For the last couple of months my friend Brooke has been working Gulliver in the bottom half of our front pasture. It's a nice sized area and reasonably level. Since prior to that he had spent almost all of his time in rings or round pens, he gets a little pumped up when they first get up there (also out of sight of my other horses and barn) and she does lots of figures to get his mind on her and off where he is. He's getting much, much better, but anyway, they usually start out trotting figure eights and doing serpentines, with lots of changes of directions.

Due to early darkness, scheduling conflicts and weather, Gully hasn't been worked much in the last month. Twice in the last ten days or so I've witnessed an unusual behavior in him. Both times it's occured in the afternoon, between 3 or 4 when he would normally be ridden. The other two horses will just be grazing and Gulliver will start trotting and cantering circles and figure eights in the front of the pasture. He doesn't seem overly excited or stressed when he does this. There's no bucking, snorting or farting involved. I watched him "work himself" for probably 15 solid minutes Sunday, alternating between trotting and cantering, in both big circles and in pretty well executed figure eights. He actually worked up a decent sweat since it was sunny and 70. Then, he went back to grazing.

So, could it be that he actually misses being worked and is "practicing" on his own?? Or is just coincidence and he's feeling his oats or wanting to come in for dinner. They normally come in between 5 and 5:30 this time of year. He is at the front of the pasture where the gate is, but then that's where we ride him as well.

I honestly have no clue which side of the debate I fall on with this one. LOL I will say it's not a behavior I ever saw from this horse prior to him being worked in this location and in that way.

Whenever I start training a driving horse from scratch. The first few times I go out and catch my pupil, they're new to my place and don't know me, so they are a bit reluctant to come walking up to be caught. But, after a few weeks, they are waiting for me and practically halter themselves.

After they are worked on the cart for a couple weeks, they trot or gallop up to meet me at the gate. They go from being reluctant and a bit nervous to proudly trotting around the place, unconcerned about the cart and harness and hold their up high, evidently enjoying the chance to actually DO something.

I have never caught one exercising himself but I would say your Gulliver enjoys the heck out of being ridden and is quite the smart guy~!!

Thanks for your thoughts manes! This is a horse that genuinely seems to enjoy having almost anything done with him. Heck, he's even excited to come out for the farrier. He just enjoys human interaction. I really did kind of think he was "missing" being worked. However, then the other side of my brain kicked in and said that I was anthropomorphizing him too much and that it was just coincidence...

He may have also developed a routine or 'habit' from the riding. Like the mill horses of old who when retired, continued to walk 'their' mill circle started and stopping as if they were still working the mill.

He may just start routines easily.

Our ranch horses line up at the gate, hoping they will be the ones picked to go work cattle.

About your horse, I don't know, but I would take a video of that, it is very interesting and send it to your local veterinary school and ask them about it, see what they come up with.

That behaviour may make some graduate student very happy to have on record, or may make a whole study in itself.

Good point, Quartermutt. This is a horse that really likes his routine!



I was thinking I would try to catch it on video tape. It would be fun to have and I wanted to show it to Brooke anyway. I'll just have to charge the camera and keep it by the front door. Then, of course, he will never do it again. I've also been meaning to video him being ridden up there...

That is very interesting. They like physical activity just as much as we do. He is doing that probably as a mixture of routine and pleasure to move and get a little tired.


When I used to board my mare and ride her every day, all I'd have to do is call her name, or clang the gate, and she'd come over. Not always rushing herself, but she was happy to be worked. She was always in a great mood too, very little mare-ish qualities.

Now that I've been at school for a few years and she's barely being ridden, I can see a huge change in her personality. She is still very sweet, but has more days where she wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, so to speak. I also have some trouble catching her sometimes.

There are just some horses that really enjoy work. Yours seems to be like that as well.

PS- Gosh is he handsome! What a beautiful face.

I wish MY HORSE would do that ALL she wants to do is EAT !!!

I like Merry's suggestion. I think you should do that.

I also had the exact same thought you did. Once you are prepared to capture it on camera, he will never do it again.

Thanks for the input guys. If it ever stops raining and I manage to get a video, I will definitely share. Oh and thank you for the nice compliment on my boy meq - he's my baby!

