Horses showing affection

[beckyvardy]

I take my little girl and in between watching her I always stroke one horse. It sees me and kicks he stable door and I go over and stroke him.

He puts his face and nose next to mine and lies his head on my shoulder and just stands there in that position whilst I stroke him. He rubs his face Next to mine and I just love him.

Is he showing me affection or claiming dominance? I don't have any experience with horses!

He's gorgeous though.

I would say s/he is a friendly thing and likes to be fussed over .

He likes attention and by kicking the door and you responding you are rewarding his behaviour by giving him attention.

Door kicking is not a great habit for them to get into.

It definitely sounds as though he is enjoying the attention, horses naturally bond with each other by nuzzling and 'grooming' one another, particularly by rubbing the parts they can't reach themselves. It's not a dominance behaviour - that would be things like putting ears back, snapping/threatening to bite, trying to barge you out of his space or swinging hindquarters towards you - I think you'd know about it if it was that, even as a non horsey person! As a rule most horses are not aggressive or domineering animals (some alpha mares and breeding stallions aside!) and will simply withdraw if they don't want your attention...

As Eve says though, do try and discourage him from kicking the door to get your attention, it's a deeply annoying habit that they can transmit to others on the yard and you really do not want the noise of 20+ horses all kicking away at once, aside from the damage it can do to the stables (or if they are really clumsy, their own legs). Usually oce they have the habit the banging chorus starts at feed time and doesn't stop until they all have their buckets, it is absolutely deafening - 100% needs to be stamped out in any well run yard!

If he starts banging I would turn away and ignore him, only go over to him once he stops - the yard manager will thank you for it!

Aww thank you for the replies.

We only go once a week and I really look forward to seeing him. It's too expensive to go more Han that.

It's nice to know it sounds like he likes me.