Horses that nicker when you end on a good note.

[BumbleBee]

Never in my life have I seen/heard a horse do this but now in less than two years I have had 2 horses that nicker when we end on a good note. To be exact the horse totally “gets it” so I dismount and as I do so both horses nicker.

First it was only my pony doing this but now my giant is doing it also.

If I finish a session without the “uh huh” moment being the end I don’t get the nicker but every time I end when it clicks for them they nicker as I dismount.

Any other horses do this?
I have been riding for 24 years and these are the first ones I ever witnessed do it.

[rabicon]

Nope, sure haven’t seen that one.

I do have a horse thats retired now but when we use to ride and practice barrels in the arena if he wasn’t done neither was I :lol: If I went to get off and he wanted to go more he would throw a couple crow hops my way, not big ones but just big enough to say HEY I"M NOT DONE MOM. We’d ride a few more minutes and then I’d hop off and we’d be very happy.:lol:

[SmartAlex]

Mine will nicker if he is unsure about a situation and wants me to be careful of him (like loading or clipping or something). It’s sort of a little “hey don’t let me get hurt, we’re friends remember”.

If he knows he has worked well, he is more likely to be a clown and try to grab my boot toe or something.

[Trevelyan96]

Wow… never heard of that before, but it must make you want to bust out in tears of joy! That is one of the best rewards I could possibly want from my guys.

[Roan]

Mine will sigh and then turn and head-butt me. Sometimes rather hard

I think I’d rather have a nicker.

Eileen

[ThoroughbredFancy]

My OTTB squeals and then all of his feet try to leave the ground at once.

Does that count?

[Reds-n-Greys]

Not mine, but a friend’s pony jumper mare - crazy thing - fast, cat-like, couldn’t have paid me enough to put a leg over her, but she was good - Every time she finished a course, Halla would nicker, almost like, “See, what a good girl I am?”, and then happily walk out of the ring on a loose rein.

And, yes for those of you wondering ~ she was a red-head!!

[pintopiaffe]

My stallion will often talk when I dismount after a great ride. He’s not allowed to ‘talk’ when wearing riding tack, and sometimes when we’re done, he’ll give this little, tiny, whispered ‘squeal.’ He does nicker too, if relaxed, when I dismount, loosen girth etc.

I’ve always chalked it up to the fact that I use sugar randomly. Not often enough for him to be grabby or ‘expect’ it, but I try to use it often enough that he associates the patting, ‘good boy’ etc. with the treat–whether or not he actually gets the treat.

[Paddys_Mom]

My mare sighs every time I dismount.
My pony gelding sighs every time I bridle him.
My donkey whispers while I prepare dinner for him.
No nickers except when I pull in the driveway.

[wolfpackfan]

This is so funny. My daughter just got her new pony delivered on Sunday. The first thing we noticed is that each time she dismounted the pony looked at her and nickered. Me and the instructor just had a conversation about how we have never heard of that before and discussed why he may do it. Pretty weird actually!

[gillenwaterfarm]

Both my stallion and my retired gelding will nicker to my 4 year old daughter when she hops off from her leadline tours. However, they don’t nicker at me when I hop off.

[BumbleBee]

Neat to hear there are others nickering and horses that do other stuff.
My mare used to tell me she was done the ride by walking over to the mounting block and lining herself up perfectly for me to please hop off NOW. lol I knew the ride was a good one when I hopped off before she asked me to.:yes:

I’ll admit when the pony started nickering when I dismounted I was a bit worried he just liked me to get off:lol: but then we started noticing the pattern of when/why he would nicker. My jaw nearly hit the floor when shortly after I sold the pony my big guy started to do the exact thing.

[greysandbays]

One of my mares does this consistantly – and I guess it coincides with “good rides”, but with this mare, there are so many good rides that bad rides don’t happen often enough to notice a pattern of ommision with “bad rides”.

She’s a heck of a good horse and any way she wishes to express herself is OK by me. I’ve never met a horse who wanted so much to do well. I’ve had a lot of “your wish is my command” horses, but this one has always exuded a particularly obvious and elevated level of satisfaction with herself when she’d “done good”.

[Diamondindykin]

My trainers stallion does this whenever he goes to dismount. After about 45 minutes he will start nickering if he thinks that he is going to dismount. Very funny!!

ETA…this stallion does it everytime not just when they have a good ride. He bought him as a two year old and he has done this from day one.

[Coreene]

Willem did this. Because he was happy my fat ass was getting off his back! :lol:

[SarahandSam]

Sam doesn’t nicker, but he turns and buries his face in my side usually as I run up the stirrups/loosen his girth. He knows he isn’t allowed to rub on me, but he also knows that if he doesn’t rub on me, I’ll then rub his head and scratch under the bridle. So he’ll make sure his head is right there so I don’t forget. (:

[chai]

Bumblebee, our ancient QH does the same thing, and I have never heard of another horse doing that.

He was a rescue, and we’ve had him for 12 years, so he’s around 32- 34 years old. We haven’t ridden him in many years because he’s just living the good life now, but when we did, he would always nicker at the end of the ride. It was very cute, as if he was saying, ‘We did ok, didn’t we?’

[cowgirljenn]

My stallion, Magic, does. The first time I heard it was the first time I met him. His owner (my dear, dear friend) was showing me what he could do (he was a reining horse) and had a really good ride. When she got off, he turned and nickered at her and she got so excited. She told me that was a sign of a great ride and a great horse.

So I inherited him and finally got him home. One day I rode him, and when I got off, he nickered. Almost made me cry (partially because I miss my friend, partially because I LOVE this horse).

[rainechyldes]

I have a mare that nickers anytime I dismount.
I thinks its relief that I finally gave up pretending I knew how to ride and got off

[DressageJoy]

I have a horse that does this after EVERY ride… I think its more of a “Thank God she is getting off of me. I’m done and can get back to being lazy” sort of nicker. Which is very similar to the “Do I hear a bucket?..I DO hear a bucket, and its got FEED in it!!!” nicker