@RMJacobs - I’m sorry about your smart pony. Those “bratty” ones leave real holes in your heart. He and his antics will be missed.
I had a very tall half/Arab. He could easily undo any latch, knot etc to his stall. Looked like Hannibal Lechter lived in his stall. When he got out, he would go through the barn letting only his friends out too. The rest he left in their stalls.
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I have a dumb one. I love him but god bless him he is lucky he’s cute.
He once stepped on his own face and lacerated his lip. Not witnessed but I spent 30 min walking his paddock finding nothing, then xDH did the same only longer. Had caught the nummie doing weird stuff like putting his head on the ground while standing and then start walking, so not a stretch. Sent him to a pro to get started and they nicknamed him Hammerhead because he was so thick headed.
Now he is led twice a day down the same barn aisle, past the same lawn mower, and will blow and snort each time. He also bolts out the barn away from it if you aren’t careful, and took my Dad skiing not too long ago. Completely unprovoked. We can stand there and let him sniff it and decide it’s safe, but the very next time, the same exact thing. Sigh.
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@4LeafCloverFarm and @shiloh, thanks. Salt was always amusing and fun to watch. For the first three or four years we had him, I think he thought his name was “Salt, dammit!” It was hard to yell at him while laughing.
Rebecca
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:lol: Rebecca, you need to write a book about your pony. “Salt, Dammit” would be a great title. And I so understand the difficulty of yelling when laughing real hard. It’s so difficult some times. But hold on to those memories and that laughter. Hopefully that will get you through this tough time. {{{hugs}}}
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Fog loved to open doors. No latch help up for longs. Thankfully he didn’t figure out the snaps on stall guards. He would slide the bolt, push the door open to show you he had opened it and would then pull it shut and do it up again.
I said goodbye to him last year. In the last few months Sport has suddenly learned how to open doors. It feels like Fog taught him how but he had to wait until Fog was gone to show us his skills.
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She takes off blankets without undoing any straps – her record is 15 minutes.
My smartypants did this one time. Every single strap still attached, blanket off. My BO sent out a group text asking us to guess who did said magic trick (we have a couple that are really smart and like to play pranks).
Most of them guessed my horse. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and picked another horse. Then she sent a pic of the intact blanket. Oh, Milo!
We do have some dummies at the barn too, to balance it all out I guess.
One TB has a droopy lip. He’s almost always got it hanging. Timehop just reminded me that last year he took a chunk out of his lip. He bit the bottom of it that hard. He still has a little scar today. But goodness he’s a sweet boy and tries so hard.
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My last QH was very… typical for stereotypes of intelligence in Skipper W bloodlines.
He had been a show horse his whole life, and I am sure a large part of it was never being out in a more natural environment and living “like a horse.” He was a gentle giant, and didn’t try to be naughty, but we was not too smart. It took a long time for him to stop hurting himself when turned out, because he just didn’t know how to buck without kicking himself in random places.
He also had trouble adjusting to the concept of things being in front of him and needing to stop. We had the turnout off the stalls in our adobe barn, and only closed them in to eat. He would be trotting or cantering around, see a wall or tree in front of him, know it was there, then get close enough so he couldn’t see it anymore… and run into it. He eventually figured out how to turn or stop before running into walls. It took a while.
He also got stuck in a tree with me on him once. I was asking him to turn left, and he didn’t really feel like it, so he blindly leapt to the right. There was a palo verde tree with a trunk which split close to the ground - and he got himself stuck between the sides of the trunk. Those are prickly trees, so I yelled to my mom to use the rake to move branches to get him out of there. Luckily, he also stayed calm.
The plus side of his slower brain is he didn’t freak out at things, and didn’t even react when a plastic bag blew up and stuck to his face for a few strides in a western pleasure class. He didn’t understand that refusing a jump was possible, so no matter approach he went over everything (and only was asked to go over jumps which would fall down! He wouldn’t have understood self-preservation for anything solid). He was sweet and didn’t typically evade because that would take too much thought, so very straightforward. And he never really needed a halter - I’d lead him out of his stall, tell him to whoa while I brushed him, and just leave him there.
