Conference noted::equitation

    When Robbie is cross (for example, if he's being kept in so he can't
    eat grass all day and get even fatter), he throws things.  When
    he's tied up in the yard to be groomed or whatever, he gets hold
    of anything he can reach with a front foot (bucket, skip, grooming
    box ...), and upsets it.  Quite deliberately.  When he has emptied
    the contents of whatever it is, he then puts it right way up again
    and stands in it.  Before he does any of this, he looks at me to
    make sure I'm watching.
    
    He also pulls everything out of his grooming box, any time I make
    the mistake of leaving it within reach, looking for food.
    
    Another trick he had recently learned is how to climb through a
    wire (not barbed) fence.  You lift the top strand and hold it up,
    then step over the bottom strand.  This is clever, but it is not
    a useful accomplishment for a horse, in my view.
    
    Helen.

    My mare Cricket knows just how to get my attention. If I am giving
    one of the other horses more attention than she thinks they should
    get, she runs her teeth back and forth across the top of the stall
    wall making an awful grating noise. Kind of gets to you like
    fingernails against a chalkboard! She never does it unless your
    there and ignoring her.
    
    Sandy
    

    My gelding knows the sound of my car and/or footsteps and calls to me
    before I even get in the barn door.  It is the only time he whinnies.
    He will then proceed to bang and carry on until I take him out of his
    stall.  If I still don't take him out he will let himself out and greet
    me. If it is the morning of a show and I arrive, he runs to the back
    of his stall and turns his butt to me. I guess he knows whats up
    because of all the preparation the day before with bathing and
    braiding.  If I don't go over everyday he knows when I skip a day and
    he treats me with no respect.  He will bite me, push me around and
    do everything he can to show that he is angry with me.  When he is
    happy he will give kisses and be real sweet.  He will give his all and
    perform really well when he is happy and content.  
    
                               
                                            Wendy

	My gelding is a "stamper" when he gets annoyed.  He especially hates
standing on the cross ties for more than a minute - and gets very impatient 
about standing around to be groomed, etc.  I have tried to discipline him
when he starts stamping and found that by all the attention, ie: the harsh
words, smacks on the shoulder, etc. only made it worse.  By ignoring him, he
doesn't find it fun to do anymore - and he has been standing quieter lately.

	I also caught him with his head in the air saturday morning.  Upon 
closer inspection I found that he was catching raindrops running down the roof 
with his tongue.  (I couldn't get the camera in time to shoot this).  With a 
full water tank available to him - I suspect this was more for the fun of
it than thirst.

    
    My mare, Moccasin and I play a game while tacking up. When I go
    to tighten the girth she snaps at me. Each day she gets closer and
    closer to my rear end when she snaps. When she gets to close, I
    give her a slap on the neck. The next day she doesn't snap but the
    day after that it starts all over. Its kinda fun! The one time she
    got too close and actually made contact - I not sure who was more
    surprised me or her!

    I haven't introduced myself or Cocoa yet but I did want to reply
    to this note.
    
    Cocoa likes to play with his water.  He will get a drink and then
    walk over to me, I found out what the tongue hanging out of his
    mouth meant.  When he got to me he would open his mouth and all
    the water that was in his throat would dribble all over me.  He
    also likes to sometimes swish his hay in his water bucket before
    eating it.
    
    Linda
    

    I've had Craig for over 13 years so I've had plenty of opportunity
    to notice his habits.
    
    He loves to roll, and he has a little routine that he does before
    every time he rolls. He walks around in a tight, clockwise circle
    for about three or four revolutions. He lifts one of his hind feet
    up very high every second step or so. Then he gets down on the ground,
    rolls on one side, then flips over to the other side. When he gets
    up he always shakes and grunts.  Then sometimes he takes off bucking
    (and usually farting) to wherever there is grass to eat.
    
    A horse at the barn where I used to board got coffee from his owner
    every morning. As soon as the owner walked in with the bag from
    the doughnut shop Simon would nicker. He'd get about half the cup
    of steaming hot coffee poured in his grain bucket (and part of a
    doughnut if he was lucky) and he'd immediately slurp it up. Then
    he'd stand around with his tongue hanging out.
    
