Fighting mares!

[dizemo]

Hi All.

At our yard we have a mares herd and a geldings herd.

The other day two of the mares started having a stand off, circling each other, squaring up to each other which ended up in a nasty, terrible fight They were running backwards at each other, kicking like stink and squealing. It was like a wild stallion/dominance fight and neither one would back down.

One mare is established in the herd and is bolchy in the field with the other mares-and people, although she isn't 'top dog', i think she would possibly be fighting for 'second in command'?!; and the other is relatively new to the herd and seems to want the 'top dog'/'second in command' position. She has been ill of late (that's another story), but i wondered if any of you have witnessed or have any ideas about such horrific fights between mares?

It might be worth adding that the top mare of the herd was not in the field when this all happened.

(Both mares are fine, just cuts and bruises).

Luckily, I have a daft gelding!:thumbup:

Thank you so much in advance

 

[Rollin]

One of my Shagya mares seems to scrap with everything. I put her with my Highland Pony gelding, no stress and no trashed paddocks.

I have never understood why mares and gelding should be separated, I mix my horses depending on how much they like each other.

 

[pansymouse]

My mare is extremely dominant and a fighter, she's much better with geldings than mares and has a weakness for ponies who can get away with much more than horses. She did get nasty injuries a couple of years ago when she was in with another mare who would not back down and submit to her. Stupidly the owner of the other horse would not take it from me that it was not a good idea to have them in together so both horses got injured as a result of her insisting that horses must be kept in herds whatever. After a Sunday vet call out and stitches she was told in no uncertain terms to poke the herd babble and I stuck up an electric fence to separate them.

 

[Kat]

I didn't witness it thank goodness but mine had an awful fight with my friend's mare. They normally go out in a group of mares but on this day for various reasons it was just the two of them in a smaller (but big enough) field.

The other mare is quite stroppy in the field, likes her space and has been known to guard the gate. Not one that you risk getting too close to. Mine until then had never been a problem.

The fight was witnessed and were told that my friends mare started it but mine wasn't going to let her finish it! They were fighting hard, one of them even got down on the ground to bite the others legs!

Very nasty but luckily only superficial cuts and bruises.

Both still go out with the same main herd and have obviously sorted out their differences but we don't ever put them in a situation where it is just the two of them. Mine has been fine turned out with any of the other mares in restricted space but we don't risk her going in with this one mare.

 

[dizemo]

these two mares weren't alone, there were still another three girls out with them, who didn't seem to know what to do with themselves. They just hid in the corner then started racing around the field in confused excitement. There's normally 9 in the herd. Five of us raced over to the field to try and distract them but they didn't want to give up. Eventually one ran off with the rest of the herd, so they separated, but they were both cut and bruised. I just didn't think mares could be so brutal.

I have witnessed two of our geldings (many years ago) run down another (new) gelding between them. It turned out the owner lied about the state of its health (it was riddled with bone cancer) so we could only summise the boys rejected him because he was a 'weak link' in their herd.

 

[HollyWoozle]

I've had mares fight when a new one has been introduced to the herd, but I've always found (with all horses, regardless of sex, size, age etc.) that they establish their place in the herd fairly quickly if left to it. But I think we have been fortunate! I think sometimes they just have to battle it out but it can be very scary sometimes and obviously I wouldn't want it