Do my horses hate me?

[moose]

Hi Wilgin

I'm sure your horses dont hate you, it sounds as though you are keeping them very well. There has been some very good advice given here. Have you said what breed horses yours are? My pair are miserable in winter when there is no grass to eat even though they have lots of hay and feed. Could you feed them some alf alfa maybe instead of the grain, they could have a bit more of that. Mine appreciate apples and carrots more in winter which you could 'hide' in their hay if you dont want to hand feed. My mares dont really seem to like being groomed so much in winter either and get extremely touchy about their tummies. I quite often get the grumpy face but in summer they love being groomed. Have you read any books by GaWani Pony Boy? He emphasises just spending time with your horses not asking anything of them. Good luck, I'm sure they will cheer up when spring arrives!

Just a thought - have you started wearing a perfume which they dont like or which is very strong?

[wilgin]

Hi,

About the rescue... he is a 5 yr old TB, who was starved. He was rescued two years ago (he was skin and bones) and is now 100% healthy and at perfect weight. He also had to have a partial penis amputation when he was found, due to frostbite.

Gee, and I wonder why he is hating winter and grumpy around food??? The poor guy... it's a wonder he trusts any human :-( I think I need to be much more understanding with his situation, and make sure he knows, that he will NEVER starve again!

I haven't looked into clicker training, but I am open to trying anything new. Thanks for the site info!

[anon]

My horse was a starved 3yr old nr TB when I bought him. Condition score od 1, definitely not a 2.

He has manners now, though. They were established while he GOT food - although that was quite tricky at first. Without manners - horses are big, strong, powerful animals - and can be dangerous. With manners - they are a delight.

[jinks]

mine was a rescure to and we went through a phase of this nipping etc when he was fed and felt better. Its not hate ... mine is now fine I tried to be bossy thing and he got worse for a while he was on grain now he is not he get simple systems and plenty of food he like to be left to eat too. And likes to choose when he wants to be patted etc. dont let it get you down, have you tried clicker training I found this helped a lot

[catwith poli]

Hello

Iv been through this with my horse poli. He used to pull loads of horrible faces. Hes better now hes living out 24/7. I have also found that making sure i act confident (even if im not feeling it!) around him and am able to move him around,instead f him moving me around all the time. Poli does it so no one gets to close, im not sure if somethings happened in the past. but if i carry on as normal and ignore the faces they do go away.Its a long journey to get a bond but its worth it in the end. Iv had poli 2 years and some days it seems he doesn't like me, but hes jsut having a off day and wants to be left.