Agressive gelding getting worse

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Brandy

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I have three ponie at the moment, one very elderly TB gelding, one oldish native mare (small) and one welsh cob. The welsh is quite bolshy/nervy, and can be agressive to other horses. He chases the little mare about, but she tends to just bimble out of his way.

When I first got welsh (he was the last on the scene) he tried it on a few times with my TB, TB tends to be top horse, but in a polite way. Welsh goes in both barrels. They have been fine together for a few years, but recently welsh is starting on TB again, nothing really bad as yet, but runs at him teeth bared, and TB tries to get out of the way. Its rather like bullying really.

The problem I have is that TB likes to go in with the others during the day, really doesn;t like being on his own. But the idiot welsh is upping his agression, and poor old boy skinned himself on the fence at the weekend in his efforts to get away from the welsh.

Is there anything I can do with the idiot other than just banish him to a naughty pony paddock? This agression is making me dislike him, and I really will hate him if he hurts the old boy!
 
Imagine this is stallion like behaviour--herding the mare away and threatening your other gelding.
No real ideas for help other than how does he behave if you take the mare away--does he need to just run with geldings.
 
He does the same thing with each of them, he actually seems to dislike the mare more than the gelding, in fact, got on well with the gelding for a number of years, give or take the occasional scuffle - will groom and graze with the gelding. Will not with the mare.

More than likely stallion related, was not gelded until he was 5. He may just have to be banished but I feel this will mean banished forever. Unless I get another sturdy cob....
 
Is he kicking or biting? We have two geldings that play fight all the time, not really aggressive, but enough to pull neck straps off rugs etc. We put muzzles on them both for a few months - so the game was more boring, and they gave up bothering one another. After a few months we took them off again, and they never went back to it. The only time we get any return to the behaviour is when there is no grass in the fields and they are looking for things to do... Obviously this is not going to help if he is mainly kicking...

If not I would just divide the field - so that he can still touch them over the field fence, but not do harm - let the older one have a quiet life.
 
Does sound like its related to him being cut so late, strange that he was good for a wee while then behaviour escalated again, it would be interesting to see what his testosterone levels are
 
You most certainly don't want any of your horses getting hurt. I would get your vet to check him out and take bloods just to see if anything is out of balance.
 
I have a gelding here that is a lovely horse to people, he sounds just like yours though. Very dominant, and territorial, he'll herd mares if he's in with them - so he isn't, he'll beat up geldings if they are in with him - so they aren't. We have tried all kinds of combinations - not happening, he ends up stressed and cross, and everything is terrified of him.

So, he is destined to be in a paddock by himself for the safety of others. He has horses across a walkway from him on both sides of his paddock, geldings and colts one side, mares and foals the other, and that's fine by him, just as long as no-one is actually in his territory.

I think you have to consider the safety and well being of your other two first, if being separated is the only way to go then try it, he may end up being a more relaxed horse if he doesn't feel he is competing for status or whatever. It isn't the worst thing in the world that can happen to him.

I know mine is much happier now, well, he seems to be, no more fence walking, screaming, working himself into a lather, and no more terrified companions trying to climb over fences or being backed into corners and beaten up.
 
Mine is exactly the same as this, so you are not alone! He was cut late (nearly 4yrs old) and is part welshie.

Last year in the field he was absolutely fine, this year, he has been a MONSTER!! So YO basically said she couldn't risk him injuring any of the other horses, and now he's in a small padock of his own. I tried him the big field agian a month or so later, and he was still an arse!

My YO seems to think that it may because of the work I'm doing with him now. I'm doing alot more comps and am really concentrating on our training. She seems to think that because of this, he now thinks he's the big "I am" when he's in the field, and being cut late just adds to this issue!

What type of stuff do you do with your Welshi? I'd be interested to see if you have a similar situation?
 
