[horsepoor]

So this was a new one for me, and I've seen a lot of odd things that my horses have done in the past...

Today was the second time that I found my horse standing out in his paddock with one hind leg crossed over the other. The other time was about a month ago and was a similar thing -- he just stands there, like he's dozing or hanging out, no big deal. When I get his attention enough to get him moving, he moves just fine, and nothing seems amiss. I just think it is ODD to stand like that?!

Here's a cell phone photo of today's stance: http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/...keYouFreak.jpg (changed the link from the webshots site, which some had issues with, to photobucket...hopefully no one runs into problems here!)

I'm just curious if this is as weird a thing as I think it is, or has anyone else had a horse that does this? Or is mine truly as "speshul" as I think he is (he's not the brightest bulb in the box)?

[Kate66]

I'm voting for speshul. Totally bizarre. I laughed out loud when I saw your photo - sorry!

[ESG]

Haven't owned one that does, but definitely seen it before. Nothing alarming, IME.

[hydro101]

Lol I had to laugh too... it doesn't look like it is over stretching or damaging... must just be his new 'I'm a cool cucumber' stance...

[Carolinadreamin']

That's what I was thinking. That's his "I am one cool horse" pose.

[costco_muffins]

My husband's horse does this. He rubs one leg on the other and then leaves them crossed if he isn't told to move off. He will do this especially if he is wearing hind boots like SMBs which make him really itchy and sweaty as well as as soon as we take any boots off his legs.

Weird horse. But yes, have seen it commonly and DH's horse is totally sound and normal.

[ohrebecca]

I've seen it done before, just a quirk! Just hope he doesn't "forget" he's crossed behind and try to walk off like that, if he's not a bright one! :P

[danceronice]

Lucky does this sometimes--I'm glad to know he's not really weird! (Or, at least, isn't the only weird one...)

[NO-CTRL]

I had a big ol TB gelding that did this ALL THE TIME when ever he was tied up, or in a lesson waiting your turn sometimes he "tapped" it as well, was pretty funny if you weren't used to seeing it!

[caryledee]

My big guy stands with one hind leg in front of the other (toe to heel) sometimes. I think its just a quirk.

[Lisa Cook]

I actually got pictures of 2 different horses standing with their hind legs crossed in the past few months.


Casual hind leg cross while halting at "x" for dressage test.


and for a more dramatic example:

This looks like a fancy dressage movement, but really is just how a young horse parked himself during a break in a ride.

[Amwrider]

I clicked on the photo and my Norton advised me that it stopped some kind of virus.

Some odd "virus scan" ran and I stopped it. It was a fake virus scan that disguised some kind of worm.

Anyone that opened the Webshots photo may want to run a computer check.

[Sannois]

Well yes.. Since my dear departed old man was known as the horse from "Special Class" I can relate.. Truman used to do that on occasion, I just chalked it up to one more of the many "Special" things he did!

[ser42]

Yep, my goofy older boy does this!

[GingerJumper]

He's just special I need to dig up a picture of some of Moose's more unusual poses... The horse's legs are so long he has to spread them out a bit to eat. It's pretty funny.

[NBChoice]

One of my geldings does this as well. He'll just be scratching his hind leg with the other and then just leave it there and hang out.

[jengersnap]

Seen it on a rare occassion, its cute! I also like the ones who lift that back leg waaaay up and scratch their ears. Makes me very glad they all have breakaway halters on lol

[Sannois]

One of my geldings does this as well. He'll just be scratching his hind leg with the other and then just leave it there and hang out.

That is how I first saw mine do it.. Cracked me right up! LOL

[JoZ]

Yep with the scratching thing -- leaving a leg in that position after using the other cannon bone to get after an itch.

I love love love the second photo Lisa Cook posted -- I can just see the baby confusion written all over it: "This dress-age stuff is diffa-differ-diffy... um REALLY HARD!!"

[horsepoor]

Whew! Glad to know he's not the only dork doing this. This IS the horse that has punctured his head on a plastic bucket, so he has a history of doing dumb things. The first time I saw him doing this crossed leg thing, he had both feet flat on the ground, not resting one like in my photo. That seemed even weirder!

Someone mentioned the virus message when accessing webshots up above, but I have used the link from 3 different computers running different antivirus programs and not ran into any warnings, so not sure what's up with that.