equine Behavior????

[nrly]

I have 4 horse's and each display different personalities, and each behave different, it is like my 4 kids when they were growing up, except these kids depend on me for everything for the rest of their equine life. So I have had to relearn allot, learn to be flexible, what will work for on horse might not work for another, but I do know that the behavior of my Kiger is so much better then my paint, blm mustang and my qt x tb mix. Stormy really wants to please, the other three want to dominate, not in a mean way, but they let me know they are different. Just like my 4 kids i raised. Stormy's whole attitude is different, she wants to learn, she retains it better I feel. But when she is pissed off she lets me know she push's on me, ignores me, till she feels I have learned, then she lets me know she forgives me, so we both learn from these experiences. then she is over it. and we move forward.
nola

[angelskiger]

Yes I see a big difference in behavior with Maverick and my quarter horse Cherokee. Maverick is much more expressive. I just don't feel like Ive bonded with him yet. I have to board him, so I dont get to get out there as much as I want to. The place I board him, they feed him, so Im afraid he will bond with them more than me. I get out there about 3-4 times a week and spend hours out there, but thats mostly cleaning, grooming, and riding him. And we're only going on our 4th month together, so we still have to give it time to learn one another I think. He is definately a character, LOVES to play. He is constantly goofing off in the pasture.

[lindaf]

My mustang is domestically bred (sire and grandparents were gathered from the wild), so her behavior is different from wild caught ones. She's a wonderfully sweet, friendly pocket pony who, if anything, needs to learn boundaries.

I am concerned about bonding also because she is with a trainer for 3 months. I know she will bond with him, and I wonder how it will transfer to me once she gets home.

My other 3 horses have coldblood personalities. I expect Mattie to be more spirited. If she were a person, she'd be outgoing and friendly, smiling, and thinking the world is an interesting place.

[fantasykiger]

My daughters 1/2 kiger is a big dog no doubt in my mind. My daughter does not ride her after college and then just establishing her new busness she was so busy her horse became a big puppy on the farm. She is a 5 yr old 16hand pocket pony, that follows anybody around looking for love. She is frustrated in the herd because she gets little repect and often gets in battles with some of the older mares and resently the 3 yr old mustang gelding who has just realized he is about her size and can fight back. Now that gelding Zinga is a big dork and sweetheart all rolled into one. I say dork because he touches the electric fence at least once a day, that I see. He is a super dooper people pleaser, he is not a Kiger he has no second guess to him. he does not question only asks what can I do for you. Wickee my 2 yr old Kiger filly she questions everything 'are you sure you want me to do that?' she balks on the lead line for just a second, shakes her head and then leads just fine. She learns very fast and does very well with her lessons but must be pushed to respond. Some times a light whack with the rope to get her attention back, to remind her I am there and the task on hand. But she is just 2 and we do not work to hard. A funny personality on the farm is the Clydesdale, she is very sentisve though she acts like a very big bully. A loud voice and she melts, she is very sensitive and she is very very frightened of Fantasy. Yet the rest of the herd clears a path for the Clyde, go figure. That is just some of the personalities I deal with on a daily basis....I have 10 horses here.

[desperatehorsewife]

Over the past year and a half we've adopted 4 mustangs, all from different HMAs, all with distinctly different personalities.

The first was a yearling from Coyote Lakes, and she was by far the biggest pocket pony we've ever had, domestic or wild. She wanted to share your bubble. She wanted to share your boots. Try convincing her there was a thing called personal space, she didn't believe it. Got her into trouble with the other horses as they'd kick the stuffing out of her, but she'd just keep going back and cozying up.

Another is from Warm Springs. Easiest horse I've ever owned. Curious, polite, and a complete ditz sometimes. DD says she's a blond under that black coat, and she may be right! But so light and responsive, a real pleasure to work with.

The Sand Springs filly came via a reassignment, and we've no clue what her history was for the 7 months prior to coming, other than she'd rubbed off her halter and had been left in her round pen, completely untouchable. She was dealing with severe fear issues when she came, took 3 months to touch her right side.

Then there's Firecracker, who I call my first wild horse simply because she resembles what I'd always imagined a wild horse should act like. Of course, she's a bit older than the others and hadn't been in the corrals very long, so she wasn't used to people being around her like the others. Plus, her head injury is no doubt playing into her lack of desire to become my best friend forever. She's good at turning away and making me disappear, but when I walk through with hay has decided I'm not so bad after all. ;D


I do find them all to be much easier to work with than domestics simply because they seem to have learned the 'rules' while in their herds. They understand give and take and they retain what they've been taught a lot better. Or at least that's been my experience.

