Funny/nutty horse stories

[saddleup]

My giant paint gelding was turned out in the indoor arena at the boarding stable. There was a white pipe fence around the arena with a concrete aisle separating the arena and stalls.

The barn mascot was a big white goat with long horns. He was an evil thing who terrorized the kids who rode there, chasing them and butting them with his head. On this day the goat was on the outside of the arena fence, taking a nap.

my horse was curious and stretched out his neck to investigate the goat. He’d been turned out with his halter on and somehow snagged the goat’s horn Once he felt the goat’s weight he pulled up and back, lifting the goat into the arena. He then ran around, dragging the goat.

The barn owner saw the whole thing and called out my hors’s name. He stopped and she was able to remove the halter and set the goat free. He staggered away, dizzy but unharmed. No one saw the goat for about five days.

When other boarders heard what had happened my gelding was hailed a hero and offerings of carrots and apples were left in front of his stall for a week.

[clanter]

@rockymouse

Son and I laughed. To this day, some years later, if we drive past that place and the now-aged, now-potbellied and gray-faced dog is outside, my family says to each other in a spooky whisper “watch out! it’s a beagle!”

similar was our encounter with with some Doberman Pinschers… we had always had German Shepherd Dogs, while riding in the neighbor out comes these two Dobermans … my kids knew they were German dogs but could not remember the just what they were called… they called them German Snappers … and that is what they are know as to this day

[imbassetma]

We only had permanent fencing in one of our fields, the other 2 (10acres each) were electric wire which the deer were constantly running through. We also would “keep” handicap riding program horses during their off season so the riding program didn’t have to pay for them to be boarded when not in use. One was a TWH who was quite smart, despite being older than dirt and didn’t move that fast. He knew when everyone was gone for the day, knew when the deer had taken down the fence, and would take himself on a tour of the rural neighborhood all day till it was time to come home before the humans did. Never had any idea the fence was down because he was always back when we got home. Till he did a real number on a fussy someone’s yard and we had to replant their flower beds for them. The stories from other neighbors of Homer visiting during the day trickled in after that. Gotta love the smart ones!

[Chall]

My young (almost 4 yr) horse stabled overnight at a horse show, let himself out of his chain link temporary stall and
wandered around saying hi to all the other horses and put himself back into another stall.
Night watchman informed us the next morning.
Thats when we learned about tying doors shut with twine string.

[SinMiedo]

@Chall

My young (almost 4 yr) horse stabled overnight at a horse show, let himself out of his chain link temporary stall and
wandered around saying hi to all the other horses and put himself back into another stall.
Night watchman informed us the next morning.
Thats when we learned about tying doors shut with twine string.

My little QH did that at a Pony Club rally at KHP! I came back to find his stall tied shut with a lead rope and a note from the night watchman. Apparently Shorty had been visiting the neighbors and trotted back to his stall when he was spotted. I can just picture him standing trying to lol nonchalant and innocent.
He also dozed off during the jog and Formal Inspection, requiring a whip-wielding friend’s assistance to actually produce the required jog… He was an odd bird to say the least, lol.

[MsM]

Not mine but a fellow boarder’s horse. He was a TB who was around 11 when I first knew him and generally well trained and well behaved. Except he would have what we called “thoroughbred moments”. Sudden spooks at something only he could see etc. He was entered in a dressage show and he trotted in down centerline, started to halt, and was suddenly facing A! Another test and he was doing well until the first canter when he accelerated and refused to slow down or change gaits - I dont know how many laps they made until she could stop him.

Then there was the time that she hauled him alone to a hunter show. Just as they pulled in she felt the trailer rocking and heard crashing sounds. Opened the door to find him completely upside down with all four feet in the air. By then he was just lying there. We never could figure how he could do that. Fortunately there were people there to help move the divider and pull him back a little to get him out. He only had minor abrasions so she shrugged and rode in the show and did well.

[JBCool]

MsM, I have a friend who had a horse do something similar in a trailer. She got to the show and everyone asked her how she got the horse loaded “that way.” Confused, she walk to the back of the trailer and he’s backwards, face over the ramp. In a 2-horse trailer in a partition securely fastened. She never felt a thing and he didn’t have a mark on him.

[TheHorseMutterer]

Took my hardy little BLM pony, Smokey, on a hunter pace with several friends. We were about 2/3 of the way through an 8 mile course and stopped to pop over some teeny, tiny XC jumps. Smokey dutifully popped over twice and the third time said “Jumping is just too much work, I will trot this.” As I walked him back to the group, all of a sudden, I saw the grass in front of me. I had a brief moment of “OMG he’s having a heart attack,” but no…

He just fell to his knees and started munching the lush, green grass.

My friend rode by laughing and saying “I don’t even know how to help you right now!”

