Companions for horses

Horses don’t like being on their own. While a cat is fine without feline friends, it’s not in a horse’s nature, being a herd animal, to enjoy being alone. Some tolerate this more than others, of course. The ideal companion for a horse is another horse or pony. A donkey is useful too.

Not all horse owners can afford the time or the money to have two horses and a small pony is easy to manage if there is limited grazing but if it’s a companion to a large horse which is allowed a lot of grass, there will be problems with laminitis, the curse of small ponies and native breeds. One solution to this is to keep the pony in a fenced off smaller section of the field where the two can still talk to each other but the pony won’t be able to eat so much.

It’s unusual for a cat and a horse to be friends but we had one cat which used to sleep on a horse’s back in the stable. It was only in the winter, though, when the horse had a rug on otherwise I don’t think the claws would have been appreciated! Interestingly, the cat only sat on the back of one of the horses and didn’t go near the others. There was obviously a mutual friendship or tolerance of some sort going on.

I believe horses and dogs should get used to each other. When a dog first meets a horse, it usually barks and growls at it but they soon accept one other. We often take young horses on long reins out with a dog. The dog enjoys the walk and the horse seems to relax more in the dog’s company. It also gets the horse used to a dog suddenly jumping out of a ditch or hedge. Owners often bring their dogs along to horse shows and competitions so, companionship aside, it’s a good idea to get your horse or pony accustomed to them.