Being attacked by horse in the field. Help!

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1928sky

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Horse at new yard will attack you in the field. Very unusual mare almost trys to treat people (not with horse although does it when you try to get horse in as well) in the field like a new horse and will square up to you, canters at you with it teeth beared and then whips round and trys to back onto you with its ears flat back. If it gets you cornered it will continuely double barrell you. Shouting and waving arms or throwing something tends to make it more aggressive which is quite odd as most horses back off. Happened once when I was getting my horse out of her starvation patch and was shutting the gate it had us cornered so just attacked us- now i made myself a walkway from her paddock to the gate so don't get attacked by said horse. The horse when in also windsucks, cribs, weaves and lunges at passers by. I think it is a dangerous horse and the contract clearly says dangerous horses will be asked to leave. However yard manager knows nothing about horses and thinks its a lovely horse
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. What can you do about it if it is putting everyone in danger? Have spoken repeatedly to YM but to no avail as we are not on good terms because I actually care about my horse's welfare and as such have been labelled a troublemaker. I am leaving the yard soon.
 
I wonder if the mare has got ulcers, with her behaviour in the stable?

That aside, attacking people is simply not on. Make sure you wear a hat whenever you are handling horses within the vicinity of this mare - it isn't worth taking a risk not having one on by the sounds of things.

Something else to try is having a tin full of stones or something equally rattly - to see if the sound will send her away where throwing things hasn't. Have seen this method work a treat.

I do hope that your YO has got good liability insurance too. As with you having pointed out that this horse is endangering people should anything happen then they would be deemed to be liable I would have thought? Sounds like a nightmare situation quite honestly.
 
Try bending down as if about to chuck a clod of earth at it (it helps if you do this a couple of times too!). It will soon leg it as soon as you bend down..
I don't tolerate such behaviour from any horse here, it is showing it regards you as an underling in the herd pecking order and needs to be shown it isn't on..
I've yet to meet a horse who doesn't move away from a clod of earth, you need to be on the attack not back away from it.
 
try standing your ground at the mare and stand big and square, and try showing her that you are the boss! lol i had to do it to a horse in our yard, but once i started to do that (was very scary!) it just left me alone!

but thats what i would do, not sure about her being agressive in stable - the horse at my yard was nice in the stable...
 
Have a word with the horses owner. Ask if you may put a few nuts in a bucket to keep the horse occupied whilst you get your horse out of the field. Food is a wonderful distraction. If you get something like Badmintn High Fiber complet nuggets it will do the trick. They are a very tasty hay replacer so the horses neutrition will not be interfered with. 5 or 10 nuggets will give you plenty of time to get past. Spending a fiver on a sack of nuggets will be far cheaper than the consequences of a kick. YOU MUST HAVE THE OWNERS CONSENT.
 
I normally use monty roberts 'agressive' stance to send horses on their way - normally works a treat. To really send a horse on it's way I use the agressive stance but lunge myself at the horse at the same time - sends them galloping! This has saved me a few times in the field.

I wouldn't agree with bringing food in a bucket into a field as this creates more trouble then it's worth!

This horse sounds very dangerous and sounds like it's going to hurt someone someday (hope not!) Also sounds like your YO's a d**k!
 
there's one at our yard who makes it impossible to catch any of the horses who are in the field with her. she stands at the gate, shoves out if it's opened, will strike and buck out at you in the field, if you've caught one of the horses and try to lead it towards the gate, she's gallop at you, and sometimes try to kick the horse you're leading.

strange thing is, there is literally no way of scaring her away. shouting waving arms ect she just ignores you, swinging lead rope she ignores, chucking twigs/bits of earth at her and she kicks out... if you want to catch a horse from that field you have to either hope she's too busy eating, or get someone to hold her off for you while you make a dash for the gate with the horse you want. you can't catch her and make her stand though...
 
Thank you for your advice. I will tell the other people on the yard that have to go out in the field with it. Everyone else is just too polite to complain and brushes it of with a "won't happen again" type thing. Afterall they have to get taught lectures by YM and after all the trouble I have had they are not so keen to get involved. To be honest if it were my horse I think I would have been evicted from the yard before I could take breath! The pleasant animal has now taken to kicking at my horse through the electric fence
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and at 17hh it kicks nicely at my head height.
 
If this horse tends to come at you if you try to send it away, then think twice and even three times before trying a "Monty Roberts" stance with it. Most horses will move off reasonably easily if you send them off with a rope or body language, if you've found one that does the opposite then you need to take more care. That's all I can say really, because I think if the horse is this attacking I'd want to see it in action before I risked giving advice on how to deal with it.
As a livery at the yard though, maybe you need to remind the yard owner of their liability if someone, horse or human, should get injured by this horse after the YO has been made aware that it is dangerous.
 
Daisy was like this when I first got her because she hadn't been taught boundaries. She didn't respond to body language or clods of earth, even feed buckets aimed at her rear end were no good. We found that the only thing that worked as a lunge whip. It seems extreme but she learned and is now a much loved family alrounder rather than the dangerous nutter that many people had labelled her as
 
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