[SallyintNorth]

Mind, his eyes widened when we brought their mum round!

[Bionic]

Looks like he can't work it all out but he is definitely interested
Sally

[robert waddell]

now sally that is not strictly scientific               they are both on the same holding so relatively used to each other      bring a strange horse on that has not been used to pigs then see the action
but yes they can coexist perfectly

[HappyHippy]

Oh Sally - they're so chunky looking 
Mind, I reckon he's thinking hmmm 
Karen 

[jaykay]

Great pic  Who could dislike such cute little wanderers 

[SallyintNorth]

Oh Sally - they're so chunky looking 

Err... do you think they're too chunky?  In "show condition"?  By which, of course, I mean, do you think they're too fat?  (I can take it.  If they are, I cut their feed and save money!  )

[robert waddell]

it all depends on who is looking at them        they are not at the size to layer fat on      it also depends on what and how much you are feeding  also if they are freeranging as opposed to wandering about          what size are you wanting them to go at and do you want to maintain there present growth rate
personally i don't think they are chunky  they are saddelback crosses 

[HappyHippy]

No Sally, they're not too fat ! Like Robert says they don't get fat at this age - just convert all the food into growth. I mean chunky in the sense that they look really healthy, growing well and have a good covering - no apparent runts or skinny ones, all just good & chunky  (but maybe chunky's not the right word  ) If I thought they were fat, I'd tell you  They (and you) are doing a grand job Xx

[WaltDisneyWorld]

That is such a lovely photo, the piglets look beautiful, they look like they have been polished!

[princesspiggy]

out of 20 ponies, we only have one that cannot tolerate pigs, and goes bonkers to get away, even tho hes seen them all his life.
lovely foto 

[humphreymctush]

We were discussing this the other day. A friend was telling me how her horse saw a pig and stood rooted to the spot for a full 24 hours. They had to bring him food and water and put a warm rug on him until eventually he forgot about the pig and started to move again.

[jaykay]

We were discussing this the other day. A friend was telling me how her horse saw a pig and stood rooted to the spot for a full 24 hours. They had to bring him food and water and put a warm rug on him until eventually he forgot about the pig and started to move again.

wow, that is scared!

[waterhouse]

OH did a treatise on this for her HND having noticed that her Selle Francais x TB was petrified with fear by half a dozen small pigs near the yard.  And 650kg of petrified takes some handling.

She did a series of control experiments with a dozen horses on the yard to test for general spookiness.  These involved things like opening umbrellas suddenly, making noises and so forth.  Each horse was led on a lunge line and the distance of deviation from the straight path measured.  Then she did some tests using combinations of piglike dummies, genuine pig poo and finally genuine pigs.

The horses could spot the genuine article and all but one made a large diversion around the pigs, larger than any other disturbing event.  The exception, an 18hh fellow, was completely imperturbable.  Nothing including the pigs moved him, but he was scared of people.  Any new person entering his box would get th full ears back retreating to the far corner treatment.

[jaykay]

That's so interesting!
But why should they be so scared of pigs?

Oddly, when my parents were fostering two donkeys, folk riding down the lane the other side of the hedge reported having great difficulty getting horses past the donkeys and when I asked if it was because they wanted to 'chat' was told 'no, they're scared of them'.

[SallyintNorth]

That is fascinating, waterhouse.  We've two Dales and two Fell ponies here, and the TB that lodged for a while - and none of them has been in the slightest bit frightened of the pigs; certainly not any different to how they are with any new thing.

Horses being so very empathetic, one wonders whether the handler's expectation induces or at least encourages the reaction.  It would be hard to eradicate that element from your OH's experiment, but you do hear of people riding horses past pigs where the rider was unaware of the pigs until the horse started reacting to them.

As to the 'why?' - I don't know, most people seem to think it's some deep-rooted memory dating back to when the horses would have been wild and possibly hunted by wild boar.  But the fact that our natives seem unperturbed would suggest it isn't that.