Sudden Horse Behavior Changes

by Jennifer
(Unitied States)

I've never had horses but have always wanted one. I am an artist and have several paintings I've done from photos.

Two months ago my husband's sister passed away and we inherited her two Tennessee Walkers...and I have fallen in love. Every morning I call the girls to breakfast and Sierra (I call her Big Red) always whinnies back at me, and this makes my day. She came to me. I had no idea horses could be so loving. She stands close to my back and lets me rub her all over, and she nuzzles my hair and ears, it tickles!

A couple of days ago I was injured and my face is bruised and swollen, and my right hand is cut and bruised and swollen, and the girls don't seem to want to come close to me. Is there something going on or is it just my imagination?

Jennifer

Answer
Hi Jennifer,

What a great question!

Let me first say how nice it is for you to have taken in these two horses so you may discover how wonderful they are. Please accept my condolences for your sister-in-laws passing.

You are not imagining this event but there is more than one reason for this occurrence and probably all these factors are playing at the same time.

One is regarding sight recognition. Horses are very sight specific meaning they are very aware especially regarding their environment and all those that are a part of it . They will be the first to show you when something has changed within their usual surroundings. Sometimes it is the simplest thing like a bucket moved from its original place or you park a car or create a pile of wood that has not been there before. The horse will look at it with suspicion, sniffing and waking around until they are satisfied that it is not a threat.

There was also a study conducted regarding if horses could visually recognize their owners from a close to far distance. It was noted that the horses lost the recognition quite quickly but instead replaced it with recognizing body movement familiarities that they knew of their owners. This makes perfect sense since we know that horses are masters at body language skills. (even better than us) So in your case it could have been a moment when they gestured that you looked different than they were used to. But through hearing your familiar voice and body gestures they will soon recognize you again.

Now "energy" plays a big part in all of this too.
In the animal kingdom we notice that all species will cast out the weak or ill of the group. It's just nature's way of keeping the strong and healthy intact. Because animals can recognize and want to "stand next to well being" not sickness they will move away from this negative energy. (you could also compare it to a situation that you might enter when two people are shouting or arguing with one another. We instinctively feel the negative energy and want to get away from it. It doesn't always need to be illness for it to be negative energy.)

Next is the idea that horses mirror our energy. I have seen this consistently with our domesticated horses who have a relationship to humans. I imagine that you feel self conscious regarding how you look (and feel) and you wouldn't particularly want to go to a social gathering just to have everyone look at you oddly and ask what happened, right? This energy could be mirrored back at you where they would do what you would, which is walk away wanting to be alone.


This is a great awareness that you noticed, most people don't. Kudos to you! While your body heals itself so will your relationship with the horses.

Wishing you wellness,

Elaine Polny
Horses by Nature


Comments:

Elaine,

Thank you so much for your reply.

The past couple of days have been rough, I didn't go out and try to spend time with Sierra and Sapphire yesterday at all, I didn't want to upset them, and I didn't want to upset myself either, if they decided to stay away again. But this morning I missed them so much I had to go. They were just finishing up their breakfast, so I just went to the fence and stood and talked to them. They looked up at me and continued eating, but I kept talking. It was drizzling rain and I told them the weather forecast was rain all day and that they ought to make use of their new shelter down in the bottom (at this suggestion I got bored, chewing looks) ha,ha

I spent a little more time just standing quietly looking around when Sierra finally turned and came and hung her head over the gate and sniffed the top of my head. Oh, JOY!! Had I ever missed this. I rubbed her neck and anywhere I could reach and then stood back to look up at her and saw she was resting her chin on the gate with her eyes closed. What a sweetie...Long story short, Sierra, Sapphire and I loved and nuzzled and patted and (almost) napped there at the fence for about 45 minutes, and the rain started coming down harder. So I told them I thought I might just build a high bunk bed down in the shed then we could nap together! ha,ha Love them so much, they are good for me, and I want to always be good for them.

Sapphire is 20 years old, black, and has a winter coat about 2 inches long! Sierra is her daughter, 6 years old and a red color with white stripe and snip on her nose, much like that of Secretariat. (I like to compare her to him, anyway). Although Sierra is very docile when I spend time with her, the niece who delivered the horses said she was a bad girl when saddled to ride and that she had actually thrown a small girl with the result being 2 broken arms. (Geez!) My dream is to eventually make her my horse and be able to ride her myself, but I'm guessing that's going to be quite a little ways down the road, being as I really don't know how to ride to start with. I'm reading everything I can on training horses gently and naturally and I'm finding the techniques I've tried so far are 100% effective in a positive way. I have the "want to".
I plan on reading your pages on your site from beginning to end and clicking on all the links.

Elaine, thank you so much for creating this website...I plan on staying in touch with you while my relationship grows and develops with my new friends. The picture I'm attaching was taken about 2 weeks ago during a very early cold snap here in Kentucky. I worried so much about them, their shelter was under construction, but not completed at the time. But as I understand, even though you "build it, that ain't no guarantee they'll come!"

Thanks again,

Jen

Jenny's Studio
http://www.jennysstudio.com