Does your horse protect you?

[MsM]

My horse will protect me - but really as a resource for him. He will chase off other horses when I go out to take him in from turnout. (Of course he will chase them away from hay piles too!) I can practically hear him yelling “No! My Treat Person!”

Unfortunately his self-appointed protectiveness (he has delusions of stallionhood) also means that he thinks he must be on alert and save us both from the Killer Whatever. He has lost me a time or two and ends up standing facing me as if to say “Oh look, it was nothing! Why didnt you come with me?”

[candyappy]

No but I have a jealous one who doesn’t want to share me.

I have an older mare and a young gelding. The gelding tries to drive my mare and my daughters mare away from me when I am handling him.

I just make sure to watch out when leading him in from pasture( they all want to come) and lock them out of the grooming/ saddling area when I have him tied.

[peedin]

My gelding thought only of himself if there was any danger, real or perceived. He wouldn’t give me a moment’s thought. He only cared about himself. My current horse is a mare, and while I don’t think she’d protect me (and I hope I never have to find out), she wouldn’t abandon me.

[OnAMission]

Thank you; I had a hard time coming back to this post so I missed this until today.

[Bebe_Falcon1]

Yep. My OTTB “heart horse” had a sideways spook as we cantered along beside a hay field when someone who’d been out turning the hay suddenly stood up. I fell off, but he stood like a statue immediately afterwards and waited for me to pick myself up off the ground as opposed to taking-off.

We also both fell after I tried to do a 20m circle in a muddy field. The footing was too slippery, and he went over sideways with me on his back – we fell as a unit, and I’m still not sure how he managed to avoid falling on me, but he did.

As for my mare, she doesn’t strike me as a protective type. She’ll give the “back off” face to some of the other ponies when they come too close as I’m haltering her out in the field but I think that’s more to do with her not wanting them to get any of the goodies I typically bring out to bribe her back into the barn.

[Montanas_Girl]

My first horse was my “heart” horse. But would he protect me? Not a chance. He would absolutely get us out of trouble - IF I managed to stay on in the process. Lol.

My current herd of Arabian mares, though? Yes, I absolutely believe they would protect me with their lives. Which is why I bought them. If you haven’t had the experience of being “owned” by Arabian mares, you can’t entirely understand the degree of their loyalty.

[walktrot]

I was able to survive an attack by a carnivorous chipmunk.

My horse didn’t like noises. The worst was rustling leaves. I decided we should head out to the back field on a short dirt driveway, a few hundred feet long at the most. It was a lovely, warm, sunny day, the kind when you can relax and enjoy yourself.

Then I heard it. Rustling leaves!!! OMG! I could feel his feet warming up. I knew then what it was. The kind that can eat an entire horse in one bite! The leaves kept getting louder, but I was able to stick with him. The chipmunk kept going. It must have been a vegan chipmunk.

I thought all chipmunks looked the same. Small, kind of brown, a bunch of stripes on their back, and a nice little tail. It must have to do with the stripes or maybe the length of the tail. :

[Obsidian_Fire]

@Montanas_Girl

If you haven’t had the experience of being “owned” by Arabian mares, you can’t entirely understand the degree of their loyalty.

Absolutely true. My first mare was an Arab and she was MINE. I was young and frankly stupid, as young people often are… I did not do the best by her altho I did what I knew at the time. If I get to meet up with her in the afterlife, I owe her a big apology and lots of carrots. I did everything with her. Took her swimming in the summer, rode her anywhere I could get her (places I never should have), got myself dumped more times than I care to think because she was a flighty hot mess. Showed her western and english and jumping. Took my first dressage lessons on her.

[Cabaret_SK]

Yes for my Morgan gelding. I was catching him one day, and to get to the barn we had to walk through another pen. There was a new horse in that pen, but the horses in the second pen were all occupied eating. I was unlatching the gate with my back to them when my horse spun around and almost wrenched the lead rope from my hand. I turned (to correct him because he wasn’t allowed to pull like that) only to see the new horse running towards us. My Morgan spun around, double barrel kicked him, and put himself between me and the new horse. He would not move, nor would he leave the pen, until I completely left the pen. Only then would he follow me out of the gate.

The same Morgan also almost fought off a loose dog on a trail ride. Somebody’s rottweiler was loose, and came charging out of their garage, and across the front lawn. We were across the street. I yelled to the owner to get her dog, but the Morgan was squaring up to face the dog down. I have no doubt that if the dog had crossed the street, he wouldn’t have been going home. (Thankfully for all, he listened when the owner called him back. And then she was upset with me for asking her to get her dog? )

My OTTB? Bless him, but his response to danger (real or perceived) was to buck me off and run, so that the murderous jump pole or shrub could eat me first.

[outerbanks77]

I had to come back to this thread after yesterday. My mares get turned out in the morning with two other mares. I went to catch my WB mare who was playing a fun game of stirring everyone up and taking off (she will be caught when she feels like it!). My QH mare came up and glued herself to me, and then took turns at my WB and the saddlebred mare (the draftX has a stall between my two and never gets involved in anyone’s drama) pinning her ears and running them off, then coming back up and nuzzling me. It was really cute, except that I needed to catch the other one without getting kicked in the process!