# why dont horses like pigs?



## mole (23 February 2009)

so anyone know why?  
	
	
		
		
	


	





the main explanation seems to be 
- pigs smell like death to a horse
but how do we know that?  
	
	
		
		
	


	








 is this something that someone has made up? 
	
	
		
		
	


	





also ive been told
- pigs urine burns into horses frogs
again is there any truth in that?  
	
	
		
		
	


	





anyone got a straight answer or are horses scared of pigs because WE think they are?!


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## lynspop (23 February 2009)

I always thought it was because of the noise they make and the smell.
But I dont know for definite.
Lots of horses are also frightened of donkeys- poss because of the noise??


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## arwenplusone (23 February 2009)

Because pigs eat horses.  
	
	
		
		
	


	






No, seriously, I think it is a long standing thing from when wild boar would actually eat horse.  So they are viewed as a predator.


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## _April_ (23 February 2009)

It's the smell - I don't much like it either 
	
	
		
		
	


	





I've had horses on the same yard as pigs before though and they get used to them.


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## nicolaread (23 February 2009)

i think its 2 do with the smell + the noise, but i dont know that pigs smell like death! lol although my youngster couldnt care less about pigs!! shes been stabled next 2 some 4 the last few months!! lol


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## Weezy (23 February 2009)

We hack past pigs, none of ours are overly bothered by them 
	
	
		
		
	


	




  Mind, they are stabled at an old pig farm, so maybe the smell of them lingers on LOL!


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## mole (23 February 2009)

that makes some sense. i'll tell my mare that they cant eat her next time!  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 that'll calm her down


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## Cahill (23 February 2009)

my friend used to keep her horse on a pig farm and he took no notice of them at all.you cannot keep horse in same field as pigs cos if the pigs go under the horse and lift their head up the pigs tushes can stab the horses belly,this is what she was told by the farmer.


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## Cop-Pop (23 February 2009)

Neither of my two seem bothered about them.  There's a small holding about a mile from the yard that breeds them and the only time it causes a problem is the noise they make when sent to slaughter


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## ester (23 February 2009)

have been on really bothered horses but we hack past some pet pigs and ours have never worried.  They are very quiet pigs though so suspect maybe noise is a trigger not smell.

slightly more issues with the camel and the charging spitting llama!


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## alison247 (23 February 2009)

We had pigs across the fields from our stables prob about 300yrs away.
When ours saw them they grew and their eyes came out on stalks.
Surly they couldn't smell them from there?
Must be the look of them however there is a pink pig xc jump at Bells yew green ODE and they never bothered about jumping that!


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## reddie (23 February 2009)

when i lived at home and my horse was stabled there, it was next to a pig farm.  My mare never bothered.  She must have got used to it.  In fact our neighbour kept a shetland pony in with the pigs in their field.


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## Doris68 (23 February 2009)

An old wives' tale perhaps - but I was told that if a horse was born and bred in Ireland, it would never be scared of a pig??
Could be that in the good old days, that most Irish horses were always near pigs......???  

Who knows??


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## PennyJ (23 February 2009)

My guess from having observed my mare sharing a stable block with piglets (don't ask...) is it's to do with the noise.  

However, she'd not come across them before, my gelding wasn't bothered in the slightest, he's had a lot of experience with pigs in his life one way and another.  Mare on the other hand had to be taken outside and tied on to the trailer, that's how badly she coped with the pigs.  Not funny, it was Pony Club C Test Day.


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## gekko (24 February 2009)

Horses generally freak at anything out of the ordinary! You ever seen em react to an alpaca? or an emu? 
	
	
		
		
	


	





But put em in the paddock next door and give em a week, it's like "meh, whatever!" 
	
	
		
		
	


	





We have pigs in the neighbours place occasionally and new horses tend to bug out their eyes and snort, the old hands ignore em...except for my WB gelding who will hang over the fence and lick them!


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## Enfys (24 February 2009)

Straight answer? Because so many horses just are not used to them in my experience.

