"Them?" Are we talking about a team in harness? That's quite a different situation from a horse that is being ridden - a cart of any description is a whole new level of dangerous.
Horse Talk
- Thread starter abigalerose
- Start date
- Apr 25, 2015
- 4,657
- 3,311
- 407
No. Typo. Just one horse. Single team
I'm sorry that happened... but I don't think getting pinned to a fence is entirely the fault of the horse. The people around the horse also need to be aware of their surroundings enough to realize not to be THAT close to a horse.
- Apr 25, 2015
- 4,657
- 3,311
- 407
I'm just saying anything can happen. I think when you say whoa your horse should immediately stop.
The reason he was that close to a fence was because he was pitching hay over. This was at least 55 years ago
The reason he was that close to a fence was because he was pitching hay over. This was at least 55 years ago
My horses do stop immediately to "whoa" and take a step back if a hand is shown in front of their face. To respect space.
- Thread starter
- #826
abigalerose
Songster
- Feb 22, 2016
- 951
- 246
- 121
I can see what you mean about teaching the pony those tricks, but on the other hand a lot of people who do Liberty teach their horses to rear and follow them without it becoming a problem.
And for lunging, somewhere a ways back I posted some advice my cousin gave me on teaching June to lunge, and it worked like a charm. I posted a screenshot so you should be able to look through the pictures and find it
And for lunging, somewhere a ways back I posted some advice my cousin gave me on teaching June to lunge, and it worked like a charm. I posted a screenshot so you should be able to look through the pictures and find it
Not a problem for them, perhaps, but they taught the animal, so they know what is going on. But how about this scenario:
"My husband bought this stupid pony for the kids, but that thing's mean! They can't go out in the pasture because if they do, it starts chasing them; if they get anywhere near it, it rears up at them."
- Thread starter
- #828
abigalerose
Songster
- Feb 22, 2016
- 951
- 246
- 121
But if taught correctly they should only be doing that with certain cues. And when you look at a horse before buying it you shouldn't buy a horse that is too advanced for you, trust me I know all about that.
You're just getting into the horse business, so maybe you haven't seen it yet, but you will . . . .
An astonishing number of people get horses, particularly minis, without having a clue about what they are doing. They don't know even the most basic stuff about feeding and care, never mind training or understanding the nature of the animal. It's not just horses, of course - thousands of dogs and cats get rehomed or surrendered to shelters every year because of perfectly normal behaviors that the owners couldn't cope with (but which a little bit of research would have told them were par for the course for the breed/species). Most of these people blame the animal, when the only thing it is guilty of is following its instincts and exhibiting behavior that its ancestors were bred to do.
As for training and cues, welllll . . . . haven't I told you about Blondie? A few years ago, I learned about clicker training, and had the idea that it might be fun to teach her a few tricks. The person whose tutelage I was following warned that this sort of thing becomes such a fun game for the horse, it will frequently begin to 'volunteer' the behavior in hopes of getting the reward, often to the point of becoming a real nuisance, so 1) you should be careful to choose a behavior that isn't dangerous or destructive for either the animal or anyone/anything else, and 2) it's a good idea to teach at least 2 behaviors, that the horse can't possibly do at the same time, with the idea that they can't decide which to do so they won't do either until asked (or something like that). So I decided to teach Blondie to nod her head "yes," and shake her head "no." For some silly reason, I thought she couldn't do both at the same time . . . . duh! Blondie loves to volunteer "yes," and absolutely, a horse that is nodding its head vigorously up and down is a nuisance, and it could be taken as an expression of irritation if you don't know what she's doing. Unfortunately, she certainly can do "yes" and "no" at the same time - sometimes, she keeps them separated, and sometimes, she looks like a demented bobble-head (I wonder, does that give her a headache? It does me,lol!) Incidentally, she also knows "target" and "head down," but if she's volunteering them, it's not as obvious and not a problem. But for me, this only underscored something I heard a very long time ago - while you can teach an animal all kinds of things that may work fine for you, you have to think about how these things will look to someone else. Especially for something like horses, as big as they are and as long-lived as they are, there's a good chance that they will wind up in the hands of someone else (probably several "someone's") during the course of their lives. If those people aren't familiar with you and your methods, they may not understand what that animal is doing, and they may get entirely the wrong end of the stick . . . . to the animal's detriment. That's the reason why we are supposed to teach and follow a sort of universal code of cues; to try to ensure that the horse and rider will be speaking the same language, as it were, even if they are strangers to each other. We inadvertently teach undesirable behavior all the time through ignorance or inattention, but to deliberately teach something that the horse may wind up paying for later is just plain wrong, IMO.
