Do horses get jealous?

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ellis9905

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So I've only ever owned one horse at a time before so had no experience...

But we own pony 1 and have has him 3 yrs... He's my daughters pony and is good as gold.

4 weeks ago, we took a loan pony on for my daughter to progress on to..

All was well and the ponies are stabled next to each other...

This last week pony number 1 has been seen to squeals and ears back towards pony no 2 ( he can't make contact with the other pony in the stables, so I don't worry about injury!)

We stopped and watched the behaviour and have tried to see if there's a trigger to it, as they get along well enough 95% if the time!

It appears almost like jealousy... If my daughter goes to pony 2 without first fussing pony 1 then he'll squeel and prat about... If daughter goes and fusses pony 1 then the behaviour stops...

Can horses show jealousy ?? Is he missing the attention being 100% on him??
 
I think it's to do with status in the herd. Pony 1 may think he's more important than Pony 2 and if your daughter goes to Pony 2 first, Pony 1 may be thinking that she's undermining his status.
I've seen this with my own two.
 
I believe yes !! they definitely get jelous i had my mare on her own for the best part of ten years and she had my sole undivided attention, she is 21 this year but you would think she was 7 to watch her in the field and at work however when i looked after a friends horses during her maternity a few years ago, she gave up she exhibited many of the signs you say with yours, the squealing etc but also the rest of the time stood in the field with her head hung low like she was going to give up, the vet checked her over and said she was perfectly healthy and was just depressed as soon as the horses went home she resorted to her former self

there are several herbal remedies that help with jelousy however in my case the case was far to severe and as a result on buying new horses have chosen to keep them at a different yard as not to upset her in her retirement.
 
Mine are the same. I watch them in the field and they are friends, but when I walk down the field my loan pony is aggressive towards my boy and chases him off. Once she gets a growl from me she is fine but, yes, it does look like jealousy!
 
Yes absolutely.

There is of course herd status, but I know I'm not allowed to stand next, look at or speak to another horse or pony while I'm grooming, tacking up my girl etc, she gets very cross!!
 
Yes! I have 3, and they all immediately want what one is getting done done to them! My young horse will actually throw himself on the floor of his stable and have a tantrum I mean roll if he doesn't. My new horse is even in on the act and when I'm not looking will turn his rear end to the dividing wall between stables and air kick it! My older horse jumps out of the field if you don't take him in first...all pretty harmless behaviour for show from all 3, apart from the jumping out, which is annoying at times.
 
At great risk of being accused of anthropomorphism, I do believe that horses get jealous. If I walked though the field hand in hand with a boyfriend, my old horse would gallop across the field and gently squeeze between us to split us up and the same if I stopped to talk with another horse in the field. He was in no way aggressive about it, but definitely asserting his feelings!

My current horse is not a jealous type and happily shares me and hubby equally as well as happily sharing us with hubby's horse. Hubby's horse, however, does sometimes appear jealous when hubby spends time with other horses, though less overtly than my old boy - he gets a Paddington bear stare followed by a brief Eeyore-like sulk :eek:

I do believe that horses (and all animals) have and demonstrate similar emotional responses to humans and in may, their expressions along with corresponding behaviours give them away in exactly the same way that humans do. I know though that no scientist will agree with me :D
 
Yes. They can get very jealous. If I am giving my horse a cuddle at the stable door and any other horse even so much as looks in our direction her ears go back as if to say, keep away, this cuddle is mine. I have been told that she is far less grumpy if I am not around.
 
Yes I got a recently weaned foal and my old horse was jealous of the attention it got from me initially. It was the one and only time she bit me. As foal grew up she was jealous of the attention the youngster got from the geldings in neighbouring fields and would bite her to make her move away from them. They are now best friends and she is still the boss. I fuss my oldie first and last and treat her as the most important.
 
Jealous as we know it? Probably not. That implies emotional hurt. But they do fiercely 'resource guard' and to most horses, humans are a very important resource, often on par with hay or even a bucket feed.

A particular human may only be important to one particular horse, which is why a normally lower ranking horse will tell it's superior to naff off, if the higher ranking horse has little interest in the human.

Most of my horses have seen me as THEIR human, that they don't want to share with anyone else, even their herd boss. But because I am undisputed boss, they are not allowed to pick fights over me when I'm actually nearby. I can't (and don't bother trying to) stop they being 'jealous' when I'm not right there but there is to be no fighting, ever, around me.
 
I don't know about jealousy in the way humans usually feel it, but I have witnessed certain mares become highly agitated and aggressive when they saw that another mare was receiving attention from the stallion (in the pasture breeding situation) to the point of chasing the stallion off the other mare, although the same mare would be easy-going at other times e.g. when none of the mares were in season. Arguably a classic case of 'resource guarding'.
 
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In terms of my horses - yes.

We have two at home: my ex-racehorse (Star) who is currently being hunted once a fortnight and my dad's 3yo filly (Daisy) who is wintering at home before going back to start this year's campaign.

Star is relatively unaffectionate, doesn't go in for hugs and basically tolerates all the fuss she gets in terms of grooming, plaiting, mane/tail pulling, baths etc, whereas Daisy is all over people and other horses like an absolute rash (but isn't getting handled as much as she's out of work currently).

Stables are divided by partitions that allow both horses to put their heads over into each other's stables, so whenever I'm in working on Star, Daisy has her head over the partition doing her absolute nut in. She HATES that Star is getting attention and she isn't and she most certainly makes her presence known (reaching to grab my coat/hood, knocking rugs/brushes off the partition, whinnying and snorting). The minute you turn your attention to her she's like an angel, but if you continue to ignore her she turns into a proper sourpuss!

She's also the same at the trainer's place. He and his girlfriend told me that she has to be taken out first in the morning otherwise she goes into a sulk, and has to have a chain across her doorway with the door open as she kicks the door when they're harnessing up/washing down other horses in front of her. Now she just leans on the chain hoping someone will stroke her as they pass. She's an attention seeker who loves fuss and she gets seriously jealous when another horse gets some and she doesn't.
 
Yes they do. My mare is still and we got our 2nd horse a few months ago!
I've had her 8 years and she has protected me in the past. My sisters horse has protected her too, when she was injured in the field once. She's had him 7 years now..so I do think that some horses see certain people as more than just a food source.
 
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