Just love that Horse
Horse walks to heel (like a dog). When I bring him in from the field I put on his headcollar and throw the lead rope over his neck and he walks along beside me.
Tonight I got down to the field and found that his head collar and lead rope were not hanging in the tree as usual. Someone had borrowed it. Not in the mood for walking all the way back to the stable to borrow one, I just opened the gate and let him out and he walked along side me up the lane (private, no traffic). He tried to make a detour to a patch of clover by the side of the lane but a stern "Horse, no!" reminded him of what he was supposed to be doing.
We were joined by a new livery client and when we got to the stable yard we stopped to talk. Horse wanted his supper so I told to go into his stable and he took himself off into the barn and into his loose box where supper was waiting. The new livery client was absolutely gob-smacked (horrible english slang meaning "extremely surprised"
). Most of the clients and yard staff are used to Horse and quite often when they are bringing him in with several other horses will leave him loose to follow but this new lady said she'd never seen anything like it.
I was brought up to talk to horses which means they learn voice commands very quickly. "Walk nicely" is my command for him to walk at my pace - at my side if I'm on foot - and he knows "Stay" which is very useful when I have to wash mud off his legs as I don't have to hold the lead rope or tie him up. Once when I was out riding with a friend and her horse ditched her and ran off, I was able to get off and tell Horse to "stay" while I checked on her and caught her horse (she was OK and her horse looked very ashamed of himself)). Despite the fuss, my lovely Horse stood there and waited until all the excitement was over. I felt vindicated because when I was teaching him to "stay" someone had said very scathingly "What are you teaching him that for? He's a horse not a dog!".
Horse has always been easy to train because he has the attitude that it's really too much trouble to disobey - his motto seems to be "I could kill you if I wanted to but it's really
far too much effort"! I love that Horse.