How does your horse show their displeasure?!

Trewsers

Trewsers

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Oct 13, 2004
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I know most of us know when our neds are not happy under saddle. But what about lifes creature comforts that they may or may not be getting? Woke up this morning to find my school not only covered in leaves (well it is autumn) but SEVEN piles of horse poop!!!!! Wtf?! I heard some clattering of feet late last night as they must have come down from the hill and through the yard directly into the arena. Well I never. It looks like they just went in there, cavorted about and dropped as many poops as possible just to let me know they weren't impressed with last nights heavy rain!lol. Why they didn't take to their boxes is a mystery! Hahahaaa, well, OH reckons they were showing their displeasure at the weather and having to stay out!!!!
So, how do you know and what do yours do if their comforts are not met?
 
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If he is in, Cracker kicks the door with the irritating monotony of a metronome.

If he is out, he will shimmy under the electric fencing and generally be where he should not upsetting everyone else, or nicking as much hay as he can get at. Although our new configuration of fence seems to have sorted this one.

If he is being ridden, he is not exactly naughty, but will comply with great shows of reluctance and heavy sighing, or will be absolutely terrified of things that normally cause no problems so I get worried and go home.

Standard pony manipulation tactics. ;)
 
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Her displeasure is the same on or off.
She will give you that "look", she can nip, swish the tail, her general face changes expression, not just ears.
The sigh is her best one:) You don't need to see her face to know "for god sake!" Is written on it.
She is generally a happy cob, but you soon know if she isn't a happy cob.
The conversation starts when she looks at me in the field.
 
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Ale said:
Ale runs away, that's his thing!
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Oh Gem does that if she's in pain. I just find Gem hilarious as she pulls her grumpy face, her bottom lip has been known to pout in a grumpy strop, and oh yes, you've seen it in toddlers, the stomp of the foot. I just wish I had it in a pic. I just poke her in the nose and laugh at her... Almost like stoking the fire...!
 
Mattie bobs his head up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. On the ground or ridden, always the same.

Ziggy - well honestly he is very phlegmatic and not much bothers him. He has been known to give me a hard nudge with his nose to point out something wrong: ridden, well, what does he do? He is reluctant to go forward, I think. Or once a little buckety buck when I put his half sheepskin on all wrong.
 
Jess's theory in life is if she doesn't like it, it's hard work or it hurts is to go full pelt at it and overcome with sheer force and muscle. She is like this in the field, school or ridden anywhere.
Hungry and cold = she'll come at you to scare you in to putting food down quicker, sore feet on stones = power over them, deep going = power through it, horse she doesn't like = batter into submission,possibly taking out the fence between them if nec ...... Everything is about muscling her way past it.
 
Ale literally just goes nope, and legs it round the corner in trot! Haha I find it very funny although he does it very rarely
now, most memorable was when I tried to get him on the horsewalker once hahaha!
 
Oh Nealas face says it all,without doubt!
Mystique was the best though, I honestly have never seen another horse sneer at you the way she did,her whole nose would wrinkle up and she would look at you out the corner of her eye,it really did just say it all!
 
Ridden wise, it's easy to tell when Ben is tense or scared of something. He grows into a giant, plants himself and snorts.

On the ground he will snort and start to almost hyperventilate when he sees something that he worries him. But he doesn't really show 'displeasure' with anything I do or don't do. He has a set routine and I spend hours grooming him - he really doesn't have much to be displeasured about.
 
Junes a typical mare. She will nip. Scowl. Stomp and best of all is the sigh.

Womble barges on the floor or runs away. Under saddle he becomes very difficult to work with and just wont comply
 
I don't have a horse myself atm but my old boy used to give you 'the look' out of the corner of his eye and walk away just fast enough to avoid you. If you pushed the matter by walking faster yourself he'd just keep upping the pace and then stand facing away from you with his hooves in his ears. When you did catch him you'd get the huge sigh and a walk like a snail on the end of the lead rope. If you tapped him when riding and he knew he was being lazy, he'd take it with good grace but if he thought you were being lazy he'd give a little buck, just enough to make the point.

When I had him stabled at night, he was really good at telling me whether I'd done a good job on his bed in his opinion. If he considered it to be deep enough with nice cosy banks he was really tidy and I'd have to take out less than a barrowful the next morning. At one point the yard I was on ran a bit short of straw so his bed was a bit thin. I had to replace almost the entire bed as he had churned the whole thing into a soup. I didn't mind as I love nothing more that laying a deep, fluffy bed :)
 
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Joe and Albi are generally amenable so I haven't really seen any displeasure. I suppose Joe's jealousy manifests in him lunging (ears back) at anyone that I'm touching or talking to that isn't him in the field. Jack doesn't like being shut in his stable and will bang the hell out of the door.
 
Ridden wise . We will get so far and sox will just go ' nope' and we are walking in the other direction ! On the ground:the normal head up and down ears back giving me the look and swishing hos tail
 
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