what do you guys do to bond with your horse? do you have like little games you play or something?

I like to take night time bareback rides! i just tell my horse everything that is going on with friends, family, just whatever! its really cool! you should try it if you ever get the chance!

I love to just lay on my horses back in the field while he grazes or sit with him in his stall and he'll lay down or we both LOVE to go swimming!!! It's soooo much fun!!!! He's my best friend, I tell him everything. About my family, my friends, my love life. Though he always knows he's my main boy! I also run with him in the field and he'll come chase me and follow me and run with me. He's my baby and I love him more then anything. We have a really strong bond. It's weird cause he'll rarely let anyone else handle him or ride him, but he's such a good boy for me.

i just spend a lot of time with my horse.. i take him for long walks or i open up his stall and sit outside it. sometimes i just take him out while im cleaning tack so i can be with him..

I also like walking around bareback.

What I love more, though, is jumping bareback. I got to know the horse I used to lease really well. He was lazy for others (they could barely get him to canter and he would break stride all of the time), but he would get his canter departs all of the time for me, even if we were just playing around while riding bareback. The last day he was at my barn, I ended up jumping 2'6" (not very high, but it's different bareback) in a halter and lead rope. The bond we had was great...I felt like he would do anything for me.

I don't have my own horse, but I wish that one day I will and we will have an unbreakable bond

I am new here and i dont have a horse of my own but i once read that you could sit in the pasture with them, sit in the stall with them, hang out in an arena with them, find a time and place where you are animals together and that's all that matters. No grooming, no massaging, no spatial considerations. Allow the horse to investigate you, smell you, nuzzle you, lick you, while you offer your hand to gently rub their face or softly blow breath into their nostrils. Talk, sing or read to them. This is opening the door to trust and unconditional love. The horse needs to know that you are fully with him in the present without intellectualizing or reasoning or thinking, just being in his space and his time. Let him lie down and roll if he wants, let him wander and smell everything, let him graze and you do what you enjoy doing.
You can also just take him for a walk like you would your dog. Instead of riding him around, walk him around on a lead and explore a place together. Go across a creek together, stand in the water together, jump a little log together, wind through some trees together, go over a bridge together, then just take a break together. Their comfort zone will always include you if you take this approach.

^^^oh how sad! do you still ride tho?

A bond with a horse is everything, and I think that my bond with my horse is something that comes along very rarely. Though, it might be a little too strong. lol. Seeing as he only listens to me. lol.

barrelracer726: I do ride, but only once a week. I'm hoping to start riding more though.

with my current buddies(horses) i just hang out with them like when no ones in the barn. i used to ride this one horse...u could go up in the feild with him, and if u lay down, he will lay down with you and fall asleep! very cute!

i groom my little puppy(the horse)i graze him i take him on walks and we explore together!!!!we play fallow the leader in his poddok i give him masges i give him bathes!

i ride out some where and my horse grazes and i talk to him about everything! like friends, family, war, and other things!! also baths!!

my fav thing to do is go in a small field. i crunch down and let my horse go, then he gallops to me and then i jump up!!! he loves it!! its a lot of fun! i know he would never hert me!!!

when i said "then he gallops to me and then a jump up!!!" i ment "then he gallops to me and then i jump up!!!"

haha sorry!!!

like everyone else i graze with my horse to bond with him i also sit in his stall and he plays with my hair. i also make him try to find treats or let him dig holes with the hoof pick and stuff he is crazy but i love him lol

I play games with my horse. Like....actually games. I set her loose in the tiny three acre pasture we have. She follows me around, no matter where i go, or at what speed. Have you guys ever seen a cutting horse? We do that also! Except I'm the cow xD I'll run one way, and she'll go along besides me. Then I'll quickly turn and head the other direction, and she stays right infront of me. Also, I'll send her off at a gallop, and then call her back to me. She stands infront of me, and I'll randomly ask her to back up, come forwards, go left or right....This is all done without a halter, mind.

I should do get some videos of us playing around.

Also, I like to sit on Julie's front hooves, and lean against her legs and read. Quite comfy.