Are some horses just plain nasty to other horses?!

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Sophstar

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My field share and I had a very settled and quiet herd of 6 living together with his most recent purchase of a shire youngster settling in instantly. They all get on, with the odd argument mainly when food is involved but all in all, a friendly bunch that each have their best friends (except my old boy, he's happy being a loner till he requires a fly swotter!). This was until a sharer of one of the herd bought her own pony and moved her in. She was kept seperate for the first few days and then moved in and all seemed well. Then the shire, despite being 17.2 was found with kick marks daily and we witnessed the new mare's behaviour and found the shire just isn't nimble enough to turn and run. She can be quite happily grazing and then suddenly she almost picks a pony from the herd and attacks them for no obvious reason. The youngster then received a kick that cut quite deep right on her hip and from then on, the shire and the new mare were kept seperate. But then again last night, the new mare was happily grazing and then singled out another pony from the herd and a kicking match followed until we could shoo them apart. But even then the new mare chases her 'victim' round and round and just won't let it drop. There was nothing to initiate this fight, they were grazing a good 30 metres apart and almost a switch flicked on in the new mare and she starts a fight despite living in the herd for over 5 weeks. She isn't herd leader, there really isn't one as the group is quite balanced as each pony is top dog compared to some and easily bossed round by others. She has now had to be removed and is kept seperate in the adjoining paddock.

My first experience of meeting her was when my pony came trotting over to me and she followed and promptly turned round and tried to kick me. Safe to say I don't trust her AT ALL!My boy is happy to mooch round with her and use her as a fly swot but I'm not happy with this completely out of nowhere nasty streak that isn't initiated by anything and I know just 1 kick can be the 1 that breaks a leg.

So are some ponies just plain nasty to other horses?
 
Yes my 13.1 is an evil cow and in a ten acre field manages to corner my 14.1 and try and beat her up. The 14.1 is totally independent and calm in the field and would avoid, her, yet if I leave the 13.1 behind, she goes bananas without her "friend". Quite odd!
 
Simply put...yes! I have seen it first hand at my place. The mare in question could not be trusted with any other horses of either sex (mares and geldings), except for one other mare that was the offending mare's sometime buddy. She was not one of mine, and frankly, I was quite relieved when she left our farm.
 
Some yes, others will just take much longer to settle which can include some over aggressive behaviour. How long has the new mare been in with the rest of them?
 
yes. I have found the more nasty horses do tend to pick on youngsters or older more as well. mine live in a mixed herd of 11, and there have been a few come and go but without much issue really. new comers will normally get chased a bit for about a week and then settle. but recently we had a 4 year old join, and a 15 yo mare. she was very grumpy and picked on the older horses, just moving them around and threatening them, but after a few weeks all settled and she is now a dominant mare but no trouble any more. i think she just had to show her strength to the herd while she was new.

i knew a mare previously who could only go out with one other and she was still nasty to her, but the other kept out of the way! the same with another gelding who was horrible to any other horse, you couldn't lead him next to another horse as he would try to go for them.
 
Yes, I knew a gelding that bullied everyone till they left him alone but then didn't want to go anywhere without them. He was very irrational with it, like the mare it was as if a switch would go. He was the same with people, and at 17.2 more than a little dangerous. He ended up getting put down
 
Yep - I had one fracture Polo's skull over a fence - he was only ever turned out on his own after another expensive incident with another of mine! It was 50% polo's fault for winding him up over the fence tho!!
 
Yep, my horse pretty much does what the OP describes when turned out with a herd, except at 16.1hh, it's really not amusing. That's why she has spent most of her life in individual turnout. I blame it on poor socialization from at least age 2, if not earlier. The person I bought her off had her from age 2 - 7 at her own property with only one other horse, and they had separate pens. That person had bought her from the breeder. I'd love to know how the breeder kept their youngstock but have never been able to find out.

However, she has learned to be perfectly amicable towards other horses when being ridden or handled by humans. My theory is that she thinks humans are in charge and that means it's all copescetic so she she doesn't have to be nasty.
 
My friends horse seemed to select a different horse each week to terrorise. I'm sure the other horses would be thinking "phew it's not me this week"
The herd never settled while he was at the yard (6 months). As soon as he left the herd settled instantly.

I aquired a mini that tried to savage everything and anything in sight. It was very alarming to watch. I thought he has some sort if mental problem, i'll never be able to get rid of him and may need to PTS. After about 6 weeks he seemed to drop the act and now he is best mates with all of them.

Hopefully the mare in question just needs more time to settle!
 
Yes I had a typical chestnut mare who was the queen of the field. She didn't bully however, just as long as the others knew their place! The field actually was peaceful
 
What looks to us like aggression is actually defensive behaviour in most cases. It's not normal for a horse to behave that way, and it's probably as a result of housing/management at some stage in the horse's life. The horse is defending something that they think is being threatened. Since it doesn't sound like food (unless they're all on restricted grazing), it may well be personal space. Horses like this sometimes do well turned out in a small group (3 or 4) in a very large area (15 - 20 acres) where they can maintain the social distance they want from other horses at all times.

In a larger group in a smaller area, the horse spends too much time on alert, watching for other horses to get too close. When this happens, you can sometimes see attacks directed not at the horse who has come too close, but at another nearby horse who is just minding their own business. This is called redirected aggression - the horse is anxious and defensive because another horse has encroached on what they feel is their space bubble, but the horse who has come too close is bigger/stronger/more likely to retaliate, so the attack is directed at the nearest other horse who's weaker or less likely to respond.
To us, this just looks like random attacks on other horses - to the horse it makes perfect sense.
It can improve, given a calm environment, a stable herd (no changes/new additions) and a large enough space. It will get worse with frequent moves/ stabling near other horses / frequent additions to the group / restricted grazing.
 
BB I agree, mine was ok in a group in a big livery yard it was at home we had problems and only from after the first winter when we fed hay in the field - we had to or turnout would only be a couple of hours (as it was on livery yard), I put out more piles of hay than horses and spread them widely around the field but I'm sure that was the trigger. Sadly once he'd started tho it stayed even in summer when where was plenty of grass.
 
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