How To Care For A Horse: Recognising Horses Behaviour

Now most horses, like Chester, are faily inquisitive. So, if you've got a carrot or treat in your hand, he should be looking for it, wanting to eat it and pretty much is forward, bright-eyed. If he hasn't got bright eyes and is looking dull, and he's gone off his food and is not drinking , that can be another sign of ill health.

So you're wanting to be looking where he's going, eating his food. If however, he's got his ears back and he's making an aggressive face towards you, that can sometimes be an aggression towards other horses or that he can be angry towards you or it can be a sign that he's worried or scared. If that is the case, you need to look for what's making him angry and try and remove the problem from the area.

If however, you come in the morning and his head's down and low and ears are drooping, again that can be another sign of ill health and if you come to him with a treat and he doesn't perk up as normal, you need to think about what's causing those problems. Horses are herd animals but they can, on occasion, be aggressive towards other animals. And if you've got another horse walking past, you have to be careful that they don't swing their backsides around at the other horses and lift a leg because horses will kick each other.

So be very aware when you're leading horses, that you don't lead them too close to one another. If a horse puts his ears completely flat back in an aggressive way, and there's another horse nearby.this horse is very friendly so he's not likely to do it.this can mean he's going to be aggressive towards another horse. So you have to make sure that you don't ride too close to each other so that no accidents can happen.

If when you're riding a horse brings his ears forward and lifts his head very high, this can mean that he is scared of something or is seeing something in the distance that may worry him. Again, you need to look out for what the problem may be and encourage the horse that it's ok to go near it. Find out what is it and if it's terrible and you can't ride past it, turn the horse away and go into the other direction.

But if the horse should go near it, then encourage him forward and just be sympathetic and make sure you tell him everything's going to be ok.