# Most obnoxious trail behavior?



## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

My horse zig zags down trails. Well, my "trails" are mostly logging roads, so she kind of wanders across the road. It isn't her being "uncontrollable," I think she thinks if she zig zags and takes forever to get there, I'll let her stop. It hasn't happened yet, but I think she's still hoping. =P

I was wondering what your horses most obnoxious trail behavior is.


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

Lacey does that exact same thing! In Lacey's case I think she just trying to get a good look at both sides of the road. 
It was super funny when I took her over a concrete logging bridge a few weeks ago, she went to one side, stuck her head out and down towards the water then went to the other side and did the same thing, all while walking forward! Silly mares!

When we had access to actual logging roads a few weeks ago (Lacey lives in a rather residential area, we were on vacation, haha) she showed that she HAS to be in front. If she wasn't she'd get all anxious and worried. At home on the other hand, she doesn't want to go off the property. Haha


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

Haha. That might be part of Ricci's problem too. She just loves to be out and she loves to LOOK! Thank god that when we have ourselves a run, she's straight as an arrow. Otherwise, running would be a nightmare.

Ricci doesn't really care where she is in a bunch of horses, but she tends to get really excited, so we move a lot faster than everyone else, and end up in front anyway. Otherwise she just walks up the butt of the horse in front of her, lol. She doesn't like being left behind, but she doesn't mind being in back.

Anyone else??


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## sandy2u1 (May 7, 2008)

If my horse sees something that worries him a little he will start sidestepping while still looking at whatever is worrying him. At times we have actually cut-off our fellow trail riders and even once pushed my sister and her horse right off the trail. OOPS lol. The other thing is when we are riding on the road, if I ask him to move over he will just move his head off the road and leave his rear in the road and walk like that!!! Why can't he do the sidestepping thing then lol


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## IheartPheobe (Feb 15, 2009)

Rocco refuses to halt. He'll do any downward transition other than any gait to halt. (This is just on trails.)


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## danastark (Jul 17, 2008)

Cody is a mooch. Every trail ride is a walking buffet to him. If we stop to let other riders catch up, etc, he is looking for something to eat! As long as he keeps moving, I don't mind much. My friend rode him and tried to keep him from eating. She said he had the funniest ways of getting a bite here and there-"Oh, my leg itches, gotta scratch it (snatches a bite)", "Gotta stretch my neck out.(snatches a bite)

Our paint gelding gets excited when others are cantering or galloping and does cow kicks at the canter or gallop!!

Our POA is the perfect trail pony, no problems at all


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## Fire Eyes (May 13, 2009)

_My boy get scared of everything, but I think he just fakes it.
He spins 180 degrees and casually walks back the way we came.. I've figured out if you keep your leg on he'll spin a full 360 without noticing we're going the same way as before. ;D

I obviously have an intelligent horse... :|
_


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

Oh, I forgot some! My horse just loves to walk on the white line on the shoulder of the road. She will move off it when I ask her, which means there's a car coming, but she'll just sidestep right back over. She also doesn't like to stand still if I try and mount from an object. She just gets too excited and doesn't like to stand, much less by the scary thing.

danastark and Fire Eyes, both your stories cracked me up!

Ricci doesn't eat on the trail. She tries occasionally but I'll pull her face to my knee and yank all the goodies out. She just realzed there's no point, and thank god, because for some reason, it really bugs me!

Ricci likes to "scare" at things too. She pretty much does the same thing. I'll have to try and keep her spinning and see what that does. Right now, I turn her back around and hope she walks on. Otherwise she spins around again and I make her walk backwards. She hates that, lol.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I read somewhere that a horse needs to see something from both eyes, thats why they zig-zag. They can't see directly in front of them or directly behind them unless they turn their head. 
I hate it when Vida wants to ride the tail of the horse in front of her (usually Fras). I like to keep a horse length or more between us but she wants her nose in Fras's butt. She has almost gotten pooped and peed on because of it :lol:


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## masatisan (Jan 12, 2009)

In the winter: rolling and chewing on sticks/branches.
In the summer: eating everything in sight, head shaking/tail swishing (from bugs).


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## MIEventer (Feb 15, 2009)

Nelson is usually very competant and very sturdy out on the trails, he loves being out and about, as I do - but there are times when he decides he's had enough, and will have a mental melt down.

He jigs. He will ram me into tree trunks. He'll halt and wont move forward, and will start backing up nonstop. He'll side step down a narrow path - just silly things.

When he has a mentel meltdown, I usually have to get off and walk with him, then after a bit he'll come back to his normal self and be ready to head off politely to finish the ride.

