Horse Superstitions

From the October 2013 issue of The Stable Magazine – www.thestablemagazine.com/october 2013

Halloween is upon us, so we thought it would be fun to take a look at horse superstitions. Some are based on fact, some are ‘old wives tales’ and some - well, some of them are just plain crazy! 

One white foot buy a horse, two white feet try him, three white feet look well about him, four white feet do without him.

This old rhyme is an old folklore except when it comes to the Bedouin (Arabic nomads) people who believed it was good luck as long as the white didn’t extend above the knee and fetlock. They also believed that a horse with no white markings was bad luck.

Changing a horse’s name is bad luck!

A cowboy hat on your bed is said to bring really bad luck.

There’s a story that at a rodeo event a rider’s mother accidently put his hat on the bed. He apparently showed up the next day with a smashed up hat - presumably meaning he’d taken a fall. The remedy? The superstition says that you need to take your hat outside and stomp the bad luck out of it!

A “Nail Test” can predict what sex foal a mare is carrying. You take a hair from the mare’s tail and tie a nail to it. When you hold it over the mare’s hips it will do one of three things. Not swing, which means she isn’t pregnant, swing in a circle meaning the foal will be a filly or swing straight meaning she is carrying a colt.

Sitting backwards on a donkey is a cure for snakebites and toothache. 

In Wales a grey horse is considered a death omen, while in England and Germany, dreaming of a white horse is considered a death omen.

In some places it is lucky to meet a white horse; in others, unlucky; either way, tradition states that upon meeting a white horse one should spit and make a wish, or cross one’s fingers until a dog (usually a white dog) is seen.

Inhaling a horses breath is a cure for whooping cough.

The tail of a horse was plaited with ribbons to keep it safe from witches.

A horseshoe hung in a bedroom wards off nightmares.

Seeing a grey horse on the way to a church is considered lucky for the bride and groom.

The Hungarians and Spanish believe that all black horses are lucky, in France this is the opposite.

If you lead a white horse through your house it will banish all evil.

If you see a white dog you should be quiet until you see a white horse.

A ring made from an iron horseshoe nail gives protection against evil.

If horses are standing with their backs to a hedge it’s going to rain.

Witches fear horses, so are turned away by a door with a horseshoe mounted on it.

The horseshoe must be hung upward to keep the luck from spilling out.

Eating a hair from a horses fetlock cures worms. (Ewwwwww.....!)

The deeper a stallion dips his nostrils into water when he drinks the better sire he will be!

 

This article was originally published in the October 2013 issue of The Stable Magazine – Australia’s FREE Online Horse Magazine.

Read more great articles online at www.thestablemagazine.com