Can horses get over a fear of pigs?

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gemisastar

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My YO has just told us that he is allowing a couple of pet pigs to come and live in a small paddock on our yard - fair enough, however my mare is scared stiff of pigs and this paddock is literally right next to the stables, she will see and smell them within 20 yards every time I bring her in. Naturally I am worried about how this may change her behaviour if she can smell them while she's in her stable.

There is a house that we hack past at least a couple of times a week where she would always behave ridiculously (at all other times she is a very sensible sort), she has never improved, I recently found out that they keep a pig there which she can obviously smell. Every time there's been pigs in the vicinity she has freaked.

Is this something that horses can get over?
 
Yes they can. I have two pet pigs and one of my ponies was terrified of them at first. None were happy about it. They quickly got over it when, I’m assuming, they realised the pigs weren’t going to eat them. They now live in adjoining fields.

My neighbour has a huge pig, bigger than my Shetland. He’s pretty clueless and when he got a new horse he just shoved it in the field with the pig. It was petrified, but fast forward a couple of months and the horse now bullies the pig.

I think it’s worse sometimes when they can’t see the ‘monster’.
 
Some do. We had two pet pigs come onto our livery yard, and a fairly well known competition venue actually had pigs within its XC course! But some don't. My otherwise absolutely sane and sensible cob really doesn't like pigs. He knows (thanks to pet pigs) that they won't hurt him and he doesn't do anything stupid. But you can see how terified he is. Thankfully in our case the YOs horse was one of those that really didn't settle at all and the pigs only stayed a matter of weeks. I would not have wanted to subject him to that for a longer time. But the other hunter loves pigs and the competition ponies we had at the time learned to get over it. It is just poor cob who really never could.
 
I think most can, and in this case, it might not be such a bad thing, as your horse will get the chance to desensitise.
Alf used to be petrified of pigs - to the point he completely blew his chances at the Regionals many years ago, after he was stabled next to a pig the night before!
He is perfectly happy to hack past the local pig farm nowadays, and has even been known to hold his nerve when the large group of piglets run up to the fence to see him. Sometimes he has a breakdown when they do it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he isn't as scared as he says he is, and it's just a great excuse to leap around!
 
I'll have to see how it goes - maybe yo will be able to move them somewhere else if she really doesn't settle, hopefully she'll get over it!
 
I firmly believe that horses can get over any fear with desensitisation. There is a field with a drove of pigs at the yard where I keep my two and they're both fine with them.

I was once told that a fear of pigs is hardwired into all horses, almost instinctually, if that is correct my girls are freaks of nature
 
Most of them can get over it, some don't. My old pba used to be stabled next door to a pig. She used to pop her head over and groom the sow who used to oink at her when she came back from a ride. An old pony I used to ride however used to explode if you didn't have him in hand when you got near the pigs on the way home to his yard. He'd walk passed but we would old let staff ride him on that route
 
I think that most can but some can't. A pig moved into the field next to us, shetland was curious and slightly concerned for about a day, sensible mainly bombproof cob was completely terrified. Lathered in sweat, hardly ate and couldn't be stabled as he obviously felt trapped in his stable, stables were at opposite end of field to pigs. Fortunately they moved after a few days to a field about half a mile away. It took cob months to relax, whenever the wind was blowing in a certain way he could sense them and was terrified. Although he eventually relaxed in his field and stable we could never go within quarter of a mile of the pigs. I spent months trying to de sensitise him but he was always terrified of them. I don't think it helped that they were incredibly noisy pigs.
 
We had pet pigs for a bit. All the ponies got over them, to the point where they ignored escaped piglets tearing about around their feet. A couple of them even got properly friendly; stretching over the fence to sniff noses on a regular basis.
 
I think it depends on the horse, mine was in the same situation, 2 pet pigs moved in the stable next to him and they became really good friends. But donkey's are a whole different story, I have to sedate him if he comes into contact with a donkey as he gets so worked up he is in danger of giving himself a heart attack.
 