    Andrea

    
    My colt "Bold Cadence" loves to drink the bubbles that the water
    makes when we fill his water bucket with the hose. When we fill the 
    water bucket out in the paddock (we usually leave the hose in it till
    it is full) "Bold Cadence" likes to play with the hose. He picks it up,
    and...the water squirts at him, he drops it back in the bucket, 2 seconds
    later he has the hose in his mouth again.  He also has a habit of
    backing up to a wall before he poops...you can see the writing on
    his stall wall..so to speak.
    	
    My filly "Jinny" occassionally turns her rear end to the stall door
    and backs up to it...so YOU can scratch her tail end. Since she
    is grey...she is an expert at rolling just after you groom her.
    
    Nancy
    
    

    In trying to supple my gelding's neck muscles, I hold apples near
    his chest so he really has to bend his neck to get at them.
    Well now, when "Hansum" sees me coming with apples, he automatically 
    bends his neck and bows before I get there!
                                    
    He also greets me every morning at 5:00 am with an ear piercing
    whinney! I'm sure the neighbors love that!
                                              
    My pony, "Chucky", in the summer loves to get sprayed with the hose.
    If I'm filing their water tub, Chucky will stick his nose under
    the hose (excuse the rhym) and squirts *me* with it!
    
    T.
                      

    Now Mr Punch has picked up another one!!!!!
    
    Whilst sitting on the bench in the yard with Punch stood in front
    of me, Both wasting a bit of time,  He decided it would be fun if
    he saw something interesting on the other side of my head, and instead
    of raising his head over mine, he just knocked my head out of his
    way, then decided that what was on the other side was really more
    interesting, so swung his head back again.  Luckily he was gentle,
    but he kept on doing this, I think he thought it was fun, until
    I poked him in the nose.  Not so keen on me getting my own back,
    he stuck his nose under my chin, then pretended he saw something
    fly over head.  Whilst I was rubbing my chin better, he thought
    it would be safe to attact the tree behind me, as if I wouldn't
    notice. So I pulled his whiskers, PUH! that got him.  He Sulked.
    And sulking to him, means polos, so he grabbed my pocket and pulled
    at it, Yes I gave him a pole, if only for being so entertaining,
    even if it did hurt.
    
    Bliss, The Farrier should be up this week, so I can take him out
    at the week-end, and he can get rid of his boredom at last.
    
    Do carry on with your stories,  I think they are really fasinating.
    
    

    RE 756.10
    Not a story but a question. Knowing you are in jolly old england
    and I am in the US there is something in your story that I am curious
    about; What are polos??
    
    Sandy
    P.S. I am very careful what I let my pony do with his head near
    mine ever since he accidently broke my jaw 2 years ago. It may seem
    cute but sometimes.....
    

    re: 756.10 also.....
    
    i too would like to know what polos are.....
    
    i just finished a book called "riders" by jilly cooper and one
    of the horses in this book was called mr. punch....any relation?
    
    jan
    

    re: .11.12
    Polos are mints, don't you have them over there, They are called
    polos as they have a whole in the middle.  Make sence? no it doesn't
    to me either.  I know I should be careful, while he is playing his
    silly games, but he really is very careful,  And after the time
    he refused a jump and I didn't, he would never do anything to hurt
    me or anyone else he likes.  He knows exactly how far he can go.
    
    I will have to read this book called "riders"  I shouldn't think
    he is any relation, unless this horse was a certified looney.
    
    How exactly did you get your jaw broken?
    
    Keep up the stories?
    