Also, when he has those mental meltdown's, I have to sit as quiet as I can on his back and just leave him alone. The more I fight, the worse he gets - so one has to learn to be very patient and calm.


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## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

Spooking. I swear my Arab has ADD. I've learned to live with it, because she's just a freak. It's never ever violent spooks, but she's constantly flinching. I swear she does it to amuse herself, because if something ACTUALLY scary happens, she alerts me to it and trusts me to bring us through safe. She's completely level-headed when I actually need her to be, but when we're moseying down the trail, everything from a blade of grass to a funny looking rock (who am I kidding, ANY rock) has her fancy footing side to side down the trail.

Only other obnoxious behavior is 110% my fault, and that's going loco on a group ride. I used to race her a lot when we were both younger, so group trail rides mean she HAS to be beat whatever horse is in front. Only then will she walk nicely. Otherwise, she'll jig and prance the entire ride. I've had her turn my hands into raw hamburger from fighting her the entire ride, and it reached the point where she was only controllable with a hackamore. However, we are working seriously on that and she's coming around nicely. I suppose we'll know how well I've re-trained her when we head to the next big group ride in spring!


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## GypsyTally921 (May 14, 2009)

Gypsy, when I could ride her, would always walk under low-hanging tree branches or bushes. Like she was trying to rub me off her back, I guess, I don't know. But we'd be walking down a 50-foot wide completely empty dirt road and she'll be all the way over to the side, making me smack my face on every branch she can manage.

I know she does it on purpose because she'll veer under the low hanging ones, not just the ones in her path. Clever girl.


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

Gypsy - Ricci does that too. I think she likes to "crawl" through things.


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## QtrHorse (Oct 13, 2008)

My Dakota has perfected the art of grabbing a munchie while keeping the pace. Other than that he is the best!


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

Took my previous mare on a trail ride a few days after I got her. What an angel...mostly. We got to one little wash and ???. It was wide enough and shallow enough to walk through without jumping, but nooooo - she had to jump the stupid thing. Without warning. I'm not a very good rider, and she nearly jumped out from under me! I got irate and tried to make her walk through it again. She stopped right in the middle. Her head was at the perfect height for her to graze without lowering it too much. Her rear legs were still on the bank, so we were at a steepish downhill slope. We must have looked pretty strange - all our friends were cracking up. I gave her a little leg, and she jumped the #@$!#! thing again! Didn't make her go back that time. I figured I had made it across safely twice, three times might just be pushing my luck...


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## InBox (Dec 2, 2008)

IheartPheobe said:


> Rocco refuses to halt. He'll do any downward transition other than any gait to halt. (This is just on trails.)


one of the horses I ride dose the same thing on trails to!! its kind of annoying really :/


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## GypsyTally921 (May 14, 2009)

riccil0ve said:


> Gypsy - Ricci does that too. I think she likes to "crawl" through things.


Lol... maybe our horses like to tunnel? Haha... hey, it's good to know I'm not alone!


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## rangergirl56m (Jan 15, 2009)

My horse Dunn either ALWAYS runs up another horses rear end if he is following unless you are CONSTANTLY holding him back with everything you have, hence the reason I like to lead...however, if another horse gets to close to him from the rear, he will throw a fit and kick the snot out of them. 

I own the nicest horse in the entire world. *rolls eyes*


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## andysgagirl (Aug 6, 2009)

Mo is defiantly a leaf snatcher. He doesn't try to eat grass on the trails, just leaves. And he will grab a whole friggin branch and walk down the trail nawing on wood and dead leaves -sigh-. I have tried to stop him from doing it before but he is very sneaky and stubborn so I eventually gave in. I wish he would atleast eat the tasty looking leaves, he always goes for the nasty leaves.

He also likes to ride with his head basically resting on his best friend's rump. He won't do it to any other horse but G, and every once and awhile he will just bite the poor boy. I don't understand their love-hate relationship sometimes.

On the other hand, G will walk you into every single tree or object possible. Just like gypsy and ricci's horses, I think he does it on purpose. He also has a strong hate of gravel (which is understandable) but he refuses to walk on a road even if it has 5 little peebles on it! :twisted:


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## RoadRider / Rios Dad (Jul 2, 2009)

Constant little poops. Just a drop here and there but each time I have to get off and clean it off the trail. If he just pooped and got it over with I could clean up once but no, just a turd here and there.:lol:
I will not ignore it on a public trail. I carry a small dust pan to clean the trail.
tracks are the only things I want to leave behind.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

My only horse that has issues on the trail is Denny. He is hot and prancy kinda. I don't want to say that he jigs, it is more like he struts. He has his head up even on a loose rein and will stay in the walk but it is almost like an uber-walk and is terribly rough to sit. In a saddle, it will beat me to death but bareback, it is manageable. That is why the only time I ride him in a saddle is when I need him when my other horses are out of commission for whatever reason.

