Is your horse Handy or just useful?

I would say Zierra is probably more useful. Which is my own fault. She has all the ahility to be handy, but because we typically just trail ride, we don't have a lot to practice being handy with. She's handy on the ground, does that count? In the saddle, she's a very go-go kind of horse, again my fault. I could easily dismount and drape her reins over a tree branch and have her stand while I cut branches, but she'd not stand very well to let me cut branches from the saddle.

Good post kevinshorses. Really gives you something to think about, and realize when there aren't neccesarily "holes" in the training, but moreso a lack of training to complete ability. I could excuse myself by saying we never encounter situations where we have to open a gate, but it's still an aspect of her training that was never finished upon which I used that as my reason not to. Which really isn't a very good reason at all. You never know when that situation may arise from nowhere!

I like a handy horse, and all of mine have been quite handy by the time their training was done; My new mare has a long way's to go, but she'll get there.

My horse is handy. We are now opening gates like old pro's and a few weeks ago I was able to drop the reins while I went to pull a lamb out of a creek. This saturday gone we were riding beside a river and a duck with ducklings flew out at us, Phoenix got a hell of a fright but within a space of about 30 seconds she had stopped herself and stood there waiting to be told how to react. I rode her over to the duck (who was doing an oscar winning performance of 'duck with broken wing' to lure us away from her ducklings) she had a look and went "oh, ok". I consider that handy and I like it.

Not bad for a four year old in her first of year of being ridden.

i would say mine are useless, they are babies and have learnt how do to nothing other than show me what their bums look like, :( but they are getting easier to lead around :)

My 2 are useless! Well, to be fair, one is a weanling and the other is a 2yr old who was a victim of "redneckitis" all summer - it's taking time to strip away the negative training and habits. Hopefully one day he'll be a very handy horse though!

I agree that kids shouldnt be riding above their ability. But if you cant keep a horse away from the gate, or keep it from walking out of the ring, you probably shouldnt own a horse in the first place. I can say from my expereince I've gotten lazy riding a past "handy" horse. If I had a choice of lesson horses I would choose the one requiring less work, so I could jump higher and do more. Now I have a mare who cant canter without lots of work, and jumps cross rails like shes drunk. I have to relearn/refresh everything I learned way back when.

I used to have a handy horse. The horses we have right now are useful,but working on becoming handy. You can open a gate off of any of them. That is one of the first obstacles they learn to get over. They ignore traffic, and some ignore all the other horses. Mostly ours are working on getting used to different places and ignoring buddies.

I agree with a lot of what was said about kids horses. We got lucky that my brother didn't end up scared of horses forever after how his first pony was. Unless he was ridden for about 2 hours everyday he may or may not be good. He ended up giving my brother 3 bucking fits in one trail ride. He only came off on the last one when tender areas hit the saddle horn. ( He didn't act like this when we first bought him, but he was not in great shape at all. When he got in better shape he was hateful)

That being said, he is no longer scared of getting on any horse. After fighting his idiot pony, he thinks it is normal to fight a horse every once and a while. He also knows that he has to win any fight. His horse now is wonderful. He has a little fight but not buck, and he is very forgiving.

I think it depends on "what" you consider handy versus useful. Opening gates might be handy for some but I can't honestly remember the last time I needed to do that. None of my horse's will ever work cows, but they will trailered to clinics, go on full day trail rides and be expected to cart around my niece and nephew and be gentlemen.

I expect to get on them after the winter for our first ride and have them behave the exact same way they did at the end of the summer. I expect them to go anywhere I ask them to go without a fuss, whether it be onto a new trail, new trailer, new facility.

If you think chasing and stopping runaway horse's is handy, then I have that horse: H4 Services -

If you think a horse defending one of his owners from danger is handy, then that's my horse: H4 Services -

If you think having a horse that will defend his territory and turn a coyote into a bag of mush is handy, that's my boy:
H4 Services -

It's all in the eye's of the beholder!!

Good stories G and K!

my horse isnt handy or useful and i dont care hahahaha