[PintoPony]

One day my dad got an unexpected visit from the state police who were responding to a call about loose horses.
The police were going up the road asking if anyone was missing the paint horse and grey mini that were wandering loose in the alfalfa field across the road from our house. Of course they were ours.

The cop asked my dad how was he going to catch the horse way out in the middle of a big field. Dad replied “Watch this” and went to the edge of the road and called my horses name along with “get over here”! Horse looked up and started ambling toward home, mini following along. He stopped at the road, checked for traffic, crossed and came right up to dad.

Cop couldn’t believe it, he was expecting some sort of rodeo. They discovered horse had opened the latch, he left hay drool behind as evidence, lol! They had a good laugh and dad chained the gate to prevent another adventure.

[2DogsFarm]

Thought of more That $%^! Walking Horse stories:

*We were boarding a a very posh place that had Dutch doors at the back of all stalls, looking out onto a small pasture where Trainer kept 3 young WB stallions. Top part of these doors was left open in nice weather.
Property - 40ac - was mostly perimeter-fenced, but had a gate that led right onto a road & that was open during business hours.
DH’s Walker figured out how to unlatch the bottom half of the DDs, let himself out, then freed the 3 stallions - their pasture gate had an easy to open from outside latch.
We missed the Rodeo Roundup, but the next day Walker had a padlock on the bottom half of his DD.

*At another boarding barn the pastures were fenced with coated tensile, top wire carried a charge.
Same fencing used for the outdoor, but no hot top wire there.
Walker learned to torture my TB by grabbing the top wire in the outdoor & letting it go PING!
When that happened, TB was convinced a charge could somehow leap over to bite him, spooked every time :o

*Also at above barn, geldings were turned out separately from mares.
TWH learned how to limbo beneath the fencing to visit the girls.
Somehow they never beat him up. Musta had a smooth opening line
“How you ladies doin?”

[horseshorseshorseshorses]

Not my horse but my mom’s. The Old Man was a failed cutting horse (grew far too big) turned h/j in the late 60’s, early 70’s. The barn my parents kept their horses had dutch doors and The Old Man would jump out, find himself a bale of hay and head to the nearest trailer. He would hang out in the trailer munching away on his buffet until someone caught him. I am pretty sure he just liked to travel.

The same horse would jump out of his pasture, find a bale and bring it back to his girlfriend (my dad’s mare). He would than shove the bale back into the pasture and hop back in. From the stories I’v heard he was a pretty cool horse. Ugly as sin (seen photos he wasn’t a looker) but a darn good boy.

[sorrelfilly721]

I have a blonde 3yo filly who isn’t the brightest bulb on the tree. I never have to worry about her escaping because if the gate isn’t open enough for her to go through, she will stand there until the end of time. She’ll put her head through and sort of lean forward and then decide she doesn’t fit and back up. The gate swings so easily the wind will blow it open, but she will not touch it. I’ve tried to teach her to push it with treats and praise, but she won’t do it. I guess I should be grateful she doesn’t rush the gate LOL.

[16_Hands]

Love these stories! I have a couple that, oddly enough, are about the same horse. The one that let itself out of his chain link pen reminded me of this.

My good old guy who is no longer with us sadly, learned to let himself out of his stall in 10 seconds flat. He would jiggle the chain on his gate until it fell off the hook and he’d swing open the door and out he’d go. There were many nights when I would come driving up the road and there’s Woodrow walking down the shoulder like he’s out for his evening constitutional. Early one morning I heard some commotion in the barn and looked out the window and I could see Woody’s butt sticking out of the shed row clearly not in his stall, I go out and he had obviously had a party in the barn aisle, anything that could be turned over - garbage cans, tack bins - were turned over and emptied. I install him back in his stall and secured it with twine and gave everyone breakfast. It had snowed the night before so I thought I’d follow his tracks of his midnight foray and he had left his stall, went across to the mare paddock, crossed the yard, down the driveway out to the road, around the corner, went in the back of the property and made a circuit, back to the road, across to the neighbor’s but didn’t linger, back up the road, around the corner down the driveway and back into the barn. That was the last night of him going out without us. We put on a different latch and for a week you’d see him jiggling that chain and tugging on the gate trying to let himself out before he gave up. What a goofball!

When I first bought Woody, I didn’t realize he was a master at untying knots. The first time, DH and I went for a local trail ride and stopped for lunch. While we were eating, out of out sight of the horses, he untied himself and went for a walk. we come back and no Woody so we both start walking down the trail and I see him a short distance away looking around. I call him and he swings around, whinnies, and comes trotting over to me. If he could talk, I’d swear he was saying “I went to look for you and couldn’t find you, you left me alone with that bitchy mare.” Or we’d be up in the mountains horse camping and in the morning I’d find him tied to a tree or someone’s trailer just hanging out until Icame and got him. It got so bad that every morning I’d ask my husband “Is Woody still there?” I finally devised a Woodrow proof knot that was still quick release so he’d stay put all night. I never heard a sound when he left, the other horses didn’t raise a ruckus so I don’t think he ever went very far.

