Can horses sense death?

horsemad

horsemad

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Jul 16, 2001
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One of the riding school horses was put to sleep on Sunday after a bout of colic - this happened in the indoor school.

I had been completely unaware of this yesterday and I took my horse into the school for a ride as usual. Every time she reached a particular corner though, she became very anxious and tense - she didn't actually spook, but she was definitely worried about something there. Strangely though, rather than trying to rush past the scary place, she kept coming back to walk when we got to that corner - very odd behaviour. And even when we were away from that spot, she kept looking towards it.

It was only afterwards I found out that the riding school horse had been put to sleep in the indoor school - and that it had happened in the corner that Cindy had been so worried about. So I can only assume that Cindy must have sensed this - and it definitely wasn't me influencing her because I was unaware of the horse having been put to sleep until after my ride.

Anyone else have a similar experience?
 
When my old horse died the other horses in the field were so quiet and - I don't know - listless, I knew something was wrong before I found him. When he was alive another horse on the yard died, he couldn't have seen what happened because it happened well away from the yard. The other horse's body was under a blanket near the school, my horse started napping towards her and was calling to her really gently. He didn't seem scared (he wasn't a nervy character anyway), but he was certainly picking up something. He never behaved like that before or since. Can't explain it.
 
When I had to have my pony PTS 4 weeks ago, I let my other horse come into the paddock once she had breathed her last breath and walk around her and have a sniff and just to say 'goodbye'. I think this is much less traumatic for the fieldmates left behind, and the vet said this was a good idea if you can do it, and that he'd often known this chance to say goodbye to a friend make a lot of difference. I must say my Harriet was less stressed than I thought she'd be, considering she was left in the field by herself.

So I'd say, yes, I think that animals do know when something happens, and I think that horses in particular pick up on all sorts of things, especially death to one of their own kind.
 
i think at some level they do. When my old horse got put down he was buried in his favourite spot in the field, for about a month all the horses use to gather there when they first entered the field and then went off to do their own thing. Exactly a year to the day he was put down, i was taking my mare down to the school and all the geldings were around his grave. now i know horses don't sense months, years etc but it was a nice touch

When one of the horses got stuck in a ditch at my old yard, all the rest of the yard where up the back corner of the field grazing., The mare had been in the ditch for quite a while and then the vet eventually arrived, the next minute all the horses were behind us waiting to say their goodbyes. Every single horse when over to her and nuzzled her before she was put to sleep.
 
A couple of years ago a horse on my yard got severe colic and had to be put down. While we were waiting for the vet to arrive he was put in the barn in a very deep bed. All the other horses in the surronding stables were very still and very quiet. They certainly knew what was happening.
 
My Del Boy and Shamrock where best buddies, went everywhere together and even slepped facing each other next to the friendship grid in their stables. If Del was turned out first, he'd have a stress fit untill Shamrock joined him and visa versa.......cutting a long story short - they where like siamese twins joined at the hip!!! :)

The morning I found Shamrock dead in the stable, Del was just very subdued looking at him 'asleep' on the floor - it's as if he realised he'd died and accepted it. Before I turned him out, I opened Rock's door for him to take a good look and smell him for as long as he needed.

The amazing thing was (and I know this sounds corny) but it was as if he reached down just to 'kiss' him once...then moved away. I turned him out into the paddock but instead of getting stressed as he usually did.....he just stood there for a while before starting to graze.

Both Del and Beau where subdued for a number of weeks after Shamrock passed on but I do believe they both sensed that he had died.


:(
 
Something quite strange happened when a horse that had been turned out with Roxy was pts. The two of them had been turned out together all summer and often one got taken out to work and the other was fine left behind. I got to the yard and Roxy was fine and grazing while her friend was out for a ride. Then Roxy suddenly got anxious and started neighing a lot. I found out just after that that the other horse had been injured and had been pts about the time fatty started neighing. Two horses in a field near where it had happened needed moving and they both followed someone they'd normally give a 'you and whose army? :p' to into the other field with no headcollars or anything, like they knew they needed to behave themselves.
 
Definitely, I have had the misfortune of being at several places where horses have died or been PTS, and always felt the others new, subdued behaviour for a few days etc., completely different behaviour to if a horse has just left the yard.