    Helena
    

    H        H  U        U  RRRRRRRR  RRRRRRRR     AA     Y       Y
    H        H  U        U  R      R  R      R    A  A     Y     Y
    H        H  U        U  R     R   R     R    A    A     Y   Y
    H        H  U        U  R    R    R    R    A      A     Y Y
    HHHHHHHHHH  U        U  RRRRR     RRRRR     AAAAAAAA      Y
    H        H  U        U  R    R    R    R   A        A     Y
    H        H  U        U  R     R   R     R  A        A     Y
    H        H   U      U   R      R  R      R A        A     Y
    H        H    UUUUUU    R      R  R      R A        A     Y
    
    
    
    
    PUNCH HAS FINALLY BEEN SHOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    
    I'M TAKING FRIDAY OFF AND HE AND I ARE GOING ON A JOLLY INTERESTING
    RIDE.                  ITS A MIRACLE.
    
    MIND YOU I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT HE KEPT 3 SHOES ON FOR 14 WEEKS, SHAME
    WE LOST OUR FARRIER.
    
    
       

    If I had my pony's shoes on without a reset for 14 weeks he would
    start falling on his face. Does Mr. Punch have very slow growing
    feet? I have had to pull shoes and do some trimming myself when
    I couldn't get a farrier soon enough. Maybe the diet is different
    in your area. I could save a fortune if mine would go that long.
    $50 a set times 3 times every 8 weeks is a lot of money!
    
    curious,
    Sandy
    

    Luckily for me, yes he has got very slow growing feet. Which are
    in excelent condition.  We NEVER use hoof oil.  And we did have
    a damm good farrier, until he went and murdered someone.  Mind you
    I haven't ridden him for the last 6 weeks, as we didn't want to
    risk his shoes coming off and his hoofs splitting.  So he has just
    been going on short walkies at weekends.  No particular diet at
    all. Just anything that smells good to him.  
    
    Home time,  must dash
    
    regards
    Helena
    
    

    After a two year absence, I am able to access the equestrian notes
    file again - my facility finally got a cluster with enough space!
    I am really enjoying reading many of the notes, especially this
    file and the one about "Uncontrollable bragging."
    
    My TB "Seven Pass" has several habits, some of which are endearing,
    others annoying, but as you all know, even annoying habits get
    to be endearing when you own the horse long enough.
    
    These are things he likes to do:
    
    - crib when his cribbing collar isn't on.  He has been known to
    crib on his groom's leg at a horse show (ouch!)
    
    - he lifts his front feet (one at a time) and waves them around
    when he wants food.  For instance, if someone else is getting a
    carrot, or if it's getting close to feed time.  I figure this
    habit is a lot better than kicking stall doors, which some horse
    do.
    
    - being very busy at work this summer, I was finding it difficult
    to ride more than once or twice a week.  If I had not been to
    the barn for four  or more days, and then went to tack up, he
    would open his mouth for the bit!  If I came out the very next
    day, he would not do this.  Isn't that sweet how he would welcome
    me back?!
    
    - Like others mentioned, Seven likes to take a long drink of water
    after a work out (and after cooling out), and then stand over
    the bucket, in some sort of reverie (thinking about what he's
    just been schooled in/what he's taught me?), with his tongue slightly
    sticking out of his mouth.  Really looks funny, and I wish I knew
    what he was thinking about!
    
    I'll probably think of more, but I'd also like to read more.  
    
    Regards,
    
    Jennie
    

    
    Well the people in this note seem a bit friendlier than some in
    "uncontrollable bragging"  (716). At least the unknown POLO mystery
    was explained without an assault from the VOLKSWAGON POLO supporters
    club for cruelty to POLOS. 
    
    
    My gelding along with a few horses I know of can open his top bolt
    in the stable and escape. His other trick was one day while being
    shod, the blacksmith wondered why he was standing unusually quiet
    only to find on putting down his hind leg that he had chewed through
    the lead rope and then escaped taking, 20 mins to catch. A chain
    lead rope is now used for tying up.
    
    
    		Gareth
ps. This note is tells me that all horses have their nice and not so
    nice quirks. Keep them coming!!
    

    Okay, I'll embarass myself by letting everyone in on the silly (some
    people think disgusting) thing that my 6 yr old, 16 hand Appaloosa
    gelding does....
    
    He thinks he is a 1000 pound dog; he loves to lick people just like
    a dog does... There isn't a person in our barn who hasn't been slurped
    by a foot long pink horse tongue while standing near him on the
    cross ties or while giving him a nice friendly pat on the face.
    
