# Silly behavior concerning stablemate's poop on the trail



## GracielaGata (Jan 14, 2012)

My mare has never gotten so bad as to dig a hole, but she is insanely happy when I let her stop and pick a pile apart to give it a very thorough smelling. Especially if she knows it belongs to an unknown horse. She is the only one of all the horses I know who does this. 
She also does the flehmen response when anyone else pees while she is around. And she will hold it for a while quite happily as she continues to plod along. 

So no help, if you were looking for any, but just wanted to say it isn't just your horse.


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

Last time I rode my gelding out on the trail I had ridden his mother earlier the same day on parts of the same trail. He would go along and smell the ground, bushes, and of course any piles of poop. 

It made me wonder if he recognized that it was his mom's smell. I would assume so. It's normal for them to smell piles of poop but I never had him go around smelling the ground or bushes along the trail like that before.

Normally I don't ride them back-to-back on the same day, so that was kind of unusual. It's like he was saying, "I smell mom here!"


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## Katz1411 (Jul 31, 2014)

When I turn out my gelding he'll walk along smelling any "new" piles in the pasture - likes to know who's been out there.


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## Woodhaven (Jan 21, 2014)

One time years ago my husband, sister and I were going to go for a ride, sis didn't show up on time so husband and I decided to go anyway, after we were out for a while I could see my sister on her young horse across a field and her horse was trotting along with his nose to the ground like a hunting dog. I said to my husband to look over and see this. That horse was tracking us and following the exact path that we had just ridden. We waited there and they caught up to us but he was definitely following our trail, sis figured that this was what he was doing so just let him go hoping that he would find us.
I have found that horses are always interested in any poop they come across while out riding. Never had a horse paw at it like that though.


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