I’ve had some smart ones and dumb ones but one incident stands out. I had this cutey appy mare who was, by far, the best trail horse I’d ever been on. However, she did get herd bound and didn’t like to get left behind on trail rides. However, one day, my DH was on his horse in front of me going up a pretty steep hill. His saddle bags fell off but he didn’t notice and kept on going. I stopped my horse and instead of trying to rush up the hill to catch up, she stood there ground tied while I dismounted, picked up his bags, and remounted and up the trail we went. I never taught her to ground tie but she just knew not to leave me there and to stay put. Loved that girl, I still miss her.
One other. My late gelding was extremely smart. He figured out how to work the chain on his gate just the right way and swing it open. He had it down to about 5 seconds (I timed him). He never went anywhere, just mosey around the yard, have a party in the barn aisle, etc. He’d look all innocent when I found him like “I didn’t open my gate, it was like that.” What a clown.
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I have a mare that is always thinking - can open a gate no problem, walk through the cable fence as if it isn’t there, etc. She is also really quirky. Took her for a trail ride and someone had stacked four tires in the desert. She wouldn’t move - didn’t even want to pass them 100 feet away. Finally got her past snorting and prancing. Next day, BO and I are sawing through a steel bar with an electric sawzall right next to her pen. The noise and vibration is crazy. She is standing right next to us, eyes closed, foot cocked. Really makes me believe the spook is all a show she puts on to amuse herself.
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My TBx can untie pretty much any rope. His goal when tied to the hitching post is to untie himself, other horses and halters left hanging before a human can intervene. He can’t resist! He can untie them in lightning speed, before I even notice!
In my opinion, horses with self-preservation are the smart ones. He doesn’t panic when he steps on his lead while grazing and I can watch him observe the lead and move that foot before it stops him. He’s had the same leather halter since he was 3! And he’s 13 now. He also thinks his way through problems and would never test an electric fence. He communicates incredibly well. I have never been able to read a horse like I can Chevy. You can almost tell what he’s thinking based on his head nods, body language and gestures with his ears/face. It’s freaky.
He picks up things I’ve taught him right away, the only problem being that he wont let it go- he will keep trying to do it voluntarily over and over again once he’s learned something new. He can be taught new tricks in only 1 or 2 sessions.
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The dumb ones just make everything so interesting. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience both ends of the spectrum with my old TB and now my Appaloosa. I made a joke a while back about how if my gelding now had thumbs he could be taught to do this job better than half the people I work with .
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I am so happy and a little sad but these stories are great!
I have a crafty mini that learned how to open latches from his big Standardbred friend. The Standie is smart enough to only do it when no one’s looking. The mini – of course – attacks any latch, any time, anywhere. If I’m standing next to him and stop him, he does it again IMMEDIATELY. This can go on for awhile - he doesn’t give up. Inexperienced visitors can’t believe he really can open a stall door, shove past them, and go buck-farting off on his merry way – but he can. Before I can finish saying “grab the door, NOT THE PONY, the door!” Because grabbing the mini is a guaranteed ski trip. Dastardly mini!
Big guy can open any chain, stall latch or feed room door. He’s patient and quiet. Little dude has only mastered stall latches but is working on snaps whenever he gets the chance. If they’re out together for a few minutes while wearing halters, the mini grabs the Standie by the noseband and drags him around in a circle. He even changes directions. Which is where he’s dumb - because big guy does not circle right. He’s off the track, and right turns Are Not A Thing in his world. So, he squeals and twists away from the little tyrant and then short n’ chubby gets the only cardio in his life – running from a fed up racehorse :lol:. Someday he’ll learn - no right turns!
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I once had a show horse named Dusty. He was a Houdini and untied himself at horse shows. He never went anywhere. He usually either just stood there or went to visit the horses at the next trailer. If the doors on the trailer were open, he would just load himself. He once wandered over to a car that was parked next to the trailer and ate that pretty top right off. The real idiot was the man that parked his brand new convertible that close to the trucks and trailers. When we came back to the trailer after a class, that man was raising Cain. I was going to argue with him, but Dusty was just standing there with a big chunk of the top hanging out of his mouth and just munching away. I never say Dusty eat anything else like that. He did not chew on wood. He never nibbled at fences, feed troughs, water buckets, or stall fronts. I guess the convertible top just looked tasty to him.
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