# ear position. is this normal?



## twp (Aug 19, 2012)

He is listening to you.. sounds like a good horse, actually.. You know they are pinned, if they are touching the headstall, or halter.. If not, he is paying attention to you.


----------



## Kilokitty (Dec 2, 2012)

The ear position and trail lining is normal. My horse always keeps both ears back at me, not pinned, because he was voice-trained. As in, he would lope when somebody said "lope". No leg pressure at all. Alternatively, I also use clucks or clicks to get him moving. When I say one of the commands, he turns both ears back even further, then he does it and moves his ears forward, pricked, for a couple of seconds then they go back again, towards me, waiting for another cue. I have absolutely no clue about the head-swinging, though. Does he let you touch his rear end and feet?


----------



## LouieThePalomino (Dec 15, 2012)

Yeah he's very good at voice cues and i talk to him sometimes.

Yeah, he lets people handle his tail and feet and i can rub his flanks but he stiffens. He is so nervous when another horse is behind him, he pins his ears and kicks but ive been working with him and he doesnt do that so often but he still looks at me every other step. Maybe hes checking on me? Ill take a video of it next time i ride him.


----------



## twp (Aug 19, 2012)

Does he turn to smell your foot, or just turn his head enough to look at you?


----------



## Thunderspark (Oct 17, 2012)

My mare usually just puts one ear back to listen to me and the other is ahead.....she also doesn't like others behind her but she will allow it, I just smack her on the neck and tell her to mind her own business LOL usually she likes to doddle at the back....


----------



## LouieThePalomino (Dec 15, 2012)

No, he doesnt sniff my foot or really bend his neck, he just glances back at me constantly. 

And yea i give him a good whack on the neck when he tries to kick or pin his ears.


----------



## Janna (Apr 19, 2012)

For kicking the other horses while riding 
Cranking the nose to my leg and popping his *** with a whip and a couple quick circles usually does the trick.


----------



## thenrie (Sep 10, 2012)

What you describe is not normal in my experience, at least for trail riding. When I have a horse that does that on the trail, something is bothering him/her. It might be a sore back, or another horse nearby that he doesn't like, or maybe (if I'm on a mare) she's coming in season and getting "mare-ish", or possibly the bridle isn't fitting properly. On the trail, what I want to see is the horse's ears constantly scanning around, listening, and when I say something I want to see at least one ear coming back to listen to me, then back to scanning around. That indicates the horse is calm and relaxed.

Riding in the arena during training and general workouts, is a bit different. Then the horse often has it's ears _tuned_ to me, rather than the trail (ears on me, eyes on the road ahead). The horse's ears should be turned toward whatever it's paying attention to at the moment. Often it will have one ear tuned to me and the other listening or scanning for other things. If its ears are simply turned back, though, likely something is bothering it.

Make sure your saddle pad and cinch are clean, and that his back is smooth and healthy when saddling, and make sure your saddle isn't fitting badly. It could be you have a short-backed horse and the saddle bars are too long, or that you have a narrow-withered horse and the saddle gullet is hitting the withers, or something like that.

Then again, just like people, some horses are just plain ornery, and that could be the case with yours.:wink:


----------



## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

^ This

Hehe. My Selena is just plane ornery. When I first started gaming her I'd ask her to run and she'd snake her head down and pin her ears and just blastoff. Same with cows. Ears flat back and tries to eat them. :lol:


----------



## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

LouieThePalomino said:


> ... and when we canter he also has his ears back like racehorses do when running. I guess to keep the wind out of his ears?


In my experience, some horses just do this, and it has nothing to do with pain or anything else that I can tell. Our youngest mare, Cinnamon, does this while riding at a lope, and she does this when she is playing with the others out in the pasture, too.


----------



## Elana (Jan 28, 2011)

On the trail. most horses have their ears in motion.. flicking them back toward the rider when a cue is given (leg or voice.. does not matter). A horse that has ears steady back is probably having some sort of saddle or rider discomfort. 

Sort of a funny aside.. when I was out riding as a kid (oh man was THAT a long time ago) I used to pass the time singing. My one horse used to hold his ears out to the side.. I suspect to try not to listen to my voice. 

I really didn't think I was THAT off key......


----------



## Palomine (Oct 30, 2010)

I too think there is something else going on. I don't think this is normal as a horse should have its attention ahead on its surroundings, and you should be able to cue your horse without the ears coming back.

I would say either your saddle isn't fitting right, or your hands aren't still. But something isn't right. Could be your seat isn't still too, for that matter, but not normal way for horse to be. They can "listen" to you with their ears forwards, and should be.


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

I have noticed, though, that if my horse is not leading when out riding with friends, that his ears will come back and rest in a halfway position, but leading, they are up and looking ahead all the time.


----------



## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

I call it the "thinking" ears. They're focused on you, thinking about your cues and how to carry them out properly.


----------



## twp (Aug 19, 2012)

LouieThePalomino said:


> No, he doesnt sniff my foot or really bend his neck, he just glances back at me constantly.
> 
> And yea i give him a good whack on the neck when he tries to kick or pin his ears.



Our old appy mare would wait on every command, and would keep an eye on my bf, while trail riding, because she knew he was a novice rider.. She would actually try, and catch him, if she thought he was falling off, too. She was an awesome trail horse!!


When I ride my Twh.. I gained a little weight, and I noticed she was sniffing/nipping at my feet.. She never did this until I gained weight, so I quit riding her.. I was too heavy for her back, and it was making her uncomfortable.

Do you fly spray before trail riding?.. Mah horse never bucks, but she was bowing her back, and felt like she was gonna.. I turn around, and there is a horse fly on her tail about the size of my thumb!! :shock:


----------



## QuietHeartHorses (Jul 31, 2012)

My gelding holds his ears back when we ride with a bunch of other horses. We just started a new winter group ride thing at my barn, we get together 2-3 times a week and play with our horses. My horse is at the bottom of the herd, so all of the horses we ride with have at least some dominance over him. 

I don't know if he is just unsure of himself around them and he is paying closer attention to me, or if he not paying enough attention to me and is just being grumpy about it. He pins them when another horse is coming up on his butt too, and I always tell him to chill out. He has never threatened to kick out at them, but he gets super irritated when they rush up on him.

When we ride alone, his ears are almost always forward and attentive. We have been riding alone most of the time for the past year, so maybe he is just spoiled by it. It has to be the other horses. Regardless, I think he just needs to trust me more and gain some confidence around them and learn to relax.


----------



## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Various reasons. When there are other horses he may be concerned about being the last horse. He may not be looking at your but trying to see past your legs. If he's not the last horse he may be concerned about the horse behind him. If he's in a position whereby he threatens to kick another horse, rather than hit him trot him in three or four tight circles then go back to where you were. Hitting him can turn into a game for him. The circles represent work. Now, it won't fix him the first time you try it but it should by the third or fourth time on the same ride. Horses flick the tail before the kick. That is the time to get him moving.


----------



## Muppetgirl (Sep 16, 2012)

Skyseternalangel said:


> I call it the "thinking" ears. They're focused on you, thinking about your cues and how to carry them out properly.


:lol:What about the horse in your avatar? Now, that's an ear condition!!! Lol! :lol: You should probably see a vet about those!!!!


----------



## NeuroticMare (Jan 8, 2012)

My mare's ears will be forward if she is in front on a trail ride or jumping, otherwise they are back. You can see the contrast in this video, whenever she's behind, her ears are back.

She's the Paint


----------