    And, it's not just for the salt! He will lick you until you get
    completely soaked, grossed out, or sick of it and move away and
    then, when one of his "people blocks" (like a salt block but human)
    moves away, he gets these sad, sorrowful eyes which of course makes
    everyone feel guilty...
    
    Okay, now that I'm red in the face  :^)
    
    Aren't these horses wonderfully silly creatures?
    
    Happy rides,
    
    Linda

My 26 year old Morgan gelding likes to spin lead ropes, grain
sacks, or half broken sticks he finds in the paddock for amusement.

He really gets an incredible spin going and will spin the item below
his head and then up over his head.  He even keeps it spinning while
rearing.   

The other horses usually clear out of the way since sometimes Rex
let's go of the item and it tends to SOAR through the air, sometimes
striking innocent horse bystanders.  Several times I found a leadrope
high on the roof top of the barn.    

Melinda

    Melinda, you mention how your horse spins things and it reminded
    me of a horse which was boarded at the same barn as me which had
    a habit which was horrible...
    
    This horse was a 16 or so hand grey 5-gaited Saddlebred gelding
    who absolutely hated cats. He killed more than a few by grabbing
    their tails with his teeth, spinning them around and around until
    they got going fast and then letting go so that the poor kitty slammed
    against the side of the stall, usually head first.
    
    The owners finally had to put him in a stall which had no windows and
    was completely enclosed to keep him from doing this.
    
    Other than this terrible habit, he was easy to ride and to work
    around, but he just hated cats.
    
    
    

       My 4 year old mare Taffy is another Houdini. It's driving me
       crazy cause the barn manager won't put her in the pasture anymore
       and I can't afford to fence the whole pasture with electric
       fence. Most of the fence is wire (I'm not too fond of that) with
       just 3 strands. Taffy puts her head under the top strand and
       lifts it with her poll. Then she carefully steps through and
       walks to the barn and starts eating from the hay stack. They told
       me one day that she also pulled 4 posts out of the ground. I
       can't even imagine how! This is one bad habit I'd dearly love to
       break but I don't know how. She's also been know to just lean
       into a board fence till the board breaks (though they were pretty
       thin boards). All of this has cost her cause one time she ended
       up with a very deep cut in her chest that needed stitches and a
       drain it was so deep. If anybody has any suggestions I'd be glad
       to hear them. liesl

    	We feed our four month old Appaloosa colt in the aisle of the
    barn so that his mom won't horn in on his dinner. We are usually
    in the area, but I've left him there alone a few times. Twice, he
    unlatched and opened our blind mare's stall door, walked under the
    top door, and took over her grain. What's more amazing is that Stormy
    (the blind mare) let's Mark (the colt) do it. She'd bite the heck
    out of anyone else who tried.
    	I now put a clip on the door latches of all the stalls to keep
    Markie out of other horses' stalls.
    
    	George
    

    Actually this is more sad than silly, and very embarrassing. 
    I recently  met another Digital person who was interested in
    excersising one of my horses for me on weekends.  A few weeks ago
    was our first ride, and a good one at that.  After about an hour
    and a half on the trail we entered a large field and stopped to
    take a breather.  Next thing I know the poor rider is bailing out
    as my Appy decides to lay down and roll to get some of the sweat
    off.  I'll tell you she sure did look surprised but like a good sport
    climbed right back on to finish the ride.  Well two weeks ago it
    happened again.  Once Fantasy got sweaty she just laid right down
    and rolled.  
    
    As a two year old when I was first training her she attempted this
    trick a couple of times but I became good at stopping her before
    she actually went down, and after a couple of times of beating her
    to the punch she stopped it.  Now three years later with another
    rider "Here we go again".  
    
    I am convinced it is not a nasty trick to dismount a rider it is
    just a stupid way of trying to get comfortable when she breaks into
    a sweat .  I believe the rider is now prepared for it and will
    be watching for tell tale signs on our next ride, but until then
    are there any ideas on how to stop this horrible "and possibly
    dangerous" habit.   
    
