Kwame and the Horse
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Today we were out walking and saw a lovely big Black Horse walking towards us. Both dogs were very interested and pulled on their leads to get closer. However the rider wanted to ask about the dogs and so stopped to chat. Kwame imediately took cover behind a lampost and this is where he stayed until it was almost out of sight.
It was so funny to watch him peering around the post , wish i'd had the camera with me. -
Dogs that aren't familiar with horses often have funny reactions around them. The biggest problem I find is that the dog doesn't realize the most dangerous end of the horse is likely to be the back end. When I ride and encounter an aggressive dog, I try to keep my horse's head to him. Generally then the dog will back off, but they want to run up behind, which isn't a great idea. One of my horses has been nipped and will not hesitate to kick if approached by a dog coming from behind him. My Basenji, who is familiar with horses, is entirely too trusting because my guys are used to him and let him get away with being careless. Consequently, he has never learned that they can hurt him. I would prefer he was appropriately afraid, or at least cautious!
I also wish you had a picture of your encounter! :)
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My OJ loved horses from the first time we ever encountered them…. no fear what so ever. Love to kiss their muzzles. Now my Maggii on the other hand was like Kwame... or if there was a fence between them and the horse put it nose down to smell... more likely then not, Maggii would nip that nose
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A few years ago, there was a horse, Snow, who lived next door to us. Digital used to love to "flea bite" the horse on his chin and the horse seemed to really enjoy it. Snow would put his head over the fence for Diggie to get to. My dogs have all seemed to like, or ignore horses. The llama accross the street, however, was scary (according to the dogs).
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My 2 B's really enjoy our 6 horses. They are like eeeefarms and don't have any inkling of what one of those feet can do to them. Luckily everybody is quite kind, gentle and tolerant of them. They love to play in the boxes and nibble their tails and catch falling pieces of grain. So far, not one of the horses seem to mind and quite often I think they can be amused with them. They trail ride with me every day and are learning to stay out of the way when necessary. They are really great at sticking with us and we haven't had any wandering problems yet. I do put them away when there is a horse jumping on our cross country course as they like to chase for some reason here but no where else.
Where our real fun starts is with the B's and our 3 goats! They like to get as close a possible, taunt and then run when the goats heads go down to do a bit of charge and "butting". A few times there has been a big yelp and I know they have connected but they seem to go right back to having fun with them. They all run and play and it is hilarious. -
Malaika i think likes Horses, we visited friends and a horse put it's head over the fence, Malaika was realy keen to go and touch muzzles.
To be honest Kwame is a bit of a wimp and is afraid of quite a lot of things.
The other evening i had a stiff neck and used a heat pillow thingy, once i'd finished i left it on the back of the settee. Both dogs were very wary of it and i must admit that i couldn't resist jumping it towards them for a reaction. -
Agile, you mention flea biteing. Kwame does this to people before he tries humping them. I've never seen this behaviour before, wonder what the horse thought ;)
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Horses actually do something similar to each other…...mutual grooming looks a lot like "flea biting", only of course with bigger teeth! But across species it might not be regarded as a friendly gesture. ;)
OTOH, if you simulate mutual grooming with a foal, he will usually try to reciprocate on your arm. (not comfortable once he has teeth!)
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Kwame flea bites your clothing as well, you have to watch as he can scissor through material at a rate of knots as my mum once discovered when she found a hole in her skirt were there was previously no hole,lol
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Thabo is fascinated with horses, though he prefers to have a fence between himself and the equine. He has sniffed noses with one, and later the two of them stayed near the fence and looked closely at each other.