Enfys said:
I have a gelding here that is a lovely horse to people, he sounds just like yours though. Very dominant, and territorial, he'll herd mares if he's in with them - so he isn't, he'll beat up geldings if they are in with him - so they aren't. We have tried all kinds of combinations - not happening, he ends up stressed and cross, and everything is terrified of him.

So, he is destined to be in a paddock by himself for the safety of others. He has horses across a walkway from him on both sides of his paddock, geldings and colts one side, mares and foals the other, and that's fine by him, just as long as no-one is actually in his territory.

I think you have to consider the safety and well being of your other two first, if being separated is the only way to go then try it, he may end up being a more relaxed horse if he doesn't feel he is competing for status or whatever. It isn't the worst thing in the world that can happen to him.

I know mine is much happier now, well, he seems to be, no more fence walking, screaming, working himself into a lather, and no more terrified companions trying to climb over fences or being backed into corners and beaten up.
Click to expand...

^^^THIS^^^

Must admit, mine has chilled loads since having his own space (geldings in the field nest to him). I thought he'd miss being out with play mates, more space etc etc, But he is so much happier?! Maybe try yours on his own, it may help :)
 
Mine has an asbo as well, tested high, big soft lad with people but a real swine with other horses, he has to be a in field away from the other liveries tried him in geldings only field which didn't work, mixed didn't either so he's just in with the TB mare who I look after, he's much better just with her, seems more content with himself, they did have a fall out last week but they seem to be over that now.

I've had him on Globel Herbs Rig Calm for a good while now, doesn't stop the aggression but it calms the fruity side of him down, also he's on Relax Me which tends to chill him out too.
 
I actually thought it might be because he is doing much less work now and is maybe getting bored, also although I have had the three for years, the mare is a recent return from loan though she really does keep herself to herself, and before this, the two boys were in a field next to a very mareish in season type mare and this didn;t cause any issues. It is definitely agressive, its not playing.

I think he is destined to a life alone, so long as the old boy is with us.

I know you can get mare supplements, what about evil late gelded welsh supplements? He is a softie with people. He can be funny whenhacking out though and you have to watch both his front and back end - he has never made contact with anything when ridden as I can spot it coming a mile off.
 
my boy was a stallion untill he was 5, but my horse is the other way in the field he is lowest of the pecking order and always gets picked on and bitten, the 2 horses never seem to bother the other horses just my one, he will never stick up for himself hes a big wimp lol last winter they ripped 5 turnout rugs of his and it was just a nightmare, we narrowed it down to two of the horses because they moved out into a paddock for a couple of weeks and the bite marks on my horse were healing so we knew it was them, but the two trouble makers have just returned to there field just hope they keep away from him!
 
I would separate the Welsh. He will be happier by himself, so long as he is next to the others. Horses like this are actually very stressed, and separating them out takes the pressure off as they no longer feel the need to sort the others out. We have a gelding like this at our yard. We gave him plenty of chances but he was just getting worse. When we gave him his own paddock he just seemed to breath a sigh of relief as did the others! Now he grooms them over the fence and everyone is happy.
 
This behaviour can be a variety of reasons, certainly being cut late is a big one.

Your TB getting older - and having been dominate this welshie could just being seeing his chance to 'be top'.
It may just be simply him upping his rank in the scheme of things!

We had one abotu 6 years ago through injury was castrated at 13 to save his life after an accident, and he was a 'field alone' horse. I tried to integrate him it went OK for a couple of days then he set about ALL my others and dished out a general beating.

relegated to his own 'special' field he's fine. He is very space possessive!

At the extreme other end our 17hh heavy boy is so soft a 37" shetland beat him up so badily that we had to treat his wounds and rehome the shetland!
he made no effort to defend himself - eventually another horse stepped in and stopped the violence, giving me time to run in and grab the little runt.

They are amazing creatures to watch and we have had some serious paddock juggling to do over the years!
Some get on great and some seem to just dislike eachother.
 
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