Horsey noises!

[Hammie]

Hi all,

Just wondering what names you all use for the different noises horses make?

I've been thinking particularly about the whuffly noise they sometimes make when they're getting a feed - my share horse did this last week for the first time, I've been riding her since January and that was the first time she's made a sound of any kind (and it was so cute).

So whuffly is not really a word - how about nicker? (Not something I generally say, maybe it's too like knickers! :p)

Whinny to me is a higher and louder noise, neigh is loud but maybe lower. Sometimes they squeal of course - higher and more frantic than whinnying. Are there any other words you use, and if so what?

[Xander]

the noise you are referring to, i always called it a whicker. no idea where i got that from, or if its right.

[hollysmum1973]

a friend of mine calls it purring lol cuz they do it when they're content

[Joyscarer]

For the noise Joy makes the most often I call it 'farting'! :rolleyes:

[Hammie]

Yes it is a bit like purring :). Joyscarer, you're lowering the tone!

[SallyLoofah]

i like whuffly!!! :) im gonna use that from now on :D and yeah i agree with your other ones!

[Kimmy C]

Does anyone's horse make a load blowing sound through their nostrils. She does this when shes excited in the field, you can hear it from right across the fields. I call it her trumpet sound

[lauraandharvey]

farting and whinnying
thats the 2 noises he makes LOL

snorting at scary objects

[capalldubh]

Hmm, Jackson has quite a range of noises. I think I'm starting to understand them (3 years on...).

There's a slightly high pitched whicker, that he sometimes does when he sees I have a bucket in my hand :)

There's the nicker he does when we're clicker training and he knows he's just got something right - it's quite a deep huhuhuhuhuh sound (I call it chuckling, but I think that might be the whuffling one).

There's the good morning nicker, which is half way between a nicker and a whinny, that he does when I appear in the distance every morning (or whenever I appear at the field having been away a few hours).

and then there's the proper whinny - a good loud one - that he sometimes does when I'm leaving.

He does all of these with the other horses too, so I use that to work out more or less what they mean :) The huhuhuhuh seems to be "I'm glad to be with my friend" - he does it to favourite mare after he gets back from a hack. The good morning whicker he does when one of the others is coming back having been away - so there's a difference between the sound he makes when he's been away from the herd and is coming back, and the sound he makes when one of them has been away and is coming back.

The loud whinney seems to be "I am alone/being left alone and would like you to come back or come over here" He does that one if he's quite anxious when out and spies another horse, or occasionally when we're out and one of the mares calls him in the distance :)