Anyone else have eager "helpers"

I am off work today and enjoying the bright sunny day. Elected to clean the run in shed.

Archie is helping.

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I have a Supervisor :roll_eyes:
Here he’s checking the stacked hay: Quality Control


I created the position by letting him come in the service door with - sometimes ahead of - me.
He also does Grain Inspection.
If he had thumbs, he’d have the lids off the bins himself.
Instead he noses them until I come over & uncover his, then has a little appetizer while I prep buckets for horse & pony.
He does not help me clean stalls, refill water or sweep the aisle :smirk:

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“I have no idea what happened to these rails, but you need to get over here and fix them.”

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The barn where I board does not have a bathroom, so stall corners are it. Shayney will ruffle my hair while I’m peeing. DO NOT need help here, lady!!

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Halt at mess. Salute.

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Mine helps me groom. Clearly I’m doing it wrong because she’ll get working with her teeth right beside my curry. If I stop though she gets annoyed. “Don’t give up. LEARN something!”

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My older mare helps with lots of stuff. Not so much stall cleaning, but she lets me know when I’m taking too long getting the grain together by opening the door and sticking her head in. If I’m really slow she will try to remove her bucket.

She supervises my addition of hay nets to the paddock.

Heaven forbid I open or close a gate without her there pushing it open for me.

Who knew this golden oldie that I adopted would add so much joy to my day? :heart:

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I had a 4 year old palomino gelding that helped me tear down a fence.
I was pulling steel posts up with a chain on the bucket of the tractor.
I was getting off, tying the chain, getting on, pulling post, driving to next post and getting off, turning previous post loose and tying new post on, getting back on, etc.

He watched me interested and came over and when I pulled a post he was actively trying to get post loose for me at the half hitch!
No telling what he would have been able to do if he had opposable thumbs. :sunglasses:

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Wanted to help but surprised to find someone else had already opened and dumped the bag in the can where it is stored…

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we have several who believe their impute is always needed

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These are all great!!!

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One of my mares will politely block the front of the stall for a human stall pee. The other will stick her nose in your underwear. :smile:

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It was very difficult to clean a stall if my last horse, who passed several years ago, was in it, because his teeth had hold of the handle of the manure fork. He really, really wanted to use the manure fork himself. The barn staff thought his keen interest in stall cleaning was cute and engaging.

If he were loose in the jump ring he would grab the jump poles off the jumps and put them on the ground. He didn’t knock them down, he held them in his teeth and lowered them. He would also pick up poles that were on the ground and move them. He kind of learned to grab them in the middle so he could carry them. I’ve got video of that, somewhere.

My current horse was eating the plastic flowers in the jump ground line boxes, if they were stored under the pasture fence where he could reach them. The whole setting-them-aside routine had to change to save the plastic flowers.

It’s funny that horses can be like puppies getting into everything, tearing it up, moving it around, making a mess. And claim that they were helping.

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Ah yes, fencing issues. I had a giant one who felt it necessary to check fences and keep the humans busy. Woe betide if you went up to the back porch for a beer and he was within eyesight.

He’d choose a corner and systematically go section to section grabbing each of the 3 boards (top middle bottom) and wiggling them until he found one that was loose. He’d pull it off and stand there staring at the humans until someone grabbed a hammer and put it back up.

The funniest thing about it was that he must have been doing it for his pasture buddy’s safety. He could easily trot over the 5’+ fence or gate if you were 10 minutes late with dinner. “Never mind. I’ll save you some time and some steps since you’re running LATE.” He’d trot up to the gate, jump it, take one stride of canter and come back to walk, then walk himself to the barn, into his stall, turn around and stand there as though his half door was closed and his head was hanging over it. Such a character he was.

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I have a bad pony that went out the open stall door when I was mucking out a stall yesterday. I’m not used to such small little equines OR her attitude which paid me no mind when I yelled no! Fortunately though, once she was loose in the main part of the barn she didn’t scare herself knocking buckets over, etc. and was easy to lead back into the stall. Lesson learned! In over 10 years of having horses at home, I hadn’t had one get out into the open barn like that until this little pony.

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See, this illustrates that horses know a lot more about us and our world than they are admitting.

All that innocent animal cluelessness – sometimes it’s real. But for some of the truly experienced horses, wise to humans, the whole ‘I have no idea’ demeanor is an act they put on for us. :shushing_face:

I had a friend who claimed that some horses (not all, except of course every horse I ever owned) understand every word that humans say. At the time I thought that was rather fanciful. Now I think it is definitely true. :smirk:

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A mare I had would wait until I was done cleaning her stall, wheelbarrow full, then casually knock it over. :face_with_raised_eyebrow: :roll_eyes: :laughing:

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My barnmate’s Hackney pony being “helpful” during stall cleaning. Helpful, naughty…it’s all the same!

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Cute. I have one that is just as “helpful”. :grin:

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I just posted this video on Facebook last weekend (it’s public, so you shouldn’t need a Facebook account to view it):

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