An astonishing number of people get horses, particularly minis, without having a clue about what they are doing. They don't know even the most basic stuff about feeding and care, never mind training or understanding the nature of the animal. It's not just horses, of course - thousands of dogs and cats get rehomed or surrendered to shelters every year because of perfectly normal behaviors that the owners couldn't cope with (but which a little bit of research would have told them were par for the course for the breed/species). Most of these people blame the animal, when the only thing it is guilty of is following its instincts and exhibiting behavior that its ancestors were bred to do.
As for training and cues, welllll . . . . haven't I told you about Blondie? A few years ago, I learned about clicker training, and had the idea that it might be fun to teach her a few tricks. The person whose tutelage I was following warned that this sort of thing becomes such a fun game for the horse, it will frequently begin to 'volunteer' the behavior in hopes of getting the reward, often to the point of becoming a real nuisance, so 1) you should be careful to choose a behavior that isn't dangerous or destructive for either the animal or anyone/anything else, and 2) it's a good idea to teach at least 2 behaviors, that the horse can't possibly do at the same time, with the idea that they can't decide which to do so they won't do either until asked (or something like that). So I decided to teach Blondie to nod her head "yes," and shake her head "no." For some silly reason, I thought she couldn't do both at the same time . . . . duh! Blondie loves to volunteer "yes," and absolutely, a horse that is nodding its head vigorously up and down is a nuisance, and it could be taken as an expression of irritation if you don't know what she's doing. Unfortunately, she certainly can do "yes" and "no" at the same time - sometimes, she keeps them separated, and sometimes, she looks like a demented bobble-head (I wonder, does that give her a headache? It does me,lol!) Incidentally, she also knows "target" and "head down," but if she's volunteering them, it's not as obvious and not a problem. But for me, this only underscored something I heard a very long time ago - while you can teach an animal all kinds of things that may work fine for you, you have to think about how these things will look to someone else. Especially for something like horses, as big as they are and as long-lived as they are, there's a good chance that they will wind up in the hands of someone else (probably several "someone's") during the course of their lives. If those people aren't familiar with you and your methods, they may not understand what that animal is doing, and they may get entirely the wrong end of the stick . . . . to the animal's detriment. That's the reason why we are supposed to teach and follow a sort of universal code of cues; to try to ensure that the horse and rider will be speaking the same language, as it were, even if they are strangers to each other. We inadvertently teach undesirable behavior all the time through ignorance or inattention, but to deliberately teach something that the horse may wind up paying for later is just plain wrong, IMO.
Last edited:
- Apr 25, 2015
- 4,657
- 3,311
- 407
Tomorrow my dad and i have to go see if we can find pair 52 of ours and a neighbors pair that got into Mike's. Mike is a crazy guy, who would literally try to sue you if you drove a 4 wheeler on his side of the fence to fix it cause he never does!! It's not like he has cows that we could scare or startle either!
He isn't the brightest too... someone had a 5 year renting contract with him for pasture, this is year 3. His dam was dry this year. Most people's dams were cause we haven't had a lot of rain. But no he says that the cows drank the dam dry
And if we called and told him that there are 2 pairs on your land he would flip out and sue you about that. So you have to trespass on his land to look for some cows.
Then again maybe it'll be even for him poaching on ours last year
He isn't the brightest too... someone had a 5 year renting contract with him for pasture, this is year 3. His dam was dry this year. Most people's dams were cause we haven't had a lot of rain. But no he says that the cows drank the dam dry
And if we called and told him that there are 2 pairs on your land he would flip out and sue you about that. So you have to trespass on his land to look for some cows.
Then again maybe it'll be even for him poaching on ours last year
Last edited:
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Latest threads
-
-
-
Rooster is still eating and drinking but concerned- Started by JarrodnJojo2016
- Replies: 0
-
-
Experiences/opinions on these chicken breeds?- Started by ky_bird
- Replies: 1
-
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
Question of the Day - Thursday, August 14th, 2025- Started by casportpony
- Replies: 75
-
-
Ended BYC Poultry Caption Contest 08-08-25 Pic by Molpet- Started by TwoCrows
- Replies: 62
-
-