    I have tried riding her during the week but she will not try it
    with me on her.  Luckily the woman riding her has very quick reflexes
    and a very good sence of humor.
    
    HELP
    Karen 

Foxy fills his bucket,
                 My husband says that has to be the dumbest thing there is.
I told him Foxy just likes to make life easier. Realy how many horses will
muck their own stalls. Maby we should install flush toilet and we wont even
have to carry the bucket out.

George likes to undress people.
                   He starts at the top with your hat. He wiggles his lips
till it falls off. Next its the coat that is as far as he has gotten. Maby
when the weather improves I'll see what next.
             Also foxy has a not so nice habit George does it now and then
also. It exits one end and then back into the other. Their breakfast consists
of 2 quarts and two flakes, same for supper however breakfast includes vita-mix.
I thought it may have something to do with the fact that they are both Stalions.
Any Ideas?
                                Thanks
                                Linda D.

    This isn't a habit, but it's still a silly horse story. 
    
    Very early yesterday morning I looked out the window. Chocolate, our
    visiting horse, was standing quietly in the paddock eating from his
    haynet. Perched on his rump was a big, glossy black crow. The crow
    matter-of-factly walked up Chocolate's back, up to the top of his neck,
    and pecked at his ears. Chocolate shook him off and resumed eating. The
    crow hopped over to a fencepost. A couple of minutes later the same thing
    happened--rump-to-neck-to-ear.  Except for the ear-pecking, Chocolate
    was quite content to let the crow walk all over him.
    

    
    We, too, had an 'odd couple' relationship between our animals.
    
    My husband and I have two leopard appaloosas (along with misc. dogs,
    cats, cows, and chickens).  One day, we had the horses tethered
    to the fence while we groomed them.  One of our cats (who,
    coincidentally, was also black-and-white spotted) was watching the
    scene from atop one of the fence posts.  Every so often, one of
    the horses and the cat would come nose-to-nose.  As I turned around
    from picking up my saddle, I noticed that the cat was standing on
    the horse's (whose name is Khan, by the way) back, scratching under
    the saddle pad!  The only way that we can figure she got on his
    back was to walk over his head by way of his nose!  The amazing
    thing is that he let her!
    
   

My Higgins has a silly habit I have never seen before...

If he is happy and content (in his stall or on cross-ties) he will rub his lips
together.  (side to side)  it makes this great sound !!  like rubber on rubber.
it's hard to explain!  everyone at the barn loves it!  he'll even perform for
people if you push on his nose and say "come on, rub your lips!"  \

janet.

    Well, a very interesting weekend just passed for me.  My
    "brat" put me through the wringer waiting to see it he
    did or didn't.....
    His stall is right outside the feed/tackroom door.
    Thurs morning I came into the barn to see the tackroom door
    open.  We had to put a lock on the door as the kids would
    come over when I wasn't home and feed him all the apples,
    carrots, etc. kept in the tackroom.  Seems dummy me had
    forgotten to lock it last night.  I searched everywhere
    for that lock.  I went through his stall, section by section,
    but couldn't find it.  I checked his manure, the water pail,
    the floor, everywhere, but no lock. I had to assume he had 
    "swallowed it." (OOOOHHHH NO!)
    Hubby came back from the lumberyard Saturday, and guess who
    was laying spread out flat in the corral?  What a panic!!
    My hubby is not a horseperson (yet!) and didn't realize that
    he sunbathed this way on hot days.  He started yelling for me,
    and yelling at the horse to get up.  "Hey, whats all that racket?
    Stop yelling, your disturbing my rest!".  Horsey heaved himself
    up, highly disgusted that "dad" had bothered him, and came over
    to see what was going on.  He even gave the truck a few licks
    across the hood, just to say hello!
    
    I found the lock, BTW, in the stall Sun morning....He'd tossed it 
    after he pulled it off, and it had been packed against the wall-
    hard to find even after I went through it twice!
    
    Aren't critters wonderful?
        

