How clever is your

[friendlynative]

Horse/Pony? My cob is very sharp if I want to take his temperature I walk in his stable with the thermometer and he reverses his back end into a corner, nothing on heaven or earth will make him come out of the corner LOL. Also if for some reason he does not want lets say his headcollar on he puts his head in the corner, as I move round to his head he brings his bum round not threatening or anything but just so I cannot get to head. The funniest though was not that long ago my Vet had to sedate him OMG the toy's came out of the pram he threw my Vet about the stable he went up so I roundly told him off, as in 'you snake in the grass, you son of a bi*ch, you ba**ard by now my Vet was wetting himself and then after his telling off he stood like and angel, he is like an overgrown child LOL,

FN*

[marywelsh]

otter is quite a nervous horse and also tended to bolt through his stable door so i have been clicker training him, the only thing is i have gone wrong somewhere as he is not clicker trained but finger trained as i tended to hold my finger in the air while giving hm a treat, so now if he is nervous in any way i hold my finger up and his attention is focused on my finger and he walks calmly and when he is going through his stable door i hold up my finger again and no more bolting through the door as he concentrates on this finger that seems to produce food
by the way the book training your horse the finger way is out in the shops soon hehe ;D
i will put photos up it is really funny
p.s no rude comments

[tammy68]

My 25 year old pony undoes gates and doors. The year before last she undid the paddock gate and let herself and the others out. They all did a merry jig on my husband's new lawn. She is always undoing the gate. We have had to change the latch. We have tried looping rope over the top of the gate and round the gate post but she can undo that. We have to tie a lead rop round now and double knot it. I've watched her do it and she is so quick. Have to take her in first as if left and rope not tied she is out in a matter of seconds.
She also opens the top latch of the stable door and often when I go out in the morning it is only the kick bolt holding the door closed!
Before she had a corner manger she also used to throw her bucket out when she had finished her meal. She will undo herseld if tied up.
She really looks after nervous riders and I am not exagerating when I say that I have seen her slow down and put her head back to avoid a rider falling off. If ridde by a competent and confident rider she will fly over jumps giving them extra height, but if a novice she will trickle over carefully. She is one in a million and I'm very proud of her! ;D

[MirandaSophie]

Mine are really clever too, Arab acts, well, arabby, and stupid, but actually knows exactly what he is doing and makes me giggle lots. Thoroughbred is also quite intelligent....

When I bring them in, Sonk always walks infront, when we get to the yard, I'll throw his leadrope over his neck and let him wonder nto his stable, however, he wondersd straight into jack's which is next door and much bigger, Jack walks in there too and Sonk will eventually sulk back into his. However, yesterday, I was bringing them in and somehow Jack got infront and went straight into Sonk's stable. Sonky stood there, watchign absolutely gobsmacked and wouldn't budge until Jack was in his own bed!!

LOL was quite funny, SSonk wasn't ex[pecting it at all...neither was I!

Good on Jack!

[fin]

Lol, I hold a finger up too! I might stop doing it though because he's going through a muggy phase again and tried to bite it off yesterday

Mine's a quarter horse and he's frighteningly bright. Watching him trying to figure out ways to communicate with us is an education. He really tries his damndest to make himself clear--he finds us a bit frustrating when sometimes we don't get it (or when we won't co-operate), but we feel very much the same way about him I suppose. So we're in a good position to appreciate where the horse is coming from...