There is a really good example of it at 1:50 in this video.


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## RubaiyateBandit (Jan 25, 2009)

2-Pak likes to look at things. If there is anything new on a trail he's been on many times, he has to go over and inspect it before we can move on. And then halfway through inspecting the 'thing' he'll decide it's scary and won't take his eyes off it until he's several feet away... even if that means backing up and side passing down the trail. My friend teases me that we need to put back up lights and a beeper on him, for all the backing up he does on the trail.

Ruby has to stop at stop signs and (occasionally) run after passing vehicles. That's the worst she gets on a trail.


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## Appyt (Oct 14, 2007)

Oh my.. Let's see............ Abe has meltdowns when the horseflies are out. Cinder is a little light in the front end now and then. grrr, we are working on that crap. Heidi likes to have a fit about leaving the comforts of home. And Lightning is a pretty good boy. He has finally given his young owner(my granddaughter, Lanna) a test at the driveway entrance about going his way. *she won* Cheno is pretty good now, but in his day he was a stink about leaving other horses. Peanut can be stubborn. Gypsy has been a pretty good girl who really doesn't give her mom much grief.


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## Haley (Aug 18, 2009)

constantly trying to eat. >_< ugh, my horse is such a pigface! food is always the #1 thing on her mind.


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

Hmmm... Constant twitching and shaking from flies (I don't really blame him as he is really sensitive). Oh and he lurches and tries to race EVERY time we go faster than a walk... no nice enjoyable light canters here.. Oh no we couldn't do that. He used to try and bite other horses, but now he's picked up squealing from Flame (I guess that's better... right?)

Oh and this is his new favorite that just about drove me nuts the other day. We were parellel to the barn on the way home. His body was bent in a C towards the barn with his head away from the barn. If I would put even the tiniest amount of pressure to try and straighten his head out he would drop his shoulder and dive to the barn. On the other hand if I put any pressure to try and straighten his body out he would spin a tight circle and try to run to the barn... I wanted to scream.


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## Scrambles (Aug 23, 2009)

On one of the rare occasions when I ride Deigh, my friend and I had taken her to a new field. She did fine, but we had worked a bit in her round pen before hand, so she was a little tired. Instead of bolting back or jigging or anything, we backed through that big field to the gate. I can't get her to back a straight line on purpose! LOL


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## Walkamile (Dec 29, 2008)

Can't really say T or Walka have any behavior on the trail that is annoying or obnoxious. With that said, I have allowed them to stop when they need to "mark the trail". That may be okay when it's just us or with a few friends, but when riding with the trail club, and there's 20 plus horses and riders, well it is very inconvenient. So now I've had to get after them to "go" while they continue to walk. They caught on fast, but I feel a little bad for making them. Oh well.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

^^ Are you talking about making them poop or pee on the go?


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## Walkamile (Dec 29, 2008)

Poop. I don't think you can keep a horse moving and have them pee. (?)


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

No, I don't think you can either. Don't feel bad about making them poop on the go, it is not that hard for them to do. When I feel bad is when we are working cattle and my horse gets all stretched out to pee and the cattle start off so I have to get him up and say "Sorry, peeing will have to wait until later". ROFLOL.


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## crimson88 (Aug 29, 2009)

One time a boarder at our barn was having a hard time controlling her hot 3 year old Tb gelding on the trails. So she asked me too work with him and so I hopped on. He spooked just about every 3 feet, but luckily no bolting. Well the lady just had a one ear headstall on him (no throat latch) and she must of not had it properly tightened. All he had to do was shake his head and off flew his bridle! Then he spooked at his bridle with me on him and no control! THANKFULLY he did not take off! I laugh at it now but at the time that was pretty freaky! I do feel it was my fault in some ways as I did not check her tack, but ohwell...live in learn I guess!


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## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Jester doesn't do anything really obnoxious, thank god. He just goes until I tell him to stop xD

Annie has to snort at everything new. She also dislikes water, so she jumps even the smallest streams. We're working on that xD

Sally rears if she doesn't want to go. I mean, really rears. She isn't a trail horse. She's a pleasure horse if anything...

Rico is pretty good, but sometimes he'll do a little hop over logs bigger than a few inches tall.


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