When he tries to get you off him though he can be a bit dangerous. It's best you get some experienced help to determine whether he really is in pain of whether he's faking it.
X2. At the place where I ride they have a horse (Wizard) and he does have arthritis. However, he uses it to his advantage just to get people off of him because he's a brat.
but anyway, who's to say a smart horse couldn't figure out certain behaviors work to stop riding?
@KDOGG331
Bucking, biting and kicking are all ways a horse says "get out of my face and off of my case" to another horse, so for them to use that kind of resistance when dealing with a person makes sense to them. A horse doesn't limp away from another horse and try to convince it to have pity because it's hurting, y'know?:/ In most cases, such behavior would invite aggressive behavior from another horse rather than deflect it; I've seen horses lose position in a herd when they were injured, and have to wrestle their way back up the pecking order when they were sound again. Horses are pretty good at figuring us out, but thinking "if I act pathetic, they will leave me alone" seems like a pretty long reach for brains like theirs.
I think it depends on the horse, we had a pony who would be totally fine until we got out into the pasture@KDOGG331 Bucking, biting and kicking are all ways a horse says "get out of my face and off of my case" to another horse, so for them to use that kind of resistance when dealing with a person makes sense to them. A horse doesn't limp away from another horse and try to convince it to have pity because it's hurting, y'know?In most cases, such behavior would invite aggressive behavior from another horse rather than deflect it; I've seen horses lose position in a herd when they were injured, and have to wrestle their way back up the pecking order when they were sound again. Horses are pretty good at figuring us out, but thinking "if I act pathetic, they will leave me alone" seems like a pretty long reach for brains like theirs.
I agree because it seems to me, even if they WERE faking it and didnt hurt that day, who are we to determine if it's faking or real? I mean, we're not them, we can't feel it. That said, I actually do think faking in some situations us possible even though I mostly agree ginger and bunny. For example, if they hurt badly one day and they got out of work for it, a very smart horse might learn that all they have to do to get out of work is do that again. It's not necessarily deceptive but a learned behavior. For example, one time I had a lesson on a day where but the horse had been ridden that morning by someone looking to lease him. She was older snd I guesz had kinda rough hands or jerky or something and for some reason he haaaaated her so he did this little bucking behavior, not real bucking because he was like 24 and too old, but like a half buck thing. Well anyway, she got scared and stopped working him and got off. So when I had my lesson later, he tried it a bunch with me because it had worked that morning because she got off him. I didn't nd just worked through it until eventually he stopped doing it and then we had a beautiful rest of the lesson. Now, when I first started riding I probably would have been scared but I had been riding there for a little while and rode several of the horses. I haven't ridden in like a year plus now though
Now that said, like was mentioned, horses are prey animals and don't just show signs of pain, prey animals would have to be pretty in pain or sick to actually show it.
So even if they were faking, I personally would give them the benefit of the doubt rather than risk hurting them more. That or I'd get someone experienced to look at them or both.
Wizards arthritis is mild, and indeed he is in pain at times. However, he's an extremely intelligent horse and has learned behaviors he can do that get people off of him. They've had many people come and look at him and they believed that he was faking his pain at times. This was a couple years back, but he still acts a brat all the time. Not trying to argue with anyone, that's the last thing I want to do, I just want to explain the situation. 