[marywelsh]

umm i know finn i might try something else to grab his attention i don,t fancy leaning over his head to let him see my finger whilst out riding, he also trys to find my hand and knocks it with his nose as if to say give me a treat

[KoLaTo]

I have awarded my mare the daftest pony hat this year. When I got her, she was very quiet and withdrawn having sat in a field for a while living the life of Riley doing nothing. However her character has really shone thru over the year and she has got to be one of the naughtiest and cheekiest ponies I have ever had the pleasure to meet. She will pick up anything in her mouth and give it to you, she frightens the life out of my other pony by waving things in his face e.g A strategically placed traffic cone to desensitise the little boy, he now thinks they have wings and teeth as she picked it up, shook it at him then threw it over his back! She can open any door and untie ropes and string, can open any cupboard, feedbin etc and remove the contents. Picks at your clothes and holds them in her mouth until you stroke her properly, absolutely craves attention and will do anything to get it including planting herself in your way and not budging for love nor money until she has a treat or a cuddle. She nibbles my feet when we are riding and have to stop at junctions etc, also tries to help change rugs by pulling the little boys off for him whilst I am undoing it, pulls numnahs off whilst you are trying to tack up, throws things out over her stable door to get your attention including the feed bowl when she has finished eating like the pony above. Plays dead in the field which frequently frightened the life out of me until I realised it was a game to her! She totally changes with the weather as well, calm in the summer to a total speed freak in the winter.

I really try hard not to laugh at her naughty moments but it is so rewarding to see her come out of herself that I feel mean when I try and tell her off, she puts a really downtrodden face on and hangs her head literally touching the floor with her nose until she is forgiven!

And to think she wasn't wanted by the original owners as she wasn't fast or exciting enough, if only they could see her now!

[naria]

FN that sounds sooo familiar

Another popular one with my horse is refusing to go out some days in the summer without a fly sheet & pulling rugs off the stable door & standing on them in the winter then looking at me as if to say "how plain do I have to make it? It's COLD & I want my rug on NOW!" He then rewards me with a cuddle when I get the idea - I'm really well schooled nowadays

[Lydia00]

hahhaaaaaaa these are SOOOOO funny! My pony is VERRRRRRRRRRRY clever too! Not in funny ways tho unless i can think of sum. She can suss anything out and is very intelligent about things. I lurrrrrrrrve her soo much!

[friendlynative]

Another thing I forgot to mention and Ponypit reminded me when yes same Vet actually bested him by pretending to talk to me and discreetly moved right arm back and plunged syringe in his bum for his annual jab, he then went on to stand in the corner and stamp his front feet like a child, when that did not work he trashed his rugs hanging at the back of his stable, pulled them all down then looked at me and my Vet and proceeded to pee on them with a look of Ha!!! Ha!!! Ha!!! on his face.

FN*

[smudge]

I have a mare who waits for the electric fence pulse and then runs under it using her neck to lift it up.

I have a gelding that likes to push a shopping trolley across the yard, empties my grooming box, passes the farrier his tools, picks up the yard broom and wangs it, picks up my radio if I'm not watching him and throws it on the floor, comes in the tack room with me and lifts the lids of the feed bins

[mellymoo]

My boy can open zips - he has eaten my purse and phone before now (although I have saved them from being swallowed), and he can take my coat off cos he knows I sometimes have treats in my pockets! His favourite trick is to have a sulk if you don;t feed him anything though - my mam and dad went down to see him the other day but had no treats, so he snorted at them and turned his back!!!

[jill]

Caspar wandered up to the gate a few weeks ago and then rested his front foot, which is so out of character. When I went to check out what was wrong he had lost a shoe - and the farrier was in the yard just packing up. How's about that for "er, while the farriers here, could he just do mine too?"

[JJ-Spain]

My young mare Opal always draws the short straw as she is so well behaved she always gets the beginners and children on her, well she has obviously decided that she has to look out for herself and has become an automatic horse! Whenever she hears a car coming up behind her she pulls onto the verge and stops to let it past, moving off when it has passed, the same applies to horses galloping up behind her, she calmly moves out of the way. She also can find her way home on the right side of the road, dodging hazards from any given point all by herself! She can also untie herself and find her way to the nearest feed bin and open it and spread it across the yard, good job she has a steel stomach really!

[Lydia00]

Awwww Jill that is sooooooooo cute and so funny! Id have been in fits of laughter! hee hee