# where are my horsey peeps?



## ColleenT (Jan 29, 2016)

I have been a rider since i was 10 yrs old. i have had my Current Appaloosa for 10 yrs, he is 23. I just got a new guy today, another appaloosa he is 12. I do trail riding and occasionally jumps in the state park where i ride.


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## dannylozano10 (Jan 29, 2016)

Nice!!!! My grandparents have horses there amazing!!!

This is me and my grandpa one day


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## ColleenT (Jan 30, 2016)

dannylozano10 said:


> Nice!!!! My grandparents have horses there amazing!!!
> 
> This is me and my grandpa one day
> 
> View attachment 163828



Are they Quarter horses? They look very well behaved.


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## Yvonne G (Jan 30, 2016)

My horses have all grown old and died. I had to put down the last two summer before last. One was a retired thoroughbred race horse and the other was an appaloosa. I don't have any pictures of the race horse, but this was April, the appaloosa:


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## Cowboy_Ken (Jan 30, 2016)

Morning Colleen,
I used to have horses. Unfortunately, life being what it often times is, I had to sell mine. On a regular, daily basis I miss my personal horse, "Monster". I don't need to tell you the bond that develops between you you and your horse. Here's a few pictures. Monster on the right,


Monster

and last, the barn I has built


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## dannylozano10 (Jan 30, 2016)

ColleenT said:


> Are they Quarter horses? They look very well behaved.



Yes they are quarter horses boy white/ black one is coco and girl brown is honey(there mother and son haha)


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## ColleenT (Jan 30, 2016)

Yvonne G said:


> My horses have all grown old and died. I had to put down the last two summer before last. One was a retired thoroughbred race horse and the other was an appaloosa. I don't have any pictures of the race horse, but this was April, the appaloosa:
> 
> View attachment 163860
> View attachment 163861


Aww, as you can see i have a soft spot for Appy's. Not just their color, their personalities are what draw me to them. i am sorry you are without a horse.


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## ColleenT (Jan 30, 2016)

Cowboy_Ken said:


> Morning Colleen,
> I used to have horses. Unfortunately, life being what it often times is, I had to sell mine. On a regular, daily basis I miss my personal horse, "Monster". I don't need to tell you the bond that develops between you you and your horse. Here's a few pictures. Monster on the right,
> View attachment 163865
> 
> ...



beautiful. i am sorry you had to give them up. i have been horseless at times, as well.


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## Team Gomberg (Jan 30, 2016)

RIP Dobbins....




This was an AMAZING quarter horse who passed away after I moved to Oregon.

He was a free lease that I absolutely fell in love with. We bonded more than any of my previous horses. 

Dobbins was owned by a friend, an elderly gentleman and boarded not too far from my house. When he learned about my history with horses, he asked if I'd ride/ spend time with Dobbins. 

4 days a week I went to the ranch and spent a few hours with him. We spent our first few sessions bonding. I would sing to him and the other boarders would tease me cuz I gave Dobbins a 2hr massage one day! 
He was a 20+ yr old rescue that came to California from an Oregon pasture (ha- and I didn't even know I was moving to Oregon yet). He seemed to respond to natural horsemanship and quickly he became like a puppy, following me around! It was the sweetest thing! He was very well behaved and responsive to me. He was so happy when I came around, that the ranch owners would tell me they noticed a huge difference in him on the days I wasn't there. Being married with 2 little boys I couldn't be there more often but the 4x a week were special for both of us. After a few months we had become very close. You know the deep bonds that develop  ... And then suddenly, we had to move to Oregon. 
I remember crying on my last day with Dobbins. Sounds silly but I was concerned for him. He didn't know I was leaving for good and how sad that he'd just "never see me again". 
Well, believe it or not, the owners saw our bond and offered to give him to me! They would drive him out to Oregon once we settled. Wonderful, right? We didn't have the horse property right away but planned to search for it. 
The owners and I kept in touch but some months after I left for Oregon, I was told that Dobbins was put to sleep. I didn't really get any details. I never heard back from the owners. 
One friend joked Dobbins died of a broken heart. 
A boarder from the ranch said that after I left, he stopped eating. 
Another boarder thinks he had colic and it was too late, so the vet put him down. 
But maybe none of that...I don't really know.

I cried for a while. This guy was very special to me. I wish I had taken more photos and videos with him. I wish I had spent more time with him or found horse property sooner. 

I really loved this guy and it still hurts when I'm around friends horses. 









Loved you boy!


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## Cowboy_Ken (Jan 30, 2016)

ColleenT said:


> i have been horseless at times, as well.


Often I look in my pasture expecting to see them. Then I realize their no longer here…


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## ColleenT (Jan 30, 2016)

Aww, TG that is pretty sad. I am so glad he had you to give him the love he was craving. I hope you are able to find another Equine friend very soon.


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## ColleenT (Jan 30, 2016)

Cowboy_Ken said:


> Often I look in my pasture expecting to see them. Then I realize their no longer here…



It is hard. I know the ache. there is something about horses that soothes the soul.


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## Cowboy_Ken (Jan 30, 2016)

ColleenT said:


> It is hard. I know horses soothe the soul.


