Horses are dumbasses and I love them. I did an...
Are most horses cuddly? I don’t mean like… dog and cat cuddly, but are they pettable and lovable and stuff?
Like cats, some are more into it than others. They also have different tolerances as far as touch goes, especially on their face (some don’t mind it, others are cautious until you’re a known quantity, and with others it’s just asking to get bit). Even with horses I’ve known for years, I still say hi by rubbing them on their shoulder whenever I go in a stall. Face pets come after they get a neck rub or if they still keep their face there once I’ve put on/removed a halter/bridle, or if they tolerate getting their face groomed.
Porter, the horse I first rode when I came to the barn where I’m at now 6+ years ago, absolutely adored getting groomed. He’d either fall asleep on the crossties because it would relax him so much or he’d lean into it while you curried him. You could scrub the bejeebus out of his coat till he glowed in the dark and he’d be utterly chill about the whole thing. He was also the one who would purposely put his head near so he could get face hugs. Most horses who put their heads near you want to use you as a scratching post (like itch their heads on your body; it’s annoying af) -- he’d just come close and bow his head and wait for you to wrap your arms around him. In his stall or out in the pasture, he was an absolute gentleman. If you were standing next to the fence to his pasture instead of inside it with him, he’d come over to you between bites of hay to stick his nose over and get pets. He was the first horse who I ever rode who greeted me with the cutest hoarse nicker when he saw me walking to his stall. He was a horse shaped puppy and I miss him so very much.
One of the lease horses my coach had over a summer a couple years ago was the most dreadful thing to groom ever. Was an asshole to anyone coming into his stall (pinned his ears/snaked his neck out like he was going to bite) and hated being turned out to pasture (like would run the fences ten minutes after being turned out -- coach tried him outside with buddies, by himself, with shade, without shade, everything but could only be calm in his stall for some reason). Thin skinned and sensitive. You could only use certain kind of curries and brushes and you couldn’t use much pressure at all or he’d gnash at you and fuss in the crossties. I always wore my helmet grooming him because I thought for sure he’d take a chunk out of my scalp when I went to brush his front legs. He was girthy af too -- I never put a saddle on and immediately crank it up to the top hole on the billet. I could barely get the girth on the lowest hole on each side before he was trying to bite at me. Slowly working it up to where it needed to be was a lesson in trying not to get bit (he didn’t have girth galls and he had been scoped for ulcers so no immediate causes as to why). He had to be bribed to be bridled (I spent twenty minutes the first time I tried to bridle him before coach came in to see why I was late and said “oh yeah, you’re gonna need a bit of senior feed...”). Would try to bite being led from the barn to the arena (had to hold the reins and my crop in a particular way so he’d poke himself in the nose with the crop handle before he got any part of me). He was an absolute f’n nightmare on the ground, but once you got in the saddle, it was like he was a completely different horse who suddenly took a happy pill and everything was beautiful with the world (which is why his bullshit on the ground was likely tolerated by his owner). I actually enjoyed riding him, but I absolutely hated dealing with him on the ground.
Goatman is a bit girthy (not anywhere near where the level lease horse was) and gets a bit grumpy when you groom him there but will be decidedly less grumpy about getting groomed if you curry him well all along his windpipe. He likes having his face scrubbed (especially around his ears and on his poll) and he’s generally pretty chill about you being in his stall or having to get him from the pasture (he’ll actually turn around and come to the door in his stall which is always nice -- hate the horses who ignore you or worse, turn their butt to you).
