Horse Habits
We have an Arabian gelding named Binzer Bask Prism. He is dappled grey, with a beautiful head and neck. Normally, he has the sweetest temperament, even though he was just gelded two years ago at the ripe old age of 6 years old and for all intents and purposes is still a stallion.
He has a habit that I have never seen in a horse before - dog, yes, horse, no. He chases his tail. Yes, that is right, he turns in circles for hours as he attempts to catch his tail in his teeth. Sometimes he makes himself dizzy and stumbles around barely keeping his feet. But that does not deter him from trying. He may look silly, but he does seem to be enjoying himself. He can do this for a long time, then he stops to graze, but before long, he is back to chasing his tail again. When he catches it, as he does (occasionally), it seems to surprise him. He will stand there for a second, wide-eyed, as though thinking, "hey, what is this thing? What am I supposed to do with it?" Then he drops it and goes back to grazing. A few minutes or hours later, he is going in circles again, after that elusive tail.
Arabians are notorious for playing games. Another horse of ours, Reena, plays basketball. My daughter has a concrete pad with a basketball hoop and, like most kids, she has a tendency to leave the basketball on the court. One day Reena grabbed it in her teeth and threw it at the hoop. To my knowledge, she has never made a basket, but that does not keep her from trying. She obviously enjoys herself, and we enjoy watching her. She kicks the ball around the court and bounces it around with her hooves and her nose. Then she picks it up in her teeth and tosses it up, in the general direction of the basket. I wonder if she saw my child playing so often she picked up on it. However she learned, it seems to please her.
My daughter's one-year-old half-Arabian filly, Desi, plays all sorts of games. She plays with my daughter, learns new games and then plays them with the other horses. Of course she also shakes hands, smiles on command, picks thing up and plays fetch. Desi has been my daughter's since she was less then 4 hours old. She thinks she is a lap horse. And talk about spoiled; she would come inside if I would let her. Sometimes I think Desi does not know if she is a horse or a dog. Sometimes I don't know if she is a horse or a dog!
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