 My X and I we'd load the suburban and trailer the horses over to eastern Oregon for horse camping trips. Those were good trips. Hiking for hours and not getting worn out. Monster has/had light blue eyes, he's was a walker cross and was tall at the shoulder. Folks would be worried around him with his size and name of Monster, but he was sweet as the day is long in the middle of summer.


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## Cowboy_Ken (Feb 10, 2016)

Horses can read human emotions
09 Feb 2016, 07:11 PM

Horses can read human emotions. (© gilitukha / Fotolia)
For the first time horses have been shown to be able to distinguish between angry and happy human facial expressions.

Psychologists studied how 28 horses reacted to seeing photographs of positive versus negative human facial expressions. When viewing angry faces, horses looked more with their left eye, a behaviour associated with perceiving negative stimuli. Their heart rate also increased more quickly and they showed more stress-related behaviours. The study, published today (10 February) in Biology Letters, concludes that this response indicates that the horses had a functionally relevant understanding of the angry faces they were seeing. The effect of facial expressions on heart rate has not been seen before in interactions between animals and humans.

Amy Smith, a doctoral student in the Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research Group at the University of Sussex who co-led the research, said: "What's really interesting about this research is that it shows that horses have the ability to read emotions across the species barrier. We have known for a long time that horses are a socially sophisticated species but this is the first time we have seen that they can distinguish between positive and negative human facial expressions."

"The reaction to the angry facial expressions was particularly clear -- there was a quicker increase in their heart rate, and the horses moved their heads to look at the angry faces with their left eye."

Research shows that many species view negative events with their left eye due to the right brain hemisphere's specialisation for processing threatening stimuli (information from the left eye is processed in the right hemisphere).

Amy continued: "It's interesting to note that the horses had a strong reaction to the negative expressions but less so to the positive. This may be because it is particularly important for animals to recognise threats in their environment. In this context, recognising angry faces may act as a warning system, allowing horses to anticipate negative human behaviour such as rough handling."

A tendency for viewing negative human facial expressions with the left eye specifically has also been documented in dogs.

Professor Karen McComb, a co-lead author of the research, said: "There are several possible explanations for our findings. Horses may have adapted an ancestral ability for reading emotional cues in other horses to respond appropriately to human facial expressions during their co-evolution. Alternatively, individual horses may have learned to interpret human expressions during their own lifetime. What's interesting is that accurate assessment of a negative emotion is possible across the species barrier despite the dramatic difference in facial morphology between horses and humans."

"Emotional awareness is likely to be very important in highly social species like horses -- and our ongoing research is examining the relationship between a range of emotional skills and social behaviour."

The horses were recruited from five riding or livery stables in Sussex and Surrey, UK, between April 2014 and February 2015. They were shown happy and angry photographs of two unfamiliar male faces. The experimental tests examined the horses' spontaneous reactions to the photos, with no prior training, and the experimenters were not able to see which photographs they were displaying so they could not inadvertently influence the horses.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Sussex. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

Amy Victoria Smith, Leanne Proops, Kate Grounds, Jennifer Wathan and Karen McComb. Functionally relevant responses to human facial expressions of emotion in the domestic horse (Equus caballus). Biology Letters, 2016 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0907


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## ColleenT (Feb 10, 2016)

Horses, as well as most animals are much smarter than people give them credit for. Whenever i was sad, my horse knew it and he behaved perfectly. Animals are much more sensitive to our emotions than other people are.


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## BILBO-03 (Aug 24, 2016)

I have about 30 horses quarter horses, and walking horses. We show a lot

these are are quarters


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## ColleenT (Aug 24, 2016)

Wow, 30? i can barely afford the two i have! Are you in a southern state where land is more plentiful?


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## BILBO-03 (Aug 24, 2016)

I am in Ohio


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## BILBO-03 (Aug 24, 2016)

The bay horse has won a lot of money so that helps


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## ColleenT (Aug 24, 2016)

where i board is actually cheap for our area, and i have them out on pasture board whch costs me $300 each per month. So you can see why i could never afford more than 2.


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## BILBO-03 (Aug 24, 2016)

We have are own farm


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## ColleenT (Aug 24, 2016)

Gorgeous!


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## BILBO-03 (Aug 24, 2016)

What kind do you have


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## ColleenT (Aug 24, 2016)

mine are the 2 Appaloosas in the first post.


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## leigti (Aug 24, 2016)

BILBO-03 said:


> We have are own farm
> View attachment 184653


OK, I am on jealousy overload right now.


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## naturalman91 (Aug 24, 2016)

i used to ride when i was younger growing up in Arkansas my mom's friend had a horse ranch i'd ride at awesome memories except for being kicked once by a baby. i spooked him on accident while walking behind him my mistake. can't even imagine what a kick from a full grown horse would feel like


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## BILBO-03 (Aug 24, 2016)

Yes it hurts to get kicked last year we went to a ranch in Wyoming and my brother got bucked off and broke his arm it was bad


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## MichaelaW (Aug 24, 2016)

I've been riding English eventers for seven years, and got to the C-2 certification in the United States pony clubs.


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## BILBO-03 (Aug 24, 2016)

That's cool


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