    I listen to the radio whenever I am in the barn.  If you have ever
    noticed, sometimes around the same time the same commerical will
    run for a period of weeks.  At feeding time every night and morning
    the Getty commerical ran with what sounded like people whistleing that
    particular tune that Getty uses.  It always, without fail, caused
    Delight to sprint out the door and check around outside.
    
    Also, whenever the Ski Town USA commerical ran with its horse whinnying
    at the end; it would have the same reaction, except that in the first
    few weeks the commerical ran, Delight would answer back.
    
    Another passsion, watching people ski.  When the neighbors
    practiced skiing around their back yard, Delight would stare and
    stare for as long as they were out, pressed against the fence.   
    She must have been a skier in a previous life, I swear she was
    studying form.
    
    I miss her very much, I wonder sometimes how so much personality
    could be crammed into just 13.3 hands of pony.

    That reminded me of a half Arab/Morgan/Shetland pinto I had as a
    teenager. Once when my father was doing some minor repairs in the
    barn, the silly horse (who used to roam about the farm at will
    a great deal because he liked to open his pasture gate) got it
    in his head to help dad. He picked the hammer up in his mouth and
    scooted off with it, only to stand about 50 feet outside the barn
    door picking it up and dropping it repeatedly. Weird animals sometimes.
    

    That reminds me of the times when my un-horsey father (who in the
    beginning was very much against having a horse in the back yard,
    but who then proceeded to build a fancy little barn) would go into
    the paddock that surrounded the barn and read the paper, listening
    to game and drink a beer, Delight would snooze over his shoulder.
     Unfortunately, I always think these times will last forever,
    because I never have a camera handy.
    
    She also "helped" put up the cedar siding for the barn.  Her
    contribution, scratch on the ladder, and later lay down under the
    table where the siding was cut.
    
    Those were the days 8)

    My sister-inlaws horse had some very funny habits.
      1)Flash would turn the light on in the barn when she was eating.
      2)She would open her stall and open the other stalls letting
    everybody out to play.
      3)My sister-inlaw was cleaning another's hoofs and Flash wanted
    	some attention. Julie gave her a little slap on the butt. Flash
    	ran to the other end of the property and picked up a branch, ran
    	back to Julie and thru it at her.
    
    There are more. Julie misses Flash, she had to be put down after	
    twisting a intestine.	
    	 

    I have a whole list.  Working for a breeder who can't seem to part
    with the offspring tends to give one pleanty of time to watch and learn
    everybodys habbits.
    
    Essie(Escondalosa)- 3 yr old Peruvian Paso. When she was pregnant she
    loved to have her belly rubbed.  If no one was around she would find a
    low shrub or branch to scratch on.  If none could be found, she would
    get on the side of the barn with on rear leg lifted and scratch as much
    as she could reach.
    
    Val- 4 yr old Peruvian stallion.  Because the poor fellow was isolated,
    we gave him numerous toys to keep himself entertained.  And
    entertaining he was.  The first was a construction cone.  He would pick
    it up a spin it around and then let it fly over the 10' fence.  Then he
    would sulk untill some one went to retrieve it.  Next we gave him a
    burlap sack with cans in it.  Owww the neighbors loved that.  At 2 am. 
    the clash of cans began.  He soon got bored with that game and began
    "buck the cans over the fence".  He became quite good at this one.  Now
    when he goes to a show, his bag-o-cans goes to.  We have never had a
    problem with him getting "studdy" at shows.  He takes his frustrations
    out on that bag.
    
    I have some more but this file has been inactive for some time and I
    will wait to see if it will come up again.
    
    happy horsey
    
    virginia

    Wall licking.....my QH licks the wall on the left side of his
    doorgate.  Lap, lap, lap....It was driving me crazy!  I painted
    it with all types of goo, but it didn't matter.  Until I tried
    shurhoof treatment....that dark, piney, tarry smelling stuff
    you paint on their hooves.  
    
    It's worked so far.......

    I know this note has been inactive for several years but maybe it will
    go again...  My mare bears her teeth if I do something she dislikes. 
    Her upper lip curls up over her nose and she just stands there looking
    like a grinning ape.  I've never seen another horse do this before!