He was a jokester for sure.

[16_Hands]

One more. I had entered a schooling dressage show with my little mustang mare and things were going just peachy until she was doing the circle at A working canter. Then it went all downhill. She slammed on the brakes at X and refused to go forward because someone had the temerity to store a jump standard outside the dressage arena which she would have to pass. Uh uh, not happening. I finally convinced her to at least walk past it and we resumed our test once past that scary monster, her snorting and bug eyed. Loved the comment on the judge’s card “Loss of forward motion at X.” I’d say so.

[Elsari]

There used to be a horse at a barn I boarded at that would rush through stall doors and gates. His owners weren’t able to fix the problem, so for safety purposes they backed him into his stall or for turnout. There were a few occasions when he’d get out of his paddock, run to his stall, and then back himself in. Was comical to see.

[walktrot]

Years ago the BO leased a facility while her modern huge indoor and barn were under construction. A half dozen geldings were together in a small pasture with a gate that was sliding bars and wasn’t much of a challenge to open… They would take off together, run around a bit having a little fun. Except for one. He would stand at the open gate unwilling to take a single step out. “You guys are going to get in trouble!!!”

[postgradmess]

One of my later horse shows in my teenage years I had arguably the best jumping round of my entire life, at the end of which my horse slowed to a trot during our circle, leaned over, and snagged some flowers off a nearby jump to munch on. Have never been so mortified while also laughing hysterically

[anon40672407]

All the talk of boarding elsewhere reminded me of Cherokee, a sweet and sour appy I used to board for my neighbor. We had pipe corral panels on my small farmette, and Cherokee lived in the back corner stall/pen that he’d had for years. But one time, he was in the front corner pen for some horse-shuffling reason, and I guess that was upsetting. He had a fight with his neighbor.

I went out to feed, Cherokee is standing there in his pen, but he didn’t come in (to the attached stall to be fed). Now, he was not one to miss a meal. So I went out to the pen to investigate. Somehow, in his fight with the neighbor, he’d kicked out with a hind leg, and got it caught thru the pipe corral panel. But not merely thru the panel, he actually got the thigh bone hung on the 2nd rail, and the cannon bone caught (in the other direction) on the 3rd rail. a “Z” configuration, if you will.

Since the tendons and ligaments work in coordination in the hind leg, we were puzzled as all get out how this happened, because there wound up being no way we could tip or twist the pipe corral panel to get him loose. We wound up calling the fire department and they brought out a metal saw to cut out the rail. He stood like a champ thru the procedure (but having no choice, we don’t give him that many props.)

And of course, apropos of the other boarding thread (about nobody being around on the land 24 hours), we had no idea how long Cherokee had been standing there on 3 legs with the 4th hung in the fence, because from our casual vantage point as we came and went thru the day, he looked perfectly normal.

[AppaloosaDressage]

Haha I’ve got one that happened last week. My reliably quiet babysitter type was finally cleared after an injury to go back to work. We were taking it easy with 20 minute hacks around the farm and neighborhood. Mom was taking her mare for a stroll that evening so I decided to hop on bareback and join.

We were following along at the buckle, nose down around his knees just moseying along, when he stepped on a puffball mushroom (the kind that shoots brown “smoke” in the air when disturbed) Front hoof must have landed on it and puffed smoke right in front of him because before I knew it he sprung straight up like a cat and I was in grass next to him wondering what happened.
My mom was ahead of me turned around in the saddle laughing her a** off, choking out “it shot smoke into his nose! I turned around in time to see him land and spin as you were yelling “Tank, what are you doooooing!?” As you flew through the air.”

He was staring at me wide eyed from a safe distance. As I was leading him to the fence to climb back on I saw the dreaded puffball and the array of hoof prints surrounding. Then it started pouring on us. We passaged all the way home through the landmine in the rain while my mom was chuckling behind us.
Since then we’ve ridden the path a few times and he still picks his way very carefully past the awful mushrooms.

[phoebetrainer]

I have a small farm with a lovely stoney bottomed stream running through it. In summer we often wade our horses in it. One late winter I was in the process of starting a young horse. He’d had a few rides outside the round pen and this day I decided to ride him in the field with the stream. He spooked at something and bucked and I came off. I yelled at him as I was sitting on the ground - and he ran away and stood in the stream so I couldn’t get to him!!! I ended up going and getting a bucket of feed to entice him out so I didn’t get wet. By then I was laughing and he’d been forgiven and I was admiring his thinking!