Defensive over Food

M

mcnaughty

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 August 2009
Messages
2,296
Visit site
Does anyone have any experience of ponies that are defensive towards humans when they are eating hard feed?

I have a 2yo welsh A gelding who is lovely and cuddly at all times but when he has his dinner he can be really nasty. He doesn't do it to me but this could just be because I can read him much better than others who don't know him very well.

But yesterday he lunged at a young girl who was looking at him over the door and bit her hoodie and tonight he lunged at my 4yo daughter and bit the top of her head. I will reitterate that it is just when he is eating his dinner - he is very very cuddly and friendly normally.

I'm going to leave him alone in future to eat his handful of dinner in peace and make sure he is tied up tight whenever my daughter is dealing with him.

Any ideas?
 
Either he has had food used against him as a weapon, ie teased, food with held etc by a previous owner, he has had to fight for food in his prior life to you ie in a large group where only the most aggressive got fed - or he is hungry now
 
ding-dong-merrily said:
Either he has had food used against him as a weapon, ie teased, food with held etc by a previous owner, he has had to fight for food in his prior life to you ie in a large group where only the most aggressive got fed - or he is hungry now
Click to expand...

It has to be sheer hunger then and he is NOT getting any more food the little fatso! Both the events happened in the evening when he had just come off a field with reasonable grass for this time of year.

Cannot be the other suggestions because he is only 2 and his breeder is extremely reputable and really would not have teased etc. As for fighting for food he has not been hayed this winter due to loads of grass and he comes into his own stable for feed and hay in the evening.

I just wonder if he is going through a baby phase - like a colt would but he is thoroughly gelded!
 
My 2 year old PBA can be like this, but she just pulls faces at you but god help ya if you try to move the bucket then the backend comes at ya. I have concluded that its from living with 3 bigger bossier horses and having to stick up for herself, I now totally leave her alone with her food in the field (fed with the gelding mares brought in cos their fatties!) I still have to walk past her to take hay into the field etc but when she puts her ears back I flap my arms about like a bird and growl make funny noises so shes like omg what are you doing and her face is back to normal then I leave her.
She has got a lot better lately so it could be something to do with being a baby.
 
My homebred filly was like this. Once she actually kicked me when I went in to feed her - she got whack for that.

The way to fix it is to take a stick (I generally use a schooling whip rather than a crop, for that extra bit of room), make the horse stand at the back of the stable, and put the food down. The horse then has to stay still - correcting with the stick if he moves - for however long it takes for him to drop his head. I then offer them my hand to bump with their nose - not grab with their lips, if they grab, they get corrected and the process starts again - and then once they've bumped my hand calmly, I leave them to it.

After a week or so, once they're used to it, go into the stable while they're eating with the stick, and make them back off them food. Get them to stand at the back of the stable calmly, then bump your hand, then let them eat again once they've calmly let you take the food back.

After a while, he should go to the back of his stable automatically when you go in with food, or leave it if you go in there while he's eating. The problem may disappear once he's older and doing some work - it may just be a manifestation of his pent up energy.

It might cure his issue, or he might always have food aggression issues, some horses are just like that. Try it out and see how it goes - but don't leave him unattended when he's eating with children EVER. You know the behaviour is there, and as sad as it is you can't trust him with children when he's eating. They're so much smaller and weaker than him, and you'd never forgive yourself if there was an accident.
 
I wouldn't worry about it - just make sure he is left in peace to enjoy his feed. One of mine is a little like this with dinner, I just leave him alone until he's finished.

Can you move his feed away from the stable door so he doesn't get disturbed if people decide they must watch him eat?
 
Yes I have and I wouldn't make a big deal of it or you can make it worse. This is one thing I will tolerate. I'd put his feed in the stable. Put him in the stable. Leave him in peace. Don't let anyone look over his door or hang around it until he's finished. With one of my horses, a couple of years of this treatment and she gradually lost the food aggression, to the point where I was able to go to her while she was eating and rug her up safely.
I've now got a gelding like this, he's fed in the field. I just let him have his 10 minutes to eat in peace, he's lovely otherwise.
 
ding-dong-merrily said:
Either he has had food used against him as a weapon, ie teased, food with held etc by a previous owner, he has had to fight for food in his prior life to you ie in a large group where only the most aggressive got fed - or he is hungry now
Click to expand...

Just to say, good guess, but my mare had never been in this situation in her life, I knew her home until she came to me at 6 months old. However, she did have quite a big "personal bubble" when it came to other horses, and I think she actually found the close proximity she was forced into when stabled quite stressful. She also didn't like busy yards, she didn't like people and animals constantly passing backwards and forwards in front of her door. She was better when moved to an end stable and people were asked not to peer over her door to try to be friendly. At the end of the day, she was much more relaxed when left out. So you can't assume that a horse or pony with this behaviour has some sort of abuse or neglect in their past.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top