Advice Please

[QueenBella]

Hi all,

Has anyone ever had any issues with a horse charging aggressively at you?

I've owned a now 3 yo mare for a year now and while she's very pleasant to deal with to lead, pick up feet, groom etc she can change her personality in a split second and want nothing to do with you. I've found that she always charges at the gate and I feel like its to try get me out of her space. She's also very aggressive when it comes to feed time. I had her on livery for 2 months earlier this year to get feet and teeth and a bit of handling done as I don't have stables and she would turn to kick when you would put feed into the stable. That was corrected by only feeding her when she would stand quietly.

The reason I feel the field could be a problem is she could see me as a threat for food? I've always had her in with my older mare and while they both get on great my mare would bully her over the feed/hay and maybe the 3yo is trying to do the same thing to me?

I don't feel comfortable going into the field to check things incase she ever decides to turn on me so how would you go about dealing with this? She will be sent off to break either in the next few weeks or after Christmas as I'd rather start her in her 4th year as I'd rather give her the time to fill out and not rush her.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Polos Mum]

I would see if you can find someone reputable locally who can give you some lessons in handling / groundwork and assess her in person. It's really hard to judge from a brief description without seeing her in action and the whole situation.

Some things to consider
1) keep yourself safe and if you're not comfortable don't go in
2) I have at times left a long piece of blue water pipe by the gate to really get them away when I felt my safety was an issue.
3) if it is just her and your older mare could you could you consider her going on youngstock livery (out with a gang of horses her age) to learn some of the rules of the herd away from people
4) there are some fab groundwork people - I've had lessons with my colt yearling and 3 y/o on various things that have really helped so lessons for the unbroken are invaluable IMHO.

 

[stangs]

I've owned a now 3 yo mare for a year now and while she's very pleasant to deal with to lead, pick up feet, groom etc she can change her personality in a split second and want nothing to do with you.

What do you mean by this - is she pinning her ears, swinging her hindquarters at you, lunging..?

This is the kind of a situation where a lot of information is needed - any medical history, how long has this been going on for, etc. Having an experienced trainer or behaviourist on the ground should be beneficial for you both.

All I will say is that, for whatever reason, part of the issue appears to be resource guarding. So whilst you have 'corrected' the behaviour (of her kicking when you're putting feed in the stable) with restricting feed until she stands quietly, that restriction may have also caused more frustration - a horse can't comprehend that the 'right' thing to do is stand quietly. Thus there's more stress regarding you as a 'food provider', but that emotion can then only be expressed outside of being fed in a stable, and so it spirals.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

It's a behaviour that can start when horses have had to fight for food and been chased away by other herd members which has happened.

I think getting some help with groundwork is a good idea to start with, I also agree with above I don't think making her stand still for her food is going to help I agree she should never come at you and you should be able to make her stay back and out of your space but making her wait is essentially going to make it worse.

I would always leave her alone while she is eating by not entering the stable until she has finished.

 

[Cowpony]

I've just taken on a loan pony who has been aggressive with me - pinning her ears back when I get close to her in the field, nipping when leading her out of the field, pinning her ears back when I bring her feed towards the stable, not wanting me in there while she eats etc. Luckily she's only turned her bum on me once when I chased her away in the field, and we had serious words about that! My own horse would never dream of doing anything like this, so it's been a bit of a shock!

I found watching You-tube videos about dealing with aggressive horses very useful. I think some of it needs a professional to do it properly, and you could probable mess it up very badly if you don't know what you are doing! But it gave me a few ideas and the confidence to deal with the behaviour. I would echo comments above about getting somebody with expertise to help you, and I'd also say that I think my loan pony has been well trained in the past, but has been allowed to get into bad habits by being handled by kids, so the behaviour is not as bad or as ingrained as it could be.

The first thing I did was take a short whip into the field with me. I can use it to chase her away if necessary, but I also use the handle to keep her nose out of my space when I'm putting a headcollar on or leading out of the field. Once we are through the gate she is not aggressive, so I don't need the whip to turn her out. I've also looked at how I approach her. I've never marched up to her straight on (my own mare has trained me well, by being difficult to catch if I get it wrong!), but I was walking up to her without a pause. Now I get within a couple of metres and stop to talk to her. It's as if I'm asking permission to come into her space. She'll either carry on eating, showing she's not bothered by my presence, or she will turn her head to look at me with both eyes. Once she moves her head away again I can go in with the headcollar and she's more relaxed. I also changed the way I put the headcollar on. Her owners used to undo the throat latch and pull the headpiece over her ears. She doesn't seem to like that so I undo the headpiece and do up the buckle once it's on, so it's a nicer experience for her. With consistent treatment and expectations she has improved over the last month or so, but I'm not sure I totally trust her yet.

When I'm feeding her, if she puts her ears back as I'm walking towards her I turn my back and walk away. After a few seconds I walk towards her with the feed again. Ears back, walk away. It really only took a couple of days before she realised that she got her feed a lot quicker if she didn't pull faces and threaten me! The next stage was that she had to move back when I opened the door. She didn't like this because she was used to people virtually throwing the bucket in because she had her ears back. I would have used the short whip to wave around if necessary, but she did move back without it. It's not automatic yet, so we are persisting with that one.

The final stage was getting her used to me being in the stable while she's eating. I do prefer to leave horses to eat without any messing around from me, but sometimes it's necessary and I'm not prepared to have a "no-go" area! If I'm in a rush and need to put a rug on while they are eating then I expect to be able to do that. I started by putting the feed down, but not immediately leaving the stable, just staying where I was. At first we got the ear pinning and aggressive head movements, so she got made to move back and her feed taken away for a couple of seconds, and it only took a couple of repetitions for her to understand it. (Please note, at no time did I feel in danger - it was posturing at this stage. If I had felt that she was seriously going to go for me I would have taken the whip in or rethought my strategy.) Once she accepts my presence I leave, close the door and she gets peace to eat. Then I started giving her a wither scratch for a few seconds while she was eating. I've gradually (over about 3 weeks) moved further back, and today I walked round to her other side, but only as far as her hip. We'll carry on working on that until I can get to her shoulder.

I do feel that with this mare it's an attempt to try to assert her position as higher than me in the herd, rather than true food aggression. She's never been food deprived and most of her threats are face pulling rather than physical aggression, so yours may be a totally different proposition.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I used to have a TBxWelsh mare who was very proud of her food when she came to me as a 4 yr old, because she had been kept short of food in a previous home. We got over that by making sure that she had ad-lib forage. Luckily, the stable was set-up so that I could stand safely behind her forage, where she could see me through a grille. She got used to my presence and realised that it was non-threatening. I also made sure that our other horse didn't bully her, although the other mare was more dominant.

 

[sunnyone]

What's the feminine of Kevin?
At 3 years old I've had a couple of mares think they want to be top horse in respect of me and them. My first horse was particularly a charge and kick girl. We got round it by me entering field quietly, if she charged then I made myself look bigger (arms spread), if she continued and had her ears back as well then she got a tap with a schooling whip as she went by and a very firm NO vocal reprimand. She soon grew out of it but was only ever caught on her terms. The later horse was just testing the waters so gave up even quicker.