I used to keep horses on a pig farm, the horses used to run in the same fields as the pigs even. They had to walk through the piggery to get to the paddocks.  The piglets used to play chase with the horses, and it WAS play, by horses and pigs. The farm had a bridlepath leading right past it, every horse in the area was pig proof.  One horse I had, on the other hand, was petrified of cows because she'd never been introduced. Three months in a field with calves sorted that out.

I reckon that if a horse stood in ANY urine for long enough it would do the feet some damage, never had urine burns with mine, I can't imagine a normal situation where the amount of urine would be that much to cause that.


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## Sugarplum Furry (24 February 2009)

I think it's because as Mayflower says, it's a primeaval thing from the time when horses were the size of labradors and pigs (wild boar) were the the size of, um, something much bigger and ate little horses for breakfast. It's interesting that some horses don't react to pigs though, I wonder if they have had that primeaval memory bred out of them.

Gekko, LOL at your warmblood gelding licking pigs!!


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## gekko (24 February 2009)

I don't think it's "bred out" they ALL react when they first meet pigs! Some settle quicker than others tho...

Meeting camels is also damn near fatal cos as we all KNOW camels eat horses! (just ask the horses!)  
	
	
		
		
	


	




But given some gentle exposure and time, horses can get used to ANYTHING!

We trained a severe "camelophobic" Clydesdale for a tourist tram that had to deal with nearby camel rides...

When Lockie first saw the camel he tried to clear a 6' steel fence, bending the 4" heavy wall top pipe with his chest.
Forward 6 weeks and Lockie the Clydesdale and Toppy the camel were eating out of the one feeder and I was leading one off the other!


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## Sugarplum Furry (24 February 2009)

Gekko you are right, maybe some de-sensitize faster than others. The first time my arab saw an alpaca he ended up looking like one....his neck just couldn't have got more upright!! I'd love to see a piccy of Lockie and Toppy together, I bet they look amazing.


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## Janette (24 February 2009)

Star is not bothered by pigs at all!!!!!  A field of sheep on the other hand need to have a very close eye kept on them, and donkeys are horse killers in disguise!


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## _daisy_ (24 February 2009)

mine arent bothered by my nextdoor neighbours 2 pigs that are kept on the boundary. they stand for ages nussling each other.


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## eoe (24 February 2009)

My horses are stabled next to the sows and have absolutely no problems with them or their piglets and all the horses on my yard are used too pigs as we have them out in pens near the horses, we also have goats, sheep and cows and none of the livery horses are bothered by any of them.  When I brought a youngster last year we had a litter of piglets in the stable next to him, he put his head over the door had a look and then went calmly into his stable and as he has a corner stable he could be found with his head resting on their stable door watching them.  I use Pig Oil on the horses legs to protect them from the mud.  I think that most of the horses problems with different things stems from the owners, if we are scared of something it transmits through to them and they then becuase wary/scared of it.  Never heard about the urine thing, suggest you run that one by a vet but I have never had problems with mixing pigs and horses.


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## gekko (24 February 2009)

http://www.cmsporthorses.com/Lockie.html
There you go Kareef,  Lockies 6 month visit with us!
 Pics of an 18hh Clydie show jumping, in the hack ring and with his camelishious bestest buddy, TopShot the Camel!  
	
	
		
		
	


	





Toppy got her name when she was captured from the wild as a youngster...she was found to have a bullet hole in her hump!


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## Enfys (24 February 2009)

I am mightily impressed with Lockie's versatility, what a cracking horse.

Topshot makes him look small!


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## Sugarplum Furry (24 February 2009)

Oh fab, thanks Gekko, that's not a sight you see every day!! Actually had better not show my OH, he's rather keen to buy a camel, and there was me telling him he couldn't as it would freak the horses out...cheers again, great piccies.


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## Booboos (24 February 2009)

Some horses are absolutely fine with pigs and other can get used to them as they do with a lot of scary things, but I do think that if a horse is really pig phobic it can be a massive problem to overcome. I used to have a horse that would lose the plot around pigs and I moved him to a lovely livery yard on a pig farm...three months later he had lost hair from his mane and tail, he was lethal to handle and I couldn;t hack anywhere. I gave up and moved on and he was back to his normal self


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