2 year old horse trots at me and jogs in field

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Englishcowgirl91

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Every time I go in the field with my 2 year old he trots at me and kinda come off the floor at the front.
Am I reading it right that he is playing?

I literally walk and he follows and goes into a jog but he’s in my space abit too much.

I would think if it was aggression he might pin ears but he just wants to run at me and I’m wondering if he’s trying to challenge me or something 😂

How is best to deal with that I don’t want to make him feel he’s wrong and act like I’m telling him off if he’s being playful
 
You need to nip it in the bud before it starts to get dangerous. He needs to know who the boss is and how far he can go. Don't allow him to enter 'your space' in this manner - he means it playfully, but you're not his playmate!
 
Is this the youngster who is also aggressive in the stable?

I’d be very careful if it is.

I think you said he was being kept in an individual field at the moment due to livery yard issues. He’s probably trying to play and make up for the lack of stimulation but it doesn’t make it any less dangerous if they are in your space.
 
My husband’s 2yo likes to invade personal space on occasion - when she arrived a year ago she did a delightful trot at you, bounce, spin and kick out. That particular delight was nipped in the bud by whoever went in her field carrying a dealer’s whip and cracking it before she got too close. Now she’s annoying sometimes but much more mildly. I flick the lead rope at her and tell her to go away as needed. She huffily does so! She was born on the moors, out with others 24/7. Just so happens to be the boss of them all though!
 
He obviously needs other youngsters to play with but you absolutely must not allow him to treat you like another horse. If he runs at you make yourself big, loud and scary, wave a lungewhip at him if necessary but he needs to learn manners around people asap.
 
Looking at your posting history I’m quite worried you are starting to create a real problem. Is this boy still a colt? If so why???? His behaviour sounds typical of a bored frustrated youngster who is testing boundaries.

I can see you have had problems with stud livery in the past but I would urge you not to give up on that route, especially now he sounds bigger and stronger and has got over his foal health issues.

If that means he has to go further away and you don’t see him all the time, so be it.
 
This horse needs 24-7 herd turnout or you will encounter these problems you are posting every week about another problem it won't just go away while his lacking in basic needs.
 
As above, from reading your other posts; it doesn’t appear that you have the support needed to produce this young horse.

I would also recommend that you seek out decent youngstock livery at a reputable establishment for a while - even if this is further afield.

Young horses don’t need to be fiddled around with. On the continent they are often left raw until 3yrs plus and then you crack on.

Mine have barely been halter broken at the age of 3, but they quickly learn boundaries with correct handling - so don’t fret about just roughing him off with minimal input until you find the right place for both of you.
 
OP, to be blunt it is clear from your previous posts that you are not experienced enough to own a youngster. You are inadvertently well on the way to creating a dangerous horse.

Your youngster has just been showing normal young horse behaviour, but by not dealing with it calmly and correctly at the time he is getting rapidly worse. IME you can’t teach people this if it is not in them. He needs firm boundaries which are consistently applied.

An experienced person could soon turn this horse round without drama, but he will soon revert if his handling isn’t consistent. Yes, he needs herd turnout, but there is more at play in this situation than that.
 
ihatework said:
Looking at your posting history I’m quite worried you are starting to create a real problem. Is this boy still a colt? If so why???? His behaviour sounds typical of a bored frustrated youngster who is testing boundaries.

I can see you have had problems with stud livery in the past but I would urge you not to give up on that route, especially now he sounds bigger and stronger and has got over his foal health issues.

If that means he has to go further away and you don’t see him all the time, so be it.
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I think from the previous thread about stable aggression the OP replied to me that he has now been gelded. I guess this could make finding field company/livery a bit easier now?
 
Do you have anyone you are friends with or know of who has experience with youngsters? And in the nicest way not the "here is my feral 8 year old with no manners that I carefully spoiled from a foal and has a criminal record and is unrideable" experience?

I think you need good in-person instruction on handling your baby, what milestones you need to hit, and someone experienced handling them on a day-to-day basis for a bit as this is very quickly going to get out of control and in the nicest possible way you and your youngster are going to end up hurting each other.

My 18-month-old colt is out with my older horse who plays with him for hours, and occasionally the other youngsters come in for a few days but they live in the main herd as they are geldings and a filly so the herd is the best benefit for them. If he is gelded get him into a herd, preferably with something a similar age in there if you can, but if not just other horses will do. If he is a colt still you need to find somewhere he can go in with older geldings before he becomes too bad off from this isolation. If you can find a stud nearby that does Youngstock turnout/full livery where they handle them as well could be an ideal solution as they will do 90% of the handling and you can still get the joy of raising a baby. Youngstock can be hard bloody work even with the idea set up, experience, and companions, but you are really stacking the deck against yourself here.

