Can someone please help me with this behavior?

You're not an idiot..

He just got excited that's all. Snorting is typical of a horse that is unsure of something and his adrenaline is pumping.

Painthorsemares describes it beautifully :)

Don't lose this horse's focus though, young lady. An unfocused horse that goes chasing after quads does not sound all too safe and mindful of his limbs. Could get himself, or you, hurt.

My mare does this when she wants to be a show off. When im lunging her or something she sees another horse down the road and starts prancing around like she's never seen another horse in her life and snorts until she soundslike a freakin elephant. She just looks like she does it for attention and she feels good. It annoys me haha

She does it a lot less now, because when it happens I always try make her get her attention back on me and move her feet. She has what I can only describe as "ADD" but I see improvement the more I work with her and the more respect I get out of her.

I'm not mean about it or anything, I just make her pay attention to me when she cranks her head away to look at someone coming down the road.

Use the proper tools.. keep a halter on while training.. and guess what you are ALWAYS training.. Don't put yourself in a position to fail, always tilt the situation to your favor. You have the larger brain so use it. Horses are instinctual/habitual creatures and for some reason, somewhat like their owners, pick up bad habits quickly. If a horse realizes that a quick pop of the head and a fast dash get him free to play then guess what he's going to do? The behavior he was exhibiting sounds to me like challenge play.. it's kind of a non-committal way of trying to move up in status of the herd. They lightly challenge the next step up in a way that they can say "just kidding, sheesh" if met with strong resistance. So meet it with strong resistance.. every time

Thank you everyone :)

Just for a note, I ALWAYS use a halter and lead rope, I was just experimenting. I wasn't free lunging him, just getting him to follow me, move his back legs, back up and stand still for a brush :)

He has NEVER run up to see a quad... He just thought It was Gerald and that meant lots of cuddles, licking molasses off his shirt and possibly beer :P

After I chased him down and got his attention back (which really didn't take too long) he didn't worry about the quad any more and I was still able to play around with just the lead rope, like I said, I was just experimenting and its not how I handle my horse when Im asking for more work :)

Thank you so very much to everyone who replied, I was very curious as to what his behavior meant

I don't know, our gelding has done this, buddy sour, we know it is, when mare's around, Mr. Angel...so we free lunge him first until he's showing us he's ready...when he is, THEN we'll put halter/lead rope on him and work him, but not until he is done with his little games.

We get snorted at, and I know he doesn't perceive us a a threat, yeah, then he prances around showing off with tail up, uh huh, he's challenging us, and showing off.

It's a respect issue, he has some, like poster above said, but it's still not 100%. We're working on that. He's coming around, just takes time to check yourself and establish that they can't get away with their games of dominance, that eventually you win anyway.

Gelding is figuring it out since we are spending more time with him now, so he's behaving much more quickly now, sometimes, he behaves from the get-go, just walk out, halter him, lead him out, work him, great; other days, naw, not today, so then the free lunging comes in, then to halter/lead.

We won't fight with him and set up a pattern of resistance (with halter/lead), so this method seems to work for us to avoid all drama. With more time, I suspect we'll be able to just walk out to pasture, halter and lead him in without any free lunging first or resistance to being away from buddy...not there yet, but getting closer. We are getting some wins here, just not consistently yet.


I don't now, not a professoinal, but free lunging first, then with rope halter/lead works for us and gets his attention, and he's good, that's the goal isn't it?
Does it matter how you go about it if he's learning and moving in the right direction?

Each horse is different.