Are horses just giant puppies then?

[WillowtreeHouse]

I have found a new route to take my dog for his evening walk, river on one side and a field on the other. There is a massive and I mean massive horse in the field and almost from the first time we went, he comes over and walks along the fence with us making little noises. Ddog is a gentle old lab with arthritis and has clearly fallen in love with said massive horse (I've decided his name is Major) and won't move until he's over at the fence and walks with us.

Tonight ddog dropped his ball over the fence and Major the horse picked it up, ran away with it, kicked it around for a bit absolutely living his best life, then brought it back and gave it back to ddog. Honestly never seen anything like it in my life, he actually gently gave it back to ddog. I have now also fallen in love with this horse. 🐴

So my question is, how do I keep a horse in a small house with barely any garden?

No they don't! Not on my land they don't! They don't have a bloody right to be there let alone start taking photos.
I have my reasons and I don't welcome morons on my land!

"Shitlands" When I was a child and had riding lessons there was a bloody Shetland called Smokey with a wild look in his eye who would take chunks out of your back if you made the mistake of standing with your back to his stable door, would refuse to walk no matter your best kicking encouragement and who would chuck you off at the slightest excuse. If I had known how to be creative with my expletives he would definitely have been Smokey the Shitland Pony.

What a lovely thread (mostly).

I hope DDog has many walks with his new friend ❤

Mine had a jolly ball that he used to chuck with great accuracy at people and horses that he didn't like 😭

Just some giant puppies playing 😁🐎

I love the idea of horses! Will always give a fuss if they come over when I’m walking (don’t feed though obvs). Never had much to do with them though.
This thread has really made me smile

My horse is a bit of a lovable knob head 🤣 he likes to steal utensils like shovels, poop scoops, my coat, my cap/bobble, basically anything he can get hold of and fling it around playing with it.
When stabled there couldn't be anything within reach because it would get dragged down and flung, and he used to throw his empty feed bucket at people walking past.

He's an old man now but he still pinches anything he can and buggers off with it, he'll run around with me - but I do it the other side of the fence because he really is like a giant puppy leaping all over the place and he's caught me with a stray hoof and also knocked me clean over before.
He loves playing snowballs though, squeals with excitement and chases them getting annoyed when he bites them and they disintegrate or bucks out at them.

On the subject of taking a photo of the horse and posting on social media, my personal concern would be that people who wouldn't normally might be interested in 'visiting' that would never know he were there, and unfortunately not all of them might have the good intentions OP does, and the more visitors he has, the more chance there is someone will feed him and that, as already stated, is not good for the horse.

I'd be dead proud of I came across a random photo of my dog that someone had posted because she was being cute or whatever. Not so much if it was as a warning though that's very unlikely! I've taken loads of horse photos - it's never occurred to me not to or that consent was needed. What a strange world we live in.

I suppose it what's people do with photos. I don't think it's a strange thing to not want photos of your horse etc all over social media.

Maybe you could post a picture of DDog and Major but blur Majors face out?
<just here for the picture>

YABVU

You don't need an owners consent to take photos of them. I don't even need your consent to take a photo of you if you're in a public space.

Seriously wonder how some people get through daily life if they can be this enraged by everything

Perfect. I'm going to use that when trying to explain my life to non horsy people.

Quite literally do have a right to, I'm afraid
🤷🏻‍♀️

You can take pictures of horses or anything else outdoors. It's completely legal and reasonable.

I love reading all the things other people's horses get up to. I've known a few that loved taking things and running off with them. My daughter's horse would nick the feed mixing spoon and immediately fly away bucking and farting with glee. One circuit of the field, and she'd bring it back, ready for her feed.

Someone walked past our home with a lovely old horse on Christmas Eve...the horse had a Santa hat on!

My DH shouted "There's a horse outside dressed as Father Christmas" and for a moment I genuinely thought he was having 'a turn' as my grandma would've said

Both DDog and DCat went outside with us to investigate and all three wanted to be friends... though you can see in the photos that at first they were like WTAF is this massive non-dog/non-cat...

That's so sweeeeeeet!

For clarity, i am not on anyone else's land, it's a public footpath. Whether I am a 'moron' or not is probably debatable ...

Can we leave the anger now please, I'm loving everyone's horse stories.

I'd be proud too, DD's pony is like a little local celebrity/mascot. He's being stabled at the moment due to being a bit laminitic and his fan club (some old men) have asked after their pal.
When I was a kid, my puppy did that thing where he ran, paused and then ran off, wanting you to chase him and my pony obliged until the stables' guard dog intervened
My horse is another fan of the grabbing things (mainly empty feed buckets) and chucking them at me. They definitely have a sense of humour. He winded me by headbutting me in the stomach this week because he wanted a forelock scratch

I had someone working in the field. He left his water bottle in the shade I watched my nag pick the bottle up in his mouth, wander over to the guy and literally drop the water bottle on his back.

I used to ride my mates dear old school master whilst she rode her complete nutcase who never had more than two feet on the ground. She decided the nutter would be perfect for my 4yr old to ride and he was suddenly an absolute gentleman and was a completely different beast with him. It was amazing. I'd tried to ride said nutcase and it was like a real life game of buckaroo!

I've always said horses are like giant dogs!

What I dont understand is how people can sell their horses when they outgrown them or want a change of horse. Surely horses miss their old owners.

People don’t seem to treat them as a pet like you do with dogs.

I love this!!

gwenneh · Yesterday 22:53

''I don't understand why the mindset applies to horses. You wouldn't walk up to someone and take a photo of their dog without asking, even though it's right there and on a public footpath. The only difference is that the owner of the dog is present to object, and the owner of the horse isn't.''

Just like I would not ask your permission to take a picture of a bird that had landed on one of the fences of that field or a tree in the middle of it or a cow the was grazing. Or why I would not ask the permission of every owner who has a car parked on a street if I wanted to take a picture of that area.

Anyway it is a silly discussion...

No harm comes to the horse and as everyone can see it as they pass there is zero privacy issue and you are not revealing a secret location...

Nothing to get precious about.