Aggressive Horses?

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vikkiandmonica

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I was thinking today, are some horses just naturally aggressive? There is a mare at the yard I'm at who will charge people in the field, and you will sometimes see feet and teeth, and no, she doesn't just threaten.

On the other hand, my gelding who was cut late and is the leader of his 'herd', wouldn't dare do anything like that, he knows not even to pull faces at me, even when I'm in 'his' field or if I take some of 'his' feed from his bucket. Therefore I don't think it's a dominant horse thing, as my gelding is turned out with mares, and is very protective of 'his' herd as he is a dominant boy.

I also have a mare, who also, wouldn't dream of showing me feet or teeth, and again, rarely pulls faces (though more so than my gelding). And she would be the second in command of my gelding's herd, so again, not a dominance thing, as both of mine allow me to do whatever I want with them (within reason).

So, are some horses just aggressive, or is it up to the owners?

Discuss :D
 
I have known Two horses that were agressive from birth. no reason for it, it just was, and it never improved, neither where mine but i knew them well. both seiously injered people as they got older.

i recon 99% of horses that are agressive are made that way by people being to cruel or to kind , but there are a few that just come that way.
 
silver zaanif said:
I have known Two horses that were agressive from birth. no reason for it, it just was, and it never improved, neither where mine but i knew them well. both seiously injered people as they got older.

i recon 99% of horses that are agressive are made that way by people being to cruel or to kind , but there are a few that just come that way.
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Agree!!
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Ah ok, thanks guys.

With the mare (that isn't mine), it only seems to be at certain times, almost as if she's territorial? Which is why she does it in the field, or in a stable, but not if she's tied up in a barn or out of 'her' field. She does seem to be the horse that is a stroppy mare, and does get very marish, so think she may just have been born with a nasty streak.

In that case, if aggressiveness is nature in some horses, can be nurtured out of them?
 
Echo Bravo said:
She's not born with aggresive streak just BOSSY.
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Fair enough, but I would say my gelding could be called bossy (slightly bolsy, can act like a stallion at times, paws and gets frustrated if he can see his feed being made), but wouldn't dare show teeth or feet. Why do some horses not stop before the aggression?
 
I have a mare who is very territorial, she is also insecure and tickleish... This means most people automatically assumes she's aggressive when actually she's defensive, she likes her own space, hates being touched on certain parts of her body and is very sensitive to girth up. She displays this by bearing teeth over the door and trying to kick/bite when being rugged or girthed or groomed in tickle spots. Really she's just saying "get off" and as long as you respect her boundaries you get along fine. You don't get in to a fight with a horse like this, you simply manage it and work around it.
 
natalia said:
I have a mare who is very territorial, she is also insecure and tickleish... This means most people automatically assumes she's aggressive when actually she's defensive, she likes her own space, hates being touched on certain parts of her body and is very sensitive to girth up. She displays this by bearing teeth over the door and trying to kick/bite when being rugged or girthed or groomed in tickle spots. Really she's just saying "get off" and as long as you respect her boundaries you get along fine. You don't get in to a fight with a horse like this, you simply manage it and work around it.
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Yeah, I see your point, and actually, the mare is getting better.

However, we once went to the field to catch her, and she charged at us from a distance with teeth bared, so we flicked a leadrope at her and she turned and tried to double barrel us. Admittedly, she has gotten better, but people have said they've quite recently seen teeth.

She doesn't seem overly ticklish though when being girthed or rugged. Infact, she becomes a bit of a donkey when tied up out of 'her' territories.
 
Echo Bravo said:
Because she's a mare and he's a gelding differant species:D:D:D:D
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Fair enough haha. But when my mare is what I would call quite opinionated and thinks she is the queen, so could also be called bossy (and tends to get her own way :p ), yet she has never shown any aggression towards anyone (but other horses, as you would expect).
 
Our mare is not aggressive, but thinks she knows best, we were moving yards yesterday and took an hour to load in the trailer, not cos she was scared, she just wasn't ready to go in, I finally, after getting rope burns, took her away from the ramp and reminded her she knows the stand/walk on commands, she came back to the ramp and straight in. today, after giving her a leg stretch, she was calling to her new friends/stablemate, she spun round and stood on my foot, tomorrow, when I can walk properly I'm going to the yard with a shotgun, hopefully it won't be hailstoning as it was today.
Just joking, I love her to bits but god she's hard work at times.

I really do have a broken foot through her stamping on it.
 
vikkiandmonica said:
So, are some horses just aggressive, or is it up to the owners?
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There can be a genetic/inherited element in some cases. For example, offspring of certain stallions have been known to have a greater tendency to be aggressive even when they were raised by different mares, in different groups and with different owners.

Aggressive behaviour may learned from the dam, though in this case it's a bit hard to distinguish nature from nurture (genes vs learning).

However, I reckon a lot of aggression towards humans is created by the actions of humans.
 
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