I think part is just habit too..(and their smart)Everyday I got get honey out of her stall to go out to the big grass turn-outs she is waiting too...I can't get the halter on quick enough! in fact if I just open the door she will go out to them w/ nothing! and on the return back she would go right to her stall too! w. nothing on. sometimes a lot faster than I'm willing to walk! and must make her circle a couple of times to slow down! and she has to walk through the barn to get there too,but she knows where it is both ways! funny!

I had a horse that I tied goats off of and also ran poles on him

I had a rather large arena where I could leave that barrels and poles set up and still practice goat tying down the side.

Several times when i would be tying goats after my dismount he would circle around and then weave down through the poles.
I just know he loved to run poles. They are creatures of habit.
Maybe your horse loves figure eights???

Ditto to creatures of habit and maybe him loving the figure eights.

When I turned Havok out in the arena because the pasture was too muddy, he started jumping the small jump we had worked on.
He'd try it at a trot then a canter, from both directions, just like when I had lunged him over it.
Next time, I brought my camera, and he just stared at me from over the fence

I'm coming late to this game, but I have observed similar behavior in one of my horses.

Pasha, as many here know, is an Egyptian Arab who was a county confiscation due to a drug raid. Little is known about his occupation a life between his film career and my obtaining him.

One morning, shortly after I brought his stablemates, Sadeek and Izzy, home, I saw him seemingly working Sadeek along the fenceline of the turnout. He kept repeating the same patterns over and over. Pretty soon, Sadeek, a young horse fresh off the range, was mirroring him.

I mentioned it to one of my co-workers who has ridden cutters and reiners. Her conclusion was that he had done quite a bit of cutting somewhere. That was based on the description I gave of his behavior.

He trained Sadeek to follow the patterns with him and to this day from time to time, they'll take turns moving each other up and down the fenceline.

I think it just points to a bored horse with a strong memory and strong work ethic.

Hannah,
I bought this project horse one time that came off of a trail ride bunch that had closed down. He would not go in a run , had a trot that could jar your teeth out, would only walk and if you leaned to either side he would stop....Nothing physically wrong with him. I fattened him up and put him up for sale as a kid safe bomb proof animal. If you never want to run this was your guy. I ended up selling him to a freind for her grandkids but told her there was something wrong with him that I had discovered....after an hour he would stop, turn around , and head home....You could actually time it with a clock . You could NOT TURN HIM AROUND either! We still joke about it. That Domino needed a coin slot on him so you could put another quarter in! He had done it so long that it became a habit. Who knows maybe he counted his steps!

I'm a believer!

AD

I was reflecting yesterday on how important routines or rituals are to me. There is a strange pleasure and comfort in doing specific movements in specific order, that the body knows so well as to be able to carry it out with any effort. Even my mind gets a kind of comfort from the recognition of known actions that are familiar, and that I can do well with ease.

I was thinking about this in terms of sports- once you have gotten used to doing one, even if you stop for a while, the pleasure in jumping back in and feeling the old muscle memories and patterns is huge.

I imagine it is possible that there might be a similar experience for horses- not a thinking type of pleasure, but a pure physical one, in doing what it knows how to do and what is familiar.

I also saw my horse galloping all over the pasture yesterday for the first time in my life! She always seems very low key, if not repressed and distant, but lately I have just been upping the energy when I ride her, trotting a lot, and cantering a lot, and it seems that is carrying over into her off-work time too.

Exercise is addictive. I imagine it wouldn't be that hard for a horse to notice the correlation between getting sore muscles from a work out, then seeing the the soreness gets better when the same work out is done again.....

Yep. Horses use patterns to govern their activities. It's how they learn things so solidly. These patterns can be seen from day one when mama teaches her foal. She uses a set of patterns so the foal knows that to expect and that when mama changes her behavior dramatically that he needs to pay attention. It helps create a strong perception to danger for horses.

If the pattern breaks, and the horse sees no reason to be afraid, they will often continue on in the pattern in some form or fashion depending on the level of training they have.

The use of patterns is what makes them so easy to manipulate and train. They understand repetition and routine.

At an old boarding barn, I knew of a horse that when he was turned out by himself, which was normally in the outdoor, and became upset, instead of pacing in circles, he would canter/gallop perfect figure-8's and execute exact flying changes in the center.

Weirdest thing ever.