Do horses get jealous?

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Louby

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Brought my horse in tonight, changed her bandage, she was totally chilled, put her in the stable which overlooks the field, she was happy as larry. About 5 mins later we went to get my friends horses in and my horse started really stressing, kicked the stable, was kicking the door, box walking and barging at the door. I hadnt a clue what had upset her, its a very small and quiet private yard and can only think she was having a proper strop because we were with other horses?? She did settle about 10 mins later.
 
Is this outside her usual routine? Does she usually get fed when she comes in? Is there usually company on the yard? I think more likely that she felt insecure with no other horses close to her.
 
I'm convinced they do! My boy I've had since forever kicks right off whenever I deal with another horse! I've had one on loan I kept in the same field as him & he'd chase him away so I couldn't get near him to bring in to ride, and if I did make it out of the gate with other one he's walk along the fence line ears pinned threatening him. I even had to get my loan horse stabled in another block out of view as if he could see me in wish him he'd hammer the door & be a nuisance in general. He very much sees me as his person! Out of sight out of mind with him lol!
 
Yes they do I have a gelding I've had since a foal and bought another about a year ago the original one will plant himself between me & the other one if I try to do anything and will deliberately block the gate etc chase him and generally be a jealous horror .
 
I agree that they are resource guarding, but when the resource being guarded is only attention, then I'd have big trouble separating that from whatever describe in humans as jealousy.

Humans are often jealous about resources (houses, cars, attractive partners, skills) as well.
 
tankgirl1 said:
Yes but horses don't think like humans so to use the term 'jealous' is anthropomorphising them
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We know now that our emotions are created by changes in chemicals in our brain. I see no reason why the terms whiich we use to describe those chemical changes shouldn't also be applied to horses experiencing the same chemical changes.

I don't see jealousy as a thought process in humans, but as a feeling. I don't see why horses shouldn't experience the same feelng.

If a child which can't yet talk acts as if it is jealous, and we call it jealousy, then I can't see why we wouldn't describe a horse acting as if it is jealous as jealousy.

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Yes I think so. I have two horses, they are turned out in a mixed herd. When I go to see them in the field my two are the only ones that come over, even though I regularly do some of the other people's horses. My gelding will bite my mare if I am giving her attention instead of him, he otherwise adores her but wants my attention all for himself
 
ycbm said:
We know now that our emotions are created by changes in chemicals in our brain. I see no reason why the terms whiich we use to describe those chemical changes shouldn't also be applied to horses experiencing the same chemical changes.

I don't see jealousy as a thought process in humans, but as a feeling. I don't see why horses shouldn't experience the same feelng.

If a child which can't yet talk acts as if it is jealous, and we call it jealousy, then I can't see why we wouldn't describe a horse acting as if it is jealous as jealousy.

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Well I'm no horse behaviourist so maybe you know best. It just annoys me when human emotions are attributed to animals
 
without a shadow of doubt I have seen a pony push between another pony and an unrelated (to me) child as she adores him she is very upset if the child touches or talks to one of the others before her. All her resources come from me so it cannot be resource guarding. I feed, catch, groom, talk to her daily but I am totally ignored when this small child appears every now and again.
 
tankgirl1 said:
Well I'm no horse behaviourist so maybe you know best. It just annoys me when human emotions are attributed to animals
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I don't understand why? They have feelings and emotions just as we do. Do you think they don't? Give them a different name from human ones but they are still there. If a person dies their partner may go and touch the body to say goodbye. They will spend a lot of time moping around grieving because they are sad. If a horse dies it's pair bond goes and sniffs the body, it may spend time with the body, it then probably spends the next 3 days moping around, grieving, looking for it's friend, trying to come to terms with it. The horse is sharing the same emotion as the human ie grief. Put the ill horse to sleep and don't let the pair bond see it and there are all sorts of problems as the pair bond cannot reconcile what has happened to it's partner.
If you don't call the horse's reaction "grief" ie a human emotion what do you call it. Do you believe animals have emotions, are they similar to human ones? If they are similar why not call them the same so everyone understands.
 
