not set out to deceive, but I will say that they can be "trained" to do things that look to us like trickery if we start anthropomorphizing. Like my guy who learned that I would allow something that made him more comfortable and put him in a position to do something "forbidden", so he learned. I can definitely see a clumsier horse with a rider who stopped to check him every stumble learning that a stumble gets him out of work. Same as a bucker who learns to throw a rider to avoid work. That kind of behavior can be a trained response, but is not a conscious deception on the part of the horse. I will definitely say that they don't think along the lines of "Puny human, I will get you for being 5 minutes late with breakfast! I shall feign lameness and make you loose a night's sleep, the cost of a vet consult, and make you late for work!" I do actually know some people who's horse went off his feed, and they told me it was because he was upset and getting them back for something they did, some minor thing like a neighbor feeding instead of them that morning. shock:

If one of mine started inexplicably stumbling, I'd probably have a stroke.

I'd say you don't give horses enough credit.

But I also agree that it's generally taught. They are either lame or they are not, they can't be cripplingly lame coming in from the pasture, but fine as soon as they see a donut or the halter is removed. Now what most likely happened is she was truely lame and it got her out of work a few times, so she learned that by appearing lame she wouldn't have to work.

Either way, lameness doesn't work quite like that.

The gelding I'm talking about, we could always tell when it was a real lameness, and he was getting older, so we were really careful with him. He learned that he could 'go lame' and get out or work, and he did, until we caught on.

Just like my mare, when I first got her, knew she could throw her rider, or otherwise intimidate me or whoever was riding her, and get out or work. Both problems were fixed.

Ater the gelding learned that his 'fake lameness' wasn't getting him out of work, but getting him worked more, he quit. After my mare figured out that I wasn't going nowhere no matter how she tried to intimidate me, she pretty much quit bucking and trying.



I do believe it is a learned thing, but regardless of it being something learned or trained, it is still 'faking'.

Thank you! Yep, that's him, that was his very first time out in his new pasture, the day after he became officially my horse (the full sized pic is in my barn). He was really exited to meet all the new horses and explore his new home.

I remembered another strange thing that happened. Once, when I was at camp, we went out on a trail ride instead of having a lesson. We were heading out to the road (this camp was literally in the middle of nowhere, so the road was more like a well maintained trail) and the smallest horse in our group, a pony named Chester, suddenly started acting very strange. We all stopped to make sure he and his rider were okay. The other horses saw Chester (usually a very calm pony) acting up and started getting antsy themselves, then suddenly he shook himself all over and bent down on both knees, his rider at the same moment, screamed and very gracefully resorted to an smergency dismount leap-frog style, over Chester's bowed head. After that, Chester calmed right down.

We later learned that there was a wasp nest nearby. It's possible that Chester was stung, which explained his behavior, but left us all to wonder, why only Chester?

I would say otherwise, Kevinshorses. Training is basically a horse doing something for a reward. Like turning; they want the pressure of the bit to stop, so they turn and we release. The release is their reward. Same with a mare I ride. She learned to fake trip to get people off

How? Well, she trips once for real and people falls. People off = Reward. And the horse thinks, "Huh. If I do this, I get rewarded." Therefore, she has trained herself for fake tripping. Smart horse Moon is.

The oddest thing I've ever experienced with a horse, ever, was when I was getting ready to ride Ricci. I had her "parked" in the middle of the aisle, I was getting ready to throw her saddle on, and the neighbor starts trying to start his truck. The truck was old and groaning and rumbling and Ricci, no joke, squats down and starts winking. Old truck = hot stallion? Haha.

It was also pretty odd when I learned my girls loved their teats rubbed. I was just picking out the gunk like normal on Ricci, and she leaned into it, stuck her lip out, and soaked it all up. Gracie, my yearling, does the same thing. I don't mean just loved it, they LOOOOOVED it. =]