ORIGINAL: TechmanBD
That's cool. I am not familiar with horses, but maybe you can answer this question that I always wondered. It seems like people trade and sell horses like cars so to speak. Do horses not get attached to their owners? Do they recognize who their owners are? I mean, if someone owns a horse for awhile, then they get sold to someone else, do they get depressed? Say like a dog would? I know different animals, but I always wondered if they have bonds like a house pet does. If they see you, do they react in a "happy" way to see you?
Supposedly, horses never forget a persons smell. I think that most people smell good, or bad, but evidently, horses equate a persons smell with how the person treats the horse. say that you dealt with a horse regularly, and didnt treat it well. When you got near it, the horse would get antsy, and depending on how poorly the person in question treats the horse, the worse its actions can be. some horses dont like men. ive never met a horse that didnt like women. horses are often very jealous animals. the horse that amanda used to lease was especially bad. if amanda would walk away from her stall to give a treat to another horse, her horse would throw a terrible fit.
like any other animal, some are just more well behaved, and im to the point where i can tell as i approach a horse, how much closer i can get. horses pin their ears back, and get antsy when someone approaches whom they do not like, and they do look "pleasant" when someone familiar arrives. if amanda and i are walking into the stable, and her horse sees us, it perks up a bit and oddly, many other people at the stable complain that emily is "nippy", where she will sort of snap like a dog at people. im not incredibly comfortable around many of the horses there, but emily is very friendly with me, and she of one incident that was partially the fault of a passing horse who bit emily on the butt, causing her to lift her head fast and smash into my face, ive never seen her do anything "dangerous".
in short, a horse does recognize people who are nice, and not nice, but some horses just arent personable. the "schooling horses" are generally not friendly, as they are literally ridden hard by people who dont know what they are doing, and that hurts the horse, then the horse is put back in its stall without being groomed or cooled off, which can kill the horse..those horses generally are not friendly for being 'petting animals".
even with this being the case, horses are bought and sold like cars. to some people they are nothing more than an object, but amanda has a greater appreciation for them, so emily is more like a giant pet, that she can ride.