Yes I know we are animals, but we obviously function very differently to most for want of a better word, because no other animal has wrecked the planet for example. Yes animals can feel emotions of course they can, I just don't believe jealousy is one that we share with horses.
 
Thank you for your replies. I wasnt trying to humanise her, hence the question, it was just odd as she had had her tea and she has been fine on her own as she has sadly had to be with her injury. It was just wierd tonight as I couldnt see a reason for her behaving like she did.
Nothing different with her routine, she is on restricted turnout so is in more than out and is always the first to come in, but tonight me and my hubby brought my friends horses in, its rare that we do.
 
We have 2 horses. One is mine , the other is my OH's . Mine will do anything he can to stop me interacting with my OH's horse. He will even block me getting to him. I never give them treats when they are together so it's not food and he doesn't do it with strangers. If I tell him to stop and back off he stands and sulks , waits until Mr P comes near then gives him a mean little nip. As for riding OH's horse with somebody else on mine..... whoo hoo forget it !!
 
I think the problem with a horse that has been stabled (for whatever reason) is just that - they are confined. If nothing else is happening that is OK and they trust that they are there for a reason. If things look as if they are happening to the rest of "their herd" and they are in danger of being left on their own then that is when natural instinct kicks in and they need to re-group.
 
ycbm said:
I agree that they are resource guarding, but when the resource being guarded is only attention, then I'd have big trouble separating that from whatever describe in humans as jealousy.

Humans are often jealous about resources (houses, cars, attractive partners, skills) as well.
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If it is resource guarding, why does OH's horse refuse to be caught if OH brings in and rides loan horse first? I do agree about the difficulty of describing emotions in animals.
 
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Smogul said:
If it is resource guarding, why does OH's horse refuse to be caught if OH brings in and rides loan horse first? I do agree about the difficulty of describing emotions in animals.
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I think we've all seen children (and adults!) sulk if they don't get what they want? The jealousy would stem from wanting to guard the valuable resource of attention. The behaviour after that, in humans, would be called 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'.

That's how I would interpret the behaviour you've described.

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Smogul said:
If it is resource guarding, why does OH's horse refuse to be caught if OH brings in and rides loan horse first? I do agree about the difficulty of describing emotions in animals.
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I adored my first horse but he didn't seem to really return that feeling, he was fine, happy but didn't show much else towards me. He didn't appear to care what I did as long as he got fed etc. He was certainly not a cuddly boy.
I got my second, an unbroken horse. Started breaking and when we got to the riding stage I rode the youngster first. The evenings were getting darker so I thought I could ride the safe old horse last. Youngster went fine, got on the older one and he rode me straight into a tree, fortunately I had a hat on. He had been under that tree hundreds of times but the message was "I am king here and don't you forget it" .
He went back to being ridden and attended to first and my head remained safe. Call it jealousy or his position in the set up but he wished to make his feelings known.
 
Trouper said:
I think the problem with a horse that has been stabled (for whatever reason) is just that - they are confined. If nothing else is happening that is OK and they trust that they are there for a reason. If things look as if they are happening to the rest of "their herd" and they are in danger of being left on their own then that is when natural instinct kicks in and they need to re-group.
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I don't think OP is describing jealousy but something like the above, a stressed horse, one shut in. I don't see she was having a stop necessarily but more along the lines that she felt in danger being confined and needed to escape it
 
ycbm said:
I think we've all seen children (and adults!) sulk if they don't get what they want? The jealousy would stem from wanting to guard the valuable resource of attention. The behaviour after that, in humans, would be called 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'.

That's how I would interpret the behaviour you've described.

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I've had a sulker, my old mare used to get the hump but only with me, If I turned her away for a rest she wouldn't let me near her, I would have to get somebody else to catch her for me, I still visited her daly but had to check her from a distance, as soon as she was bought back into work she liked me again, she was also moved into a paddock she didn't like once which resulted in another sulk & me being given the cold shoulder.
I took a boyfriend to meet her once & foolishly told him that she liked me, she made me look like an idiot as one of her field mates had bitten her on the neck & acted like it was my fault!
I owned her for 27 years & if anything happened that she didn't like I got the blame & was sent to Coventry!
 
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