However, my friends horse was PTS last week aged 34 and the others knew without doubt, they were all at the other end of the farm and when I wondered down on the evening, they were all stood together with the Mare in the next field at the gate very quietly, which is unusual behaviour for them. They are sometimes stood like that but usually nibblling at each other or the mare playing, but they were all just stood closely together. It was quite sad.


Sonny has actually been buried on the farm in one of the fields, it will be interesting to see how they behave next spring when they go back into that field or if they can sense it.

He was PTS by injection so it is not as though they 'heard' anything.
 
I'm not sure. When we lost our foal at six weeks, his mum was the only one who got upset. The other ponies paid it no attention whatsoever.
 
When my horse died I went and said goodbye to him then went to give my mum's horse (who had been turned out with him) a cuddle. He stood at the back of his stable snorting and leapt away when I tried to touch him. He was really tense and worried (very unlike him, he's usually a donkey).
I had some blood on my top but I dont think it was that because the horses often cut themselves / had blood from mudfever etc and he never reacted that way. Unless it was just because he was already wound up from standing in the field with his friend for several hours before we found him :(
Maybe they smell blood rather than death - I read yesterday that apparently a stallion can tell whether a mare is in heat from up to 5 miles away.

xxx
 
I sometimes think theres something to it, when my old horse died he was in the stable next to my mare who was about 2 at the time, she got very depressed and and came out in a severe rash all over her face. She was there when he was taken away and saw everything. Whether its just because he wasnt there any more or whether the actual experience had an affect I dont know.
 
crying2.gif
Aww there all really sad stories but very interesting!!
 
The old lead gelding in Morocha's herd passed away in their pasture. Staff had covered him with a tarp until he could be picked up. The other horses crowded around, sniffing and nuzzling him, as if trying to get him up. A couple of them even tried to pull the tarp off. They'd go off and graze for awhile, then come back again. The number 2 gelding came over to the fence to greet the people who were gathering around the owner of the dead horse, as if to say, "We'll miss him, but it will be okay, I'm here." It was really something. They really did seem a bit lost without him for awhile, but they have more or less settled into a new structure.
 
i think so, there was only one other horse death at my stable, i don't recall the reactions of the horses as I wasn't there though.

I do remember the day a cow got into a bog on the property and was stuck, the owner couldnt' move him (the cow escaped from someone elses property), so rather than spend hours trying to move the cow he shot him right there. Then he proceeded to butcher the cow right on our property! :eek: All the horses were inside so they didn't get to see anything, but man, they acted wierd the rest of the day.
 
A foal was pts on a yard I used to work at and there was definately something up with the horses. They weren't as interested in their feed and jsut hung outside their doors. It was a horrible day and I broke my heart for the owner. She loved the foal to bits and had done everything she could.

One of the horses on my yard is to be pts tomorrow and I am dreading it. Going to be off the yard for 12 as the vet is arriving at 1.30.

I think there is a definate reaction to a horse, particularly if they are turned out in herds, being pts. They seem to go quiet and almost want to grieve :(. Silly as it sounds.

Jenny and Tyler
x
 
A horse died at a show I went to once (not at the time I went, but a previous show on the same ground earlier in the year) and none of the horses would step over the place where the horse had fell. They all side-stepped and reared and everything they could not to walk over it. Was very strange to see.
 
ive heard off one of my friends that the stables she used to ride in had to get one of their horses put down,. they buried the horse in the field...and from that day on no horse would graze in the area that other horse had been buried
they do say horses have a 6th sense...maybe they can sense death too - and its been proven that elephants grieve,...i have no doubt this extends throughout the animal kingdom, incl horses...
 
my aunties horse got put down because of colic last friday, he shared a field with my horse and two others, my horse never came in without him because she would go crazy and whinny and not settle until she went back out with him, so i always brought them both in together.

it was through the night that he had colic (out in the field) and must have been most the night because he was in a state when he was found. i wasnt up that day to see the reaction of the other horses but he was taken out of the field and put to sleep in the barn about 300 metres away. when i came up on the saturday i brought my mare in on her own with no one on the yard, she just went in her stable and started eating and was in for about 5 hours and i didnt hear any thing from her. she has started whinnying a bit more again but isnt reacting like she did when seperated from him
 
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