My horse didn't get over cows at a dairy farm and still gets a fixation even if he sees a coloured pony in the distance. He freaks with every new creature but did get over pigs when we moved yards. And most recently the over confident trio of geese that have appeared. There is hope!
 
On a yard with last horse and the yard owner bought a couple of pigs- it was when they became fashionable pets. Pigs were put in a paddock on the way up to the school. My mare was petrified and wouldn't go near them. I used to hack out with a friend who had a mare that took no notice of the pigs. Every time we hacked out we'd go up past the school on our return. Eventually mine got used to them and we could use the school again.
 
Amongst all our cattle & sheep we have pigs. Both my 2 boys who came as yearlings are quite happy to associate with them. Our little companion pony has struggled to get used to the idea, but is coping. Sadly his eyesight is not great so he finds it difficult to work out where they are
 
Horses can get used to anything given time, except possibly cougars and bears (natural predators), and even that is not set in stone - just depends how much time and effort you are prepared to invest.
 
On the yard we brought Chance from he schooled next to pigs and walked out past them, there saw about 30 small brown/ginger called with black spots so yes I would say they can, as that was a dealers yard and he was there less then 3 month!
 
I believe its an inherited fear as wild boar were a natural predator of the horse. Some arent bothered but some are terrified and will never get over the fear, its just "in" them. My YO had a couple of pet pigs on holiday for a month, I had a TB at the time who was pretty chilled. The pigs were in the paddock next to his field and whilst he could see where they were he was fine. As soon as I took him in to the yard to ride him he became dangerous to handle, spinning, rearing, pulling away and refusing to stand still, eyes on stalks, snorting, the full works. I couldnt do anything with him, I tried to lunge him and he started to gallop round me and simply would not stop, I had to gradually reel him in and hope he didnt fall over on me. As soon as I turned him back out andhe could see them again he was fine. My theory is that as long as he could see them and knew he could get away he could cope but knowing they were around, by scent and he just panicked. The day they left he turned back into Mr dope on a rope! I would say thatif your mare really is scared you need to accept that her fear is very real, has some basis and if you cant manage it, you will have to consider moving her Im afraid
 
my wb mare is absolutely petrified of them. She got next to the outdoor pen the first time we met pigs and i didn’t know pigs were in there I thought gone and they came out she bolted back. She won’t go down road or track within 1/2 mile of any outdoor pig unit she knows what the white tents and arcs contain. I have tried to debsensitize by leading her along tracks in same field as pigs with pigs some distance off and she just bolts, just blind panic, self preservation goes out window and she shakes, drips with sweat etc and has had ulcers so I won’t risk it. She copes fine with cows, sheep, donkeys, goats chickens, never pigs.
 
MyBoyChe said:
I believe its an inherited fear as wild boar were a natural predator of the horse. Some arent bothered but some are terrified and will never get over the fear, its just "in" them.
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That’s interesting, I never knew that.

I used to do a circular ride and towards the end was an old tumbledown farmyard. The old pigsty bordered the lane and had not had pigs in it for 20 years plus but still my (usually faultless) pony would dead refuse to pass. We’d have to turn and go back.
 
When my chap was a youngster, the next door farmer very helpfully got some pigs, and put them in a paddock right on the side of our lane - their shelter was also positioned in such a way that the if the pigs were in it, the horses could hear and smell them, but not see them, which seemed to make things worse!

My first attempt in riding past them resulted in a very close call with a tractor, so realised I needed to tackle the issue head on, or no more hacking for me! So I long reined my youngster up and down to the paddock, with a bucket of feed, and fed him next to the gate into the pig pen. I repeated the same exercise over only a matter of few days, until he totally ignored any squealing and piggy antics, and to this day have never had a problem with pigs.

Everytime I rode past I also used to call the pigs to the gate, so he had plenty of exposure to them.

So yes it is doable, and tbh the farmer did me a big favour, as allowed me to pig proof my horse at young age!
 
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