10 Ways to Tell You’ve Hacked Off Your Horse

Pulling faces is just one sign that a horse may be stressed, in pain, or both.

Are you missing the secret signs your horse gives you when you’ve upset him (or her)? He may not speak ‘human’ but there are some great ways to tell that you may have done something wrong…

Here are 10 tongue-in-cheek ways to know, for sure, you’ve done something wrong.

(p.s we’ll label said horse in this piece as a gelding but don’t let the mares fool you, they do the same too!)

  1. Most days he’s stood waiting at the gate but not tonight, he’s in the furthest corner of the field refusing to even look over when you call his name
  2. He’ll poo in his feed bucket and half miss his water…
  3. He won’t stand still for you to get on, when you’re eventually mounted he’ll see to it that you’re back on the floor just as quick
  4. He’ll rip his new rug – probably the expensive one
  5. He’ll make a show of you in front of your friends by snapping leadropes, fidgeting and generally being grumpy
  6. He’ll trail behind you when your leading him to the stable stopping at the least little movement to plant his feet and act like a stallion
  7. He won’t want cuddles, nor will he care for you to brush him or for you to have ‘stable time’ with him
  8. He’ll be all smiles to his stable chums until you enter the yard then he starts to behave like you beat him, severely
  9. You won’t be able to catch him in the field – probably standard during summer anyway
  10. He’ll find the largest muddy puddle to role in just before you go to get him, not only will he then be muddy, but wet too!

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