Franklin Levinson's
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Squealing being ridden
I have a 10 yr old quarter horse gelding I've had for 4 years. After about a year of owning him (he was horribly abused) he became very happy. Plays with stuffed toys, balls, anything and chases my other 2 horses with things in his mouth around the field. Will come cantering to me like I have grain if I am carrying a new toy. Even stole chimes off my tree and had a ball ringing then until they finally broke. Excellent in the round pen, can do anything with him...learns very fast but will let out dolphin type, very high pitch squeals when playing and when ridden if asked to canter he will let out this dolphin style squeal or as soon as he lands after a jump. I show him hunter. Had him in an indoor arena and had about 5 other horse people bent over laughing who said they never heard anything like that out of a horse. Why does he do this?
Hi,
I have known horses who produce sounds like you are describing and other, even more unusual sounds. Generally, ruling out a reaction to some sort of discomfort with his tack, mouth, feet or anywhere else, it is a quirk to that individual horse. If you do not want him to make the sounds, there needs to be a consequence if he does. That consequence might be doing hind end yields or circles around you. However, if it doesn't bother you and the horse is not reacting to pain, have a good chuckle on your horse.
Sincerely, Franklin