[fantasykiger]

Welcome to the board desperate horsewife, you know me as luvallbreeds on HC
So is Firecracker your mare you got from the Kiger adoption?
I to have a Warm Springs mare and she is very much as you describe you mare. She has her moments when she foregets she is a tame horse now. She will pull back when tied in a frenzy or snort at the farrier like she forgot who he is but a quick introduction and she is like 'oh it just you', those moments are rare though. She was by far the easiest horse to train and the smartest. She would never hurt anyone would always choose flight as option never fight. Even when she first came to me she never once tried to bite or kick and never has sense.

[angelsdream]

Im still working on figuring Maverick out. I do know he'll let you know when something is not right. He's not the kind of horse that just ignores stuff. If your doing something wrong or something is bothering him, he'll let you know.

[desperatehorsewife]

Ah...hello again, Fantasy!

Jet's not quite that bad. She's very curious and when I say blond...well, she's just a goof. She does forget from time to time that she's supposed to be tame, but she's hands down the easiest horse I've ever owned. Mostly because of her curiosity, I suspect. I'm really looking forward to getting her out on some trails this summer as she's a girl who just wants to stretch those long legs of hers and go!

And yes, Firecracker is the mare my daughter brought home.

[angelsdream]

Well, speaking of equine behavior - it seems my quarter horse is quiet the escape artist. He has always been - I don't have locks on our stalls yet, we just slide the door shut and the horse's never try to get out, well, not my cherokee. For the longest he puts his nose in between the bars and slides it open and gets out - he'll stick his head out first and look around to see if anyone is looking or if Im going to get him, then he'll gradually make his way out if no one does anything. so we had to start tying his stall, his being the only one we had to tie No one else does it. Well last night I put him in the Jenny Craig lot, trying to help him lose some weight and get him in shape, well I guess he thinks he don't have to lose no weight he somehow pushed his way thru the gate and got out....didn't get hurt, just bent one side of the fence. He's too smart for his own good. So Im going to try something different this evening.

[DianneC]

I had an older mustang that was a lesson horse I ended up leasing when I got back into horses. He would crawl under his stall guard (all the doors were kept open at that barn) and TIPTOE down the aisle, checking each empty stall looking for food.

[Leesa]

Dianne,
I got a kick out of reading about your lesson horse and his tiptoeing. No question at all about how smart these horses are. We have gotten to the point where we can turn Cisco's dam out in the back yard; area between the house and the barn and the fences of our paddocks/pastures. She quietly grazes back there and thoroughly enjoys all the attention she gets as people come and go from the house to the barn. When grooming her in the isle we would reach into the lid of our three step mounting block and give her a little treat every once in while. The block is always in the same location. One day I heard this racket and looked outside to see her using her muzzle to lift the lid of the highest step to get to the treats. I continued to watch her as she kept lifting the lid but each time is would fall back down again. Finally (frustrated I'm sure) she started using her hooves to move the block around eventually knocking it over completely. I went out and righted the block and moved her into the pasture. A few days latter we turned out into the back yard again and sure enough after quietly grazing for a while she headed for the block again and hearing the noise again I watched her. Only this time she lifted the lid with her muzzle and did it ever so slowly to keep the lid up and proceeded to bury her face inside looking for the treats. Our feed and hay are always locked up so she can't get to them and now when I turn her out into the back yard I have to lock the block up in the feed room too!
Leesa

[DianneC]

I am quite sure these horses think about things and work out puzzles or figure out how to do the spin you asked for but they didn't quite get. Smoke would come out the day after trying to teach him something new with it down pat and he would get really frustrated if you worked on something else and didn't let him show you how well he could do it.

[kigerfan]

The very first mustang I ever met was when I was a young kid, working at a ranch, just to be around horses. This was a little red flecked gelding. He was very intelligent. He had to have a padlock on his stall because otherwise he could get it open. He could even get the padlock off if it wasn't completely locked. One day, I was cleaning his stall and I had set the padlock to look like it was locked, but that didn't fool the little mustang. He had that lock off in no time at all. Luckily for me I realized it just as he was getting the stall door open and as he started to take off, I grabbed him by the nose and by his mane down close to his withers and turned him right back around and into the stall. He was ticked off because I caught him, and purposfully sidestepped and stepped on my foot as he re entered the stall. I fell in love with the little brat.... after I stopped hopping around holding my foot!

[desperatehorsewife]

LOL...that sounds like Jet. If she had thumbs I'd be in a world of hurt! ;D