I would not allow any of my horses to run at me even in play. One is over 18hh and over 960kg, and the other one is already 15.1 and a colt. They can trot up and stop a few feet away from me and wait to be caught, or if I open the gate they can trot out and over to their stables, but they don't get to run at me or in into my space. The reason everyone keeps going on about herds etc in every post is because by and large, they will learn to not space invade from older horses, who will teach them in a way they understand very efficiently, which is half the battle. You just need to make sure that once the herd teaches them that lesson, you help transfer that information to humans. But bad handling is worse than no handling at all, which is what you're currently getting into the danger zone of, if you handle these situations wrong you are going to end up with your baby treating you like he does other horses, which is when you start getting barged, bitten and kicked.
 
He does need turnout with other horses. Mine was on yoingstock livery until 1.5 years old, and then in a mix of young and old. I like the mix because they learn and play (and are kept in line).

I would never keep a young horse alone.

Even with stimulation mine had "baby boy" tendencies and I had to be strict and firm about our relationship. Get him out of your space. Even if it is play.

I don't like to have a 1000lb + playmate! I allow mine some expression and we have a nice time on the ground, but there are clear boundaries. It's just pure safety, really.
 
OP, I don’t often tell this story because it’s not really mine to tell but I’ll change some of the details for anonymity, and post it because I think it’s important information.

From time to time we tend to take other people’s broken (for all sorts of reasons, accidents or situations) horses and try to do something to make their lives a bit better. We’ve had three so far which have gone really well and gone back to their owners or found lovely homes, and a fourth which I’ve kept.

A few years ago I went to look at a horse that had been brought into a friend’s pro dressage yard which this friend felt they couldn’t deal with in their environment and thought I might be better set up for it.

Horse had been very deliberately bred with excellent competition lines by an experienced rider but not an experienced breeder or horse producer herself. She did her absolute best for him, with her knowledge and experience but she had hoped to breed a filly and wasn’t set up for a colt. Whilst a foal, it had an idyllic life with a mixed herd of various ages but when it became more mature, it was turned out with an older companion for company and quickly learned he could boss it about which the old pony couldn’t cope with. The colt was then separated onto individual turnout and the family tried to interact with it, bring it in, socialise it etc themselves. The colt went from bad to worse and by around 2 it became difficult to manage. Being a diligent owner, she called the vet and the vet suggested scoping for ulcers. The horse was riddled with ulcers (likely from stress) and needed a few courses of medication which involved injecting intramuscularly. The horse became so upset at being cornered and injected that it became unmanageably aggressive. At 3 it was sent to a pro to back, because they thought it might be easier when broken in. That yard couldn’t safely turn it out so kept it in 24/7 and the horse became ulcery again. The horse was then sent to a different pro yard - to my friend - who suggested to me that it might benefit from my maximum turnout / low stress environment approach to my horses at home.

We talked at length and considered all the angles, and I discussed on pm with a few very experienced people on here. In the end I decided that I couldn’t have an unsafe horse in the field and I wouldn’t risk my professionals - vet, farrier, grooms etc - in handling it.

The owner found another yard similar to mine which operates professionally to rehab horses like this, in a herd environment and with 24/7 turnout - top class yard with excellent people.

The horse very sadly just couldn’t adjust having failed to socialise as a younger horse. It was put down a few weeks after arriving at the recommendation of the pro yard. It was absolutely tragic - this was possibly one of the most beautiful horses I have ever seen and he didn’t make more than 4 years old.

I am sorry if this is upsetting to read but I did want to sight you on downstream risks and cumulative consequences of trying to sticky plaster and reactively mitigate what is an inherently unsuitable situation.
 
I've got direct experience of 2 who weren't properly socialised. One is still in my field and she's now 14. She was an orphan foal and turned out with a slightly older filly whilst being bottle fed. I know her first 18 months but when I met her at 4 she was 650kg of angry mare who was in a field on her own and nasty. There's a long back story but that winter I turned her away with a field of off season polo ponies - mainly mares - and watched with gritted teeth as they taught her manners. She would come at you in the field or stable and although I'd come a long way with teaching her manners those horses did a far better job.

The other one I had PTS. He went for someone in the field unprovoked and I decided safety came first. Again a long back story - not the horse's fault - but ultimately I wasn't going to risk getting injured.

Please don't get offended by all these posts. There are some very experienced people on this forum who know how quickly cheeky behaviour becomes dangerous and they want the best for you both.
 
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