What crazy things do your equine do?

[aoconnor]

I have so many horses, but each one is different. One of my big Thoroughbred mares likes to rub her teeth along the fence rail or the edge of her bucket when she's waiting for her feed. It makes the stall gate hum when she's in the barn, it sounds kind of neat!

One of my geldings taps his left front foot very softly while he waits for his feed. It's cute, but I know it is impatience! One of my other Thoroughbred girls looks like a Flamingo while she is eating! She gets so happy while she eats that she tucks one front leg up and stands like a flamingo. Goofball. One of my mares gently taps the stall wall next to her stall gate with her front feet when she is getting ready to get turned out. She gets excited and can't help it:-) 

So many to choose from! A TB gelding of mine will always roughly switch the tank water several times before he takes a drink, even though my tanks are clean and fresh daily. Must have been in a place long ago where he didn't have fresh water, and the habit stayed with him. My Percheron gelding would rather stand with his front legs in the water trough to drink. Sigh. Which is why I have clean, fresh tanks daily:-) He also will attack his feed bucket with gusto at every feeding, he gets so excited he about knocks half the feed out, which makes him mad, and then he has to figure out how to keep the donkeys from eating what's on the ground before he gets to it. He's young, he'll learn! 

What funny things do your equine critters do? 

[TommyIce]

My late Tommy would hear the feed going into the other horses' buckets and he'd stick his face in his even though there wasn't feed in it yet. He also wouldn't take it out when you tried to put the feed in. Had to pour around his face. LOL

When it was hot and we'd come back from a long ride, after getting "undressed" and cooled off, he'd saunter over to the tough, look around and then stick his head up to his eyes under the water for a second.

[gracielagata]

Those are all pretty funny.
My mare loves to pluck the barbed wire fence to get your attention. She only does it then. I am surprised she doesn't get her lips or anything stuck during winter, but it hasn't happened yet.
She does yoga most mornings, esp. cold ones- isn't that downward dog when your butt is in the air? When I first bought her, she did it with me on her, and I wasn't quite sure what was happening.
When we 1st moved here to country property, she was an only horse, so we left all interior gates open so she could come to the yard and such. We were out playing badminton (minus the net) and she came over and laid down right at my feet. I bounced the birdie off her a couple of times, she didn't even flinch.
She has also inspected people's vehicles for stuff- new neighbors would come by to hang out with my husband- you know, men standing around outside drinking beer... with a 900 pound mare in the middle drinking with them- she would pull stuff out of the truck beds until they gave her beer.
My husband's gelding also loves beer- but neither will drink the 'cheap' stuff- PBR is good, Coors Light type beer is bad lol And we have to be careful with bottles, because the gelding likes to take them in his teeth and bite down, seemingly trying to chug it on his own lol.
She also used to go in the barn and knock everything over- table saw full of wood and bucket of screws? CRASH! And she would just stand there and look at the mess like it was your fault. Then she found the feed bucket, and tipped it to share with the dogs.
I used to keep the chicken feed in an antique cooler outside their pen... until she discovered it and started rolling it until the hinges broke so she could eat the mess.

The boys don't seem to do quite as much. Plus they aren't mine so I don't pay as much attention I guess, lol
Both can be mouthy so we have to watch ourselves a bit more. My daughter's gelding is seemingly not very human friendly when loose, but is great for her under saddle and when tied. We can't figure him out- for all his not-quite-human-friendliness, he is *always* the first one at the gate to say hello or first to get caught. To the point that if I want my mare, I have to be careful because he will put himself between us as if he is being led as well, and will keep walking like that if she lets him. So I guess there are some funny things with the boys too lol

Does your drinks-with-feet-in-water do it with taller tanks as well? My mare likes to play in the short black tanks, but leaves the tall metal ones alone. So we only use that kind to save me the headache. In summer I used to give her the short black one full to play, but she gave herself something similar to scratches from the water and abrasion, so I had to take her fun away lol

I best get to work now, I suppose. I look forward to seeing others' quirky equines.

[here to stay]

Well, Tessie, that patient girl, goes and stands in front of the manger where she used to get fed. And nods into it. To empathize her intent, she will walk away a couple of feet, then walk back briskly to make sure I got her point. Hollie I think has Arab lurking in her ancestry as she flips her head up and down vigorously. Why that never causes horses to lose balance is curious.

I once bought a filly from a mare who ate from her bucket holding her right foreleg up and she did it too. There was a famous (infamous) local line of race bred quarter horses known for universal lip smacking when excited. I think that such mannerisms are largely inherited.

[aoconnor]

Yes, I have my "into-everything-always" guys. Mine are a TB gelding that is 6.5 years old named Amigo, and a 10 year old Quarter Horse gelding named Cider. They will insert their head into whatever opening they can find that has good stuff inside it. Truck windows, feed room, stall. You name it, they're in it! Once of my mares will do that too, but is more interested in the feed room than vehicles.

One day the UPS guy came while I was doing chores at the barn. He honked a couple of times, I assumed to make my dogs move. When he kept honking, I ran to the top driveway to see what was going on. My mini mare was standing all the way up INSIDE the UPS truck passenger side doorway! I laughed and shoo'd her out, but the UPS guys said she wasn't really a problem, it was the Bulldog under the pedals:-) LOL! I got my little Sophia out of the drivers side footwell, then he was able to get back in and go:-) That was one of the funniest things I have ever seen! That same driver is still on our route, and he is just the nicest guy. He always brings a smile and kind words to my dogs and Ivy the mini mare:-)

[gracielagata]

aconnor, that is too funny- the mini in the UPS truck. Our UPS guy is awesome too, he lives rural and has horses as well, so is always so conscientious of our gates and such. I know Snoty has been out loose before when he arrived, I am sure, but nothing quite so funny as that. He does have to contend with the barn cats, and always does a cat head count before he leaves lol.

She does love to get right in front of the quad or tractor when you use it in the pasture. When she was boarded and they dragged her field, if it was a single person, they had to start and stop quite a bit because she would just stand in front of them and lick the quad. And now with our tractor, she seems to like diesel exhaust, since she likes to put her nose over the exhaust stack/pipe, or even lick it.
And she has always liked to bite those bug guards on the fronts of trucks. And stick her head in windows as well. She only had that opportunity when she was boarded, as I would walk her down the lanes and cars would come through for lessons or such.

And trail riding, she has to check out every human she meets for treats or to be petted. She is very polite. From the saddle, I will let her walk over to them quietly and she stands and snuffs and makes begging faces. Most everyone loves it, esp. kids. Sometimes I provide treats, sometimes they share trail mix lol. I have let kids get on her to take photos and pet her and such when we take potty or rest breaks out on the trail. She loves meeting people and it is good training. And it makes the kids so happy.

[aoconnor]

Adding a funny to the list...actually two funnies!

My huge coming 5 year old Percheron gelding LOVES to sleep. Each morning when I go to the barn, he is laying down in the barnyard asleep. I call his name, or sometimes go over and hug on him some, but until he hears feed hitting buckets he stays in his happy dream state. When he does get up, it's all stretches and slowness:-)

I have a friends 3 year old gelding for a while, we are doing "herd therapy" on him. He has no idea what a real horse is, he was raised by people who babied around with him and treated him like a puppy rather than a horse. He has horrible manners, but he is learning:-). One thing they had a problem with was that he would come up behind them while they were feeding and he would bite them. Hard! I don't allow any biting of any kind from my horses, ever. This boy has learned I don't tolerate it at all...so now when I go in to feed him (I put him in my round pen so we have close quarters where I can get after him if necessary), I carry the feed bucket in and he walks a few feet behind and to my right, but he absolutely will NOT look at me or the feed!! He waits while I dump the feed into his pan, but he still won't look at either me or his food, he stares straight ahead with his ears forward, and only after I release him with a word will he step up to eat! It's so danged funny, but he has learned my elbows are sharp and hard, and his ears have to be "nice" before he gets one single piece of food. Smart boy!

[gracielagata]

aoconnor, the retraining for biting boy sounds similar to my daughter's gelding! I had previously taught my other 2 horses to go for a walk when I bring hay out... I mean literally, take it somewhere else for a couple of minutes and get away, so I can set hay piles in peace. My mare leads the one gelding off, and away they go through the trees. It was fairly comical... the new guy didn't quite get it for the longest time, and still doesn't always... but he does at least stand completely disengaged. He will be several feet away and turns so he isn't even looking at me, but with a fully soft body. Then once I come to him with his pile, he politely turns around to start eating. The first few times he did it in the process of teaching him to leave me alone I was so confused and thought for sure he was about to kick me lol.

And I wish I could get my mare to sleep like that! She sleeps so softly, and not very much during the day, compared to the boys. So I can't sneak up on her at all!She will tolerate being hugged on for a minute or so before she hefts herself up and snuffs for a treat.

[here to stay]

I think that if Hollie will puzzle her next owner, if she has one.
The girl's winter paddock is bordered by redwood trees and those trees shed volumes of sticks and leaves each wind storm. A roll will leave 6 inch leaf clusters and sometime even two foot long sticks tangled in manes and tails. Hollie especially will come in a night with her mane holding volumes of debris.
So over the years she has learned to stop for me to pull out the worst of them, the ones I worry may poke her in the eye, as she comes into get fed. Her thing is to follow Tess, wait at a respectful distance while I shut Tess' s gate, then come to me when I pat my chest so I can pull the stuff out. And it's not easy to get it out as it must be pulled from the end most deeply buried in horse hair.
Can you imagine how someone, getting a horse who has learned this by mutual agreement with me, would think it odd? I believe that many "oddities" with our horses have come from them consciously reading their humans and accommmodating them. Humans on the other hand, are more focussed on telling the horse to do something and are less aware that their own behavior contradicts these "orders." In other words, horses have a tendency to do what we do and not what we say.

[gracielagata]

here to stay, That is so true!! It does make me realize that I am glad in those moments that help me out, that she listened more to my body language than my words... and it is teaching me to work with her better.
I love how patting your chest became the sign. I am currently working on getting our 3 to come to me of sorts, as I changed their gate feeding location, so now they have to think on where to go. They get faster each time. And last night I had grain, so boy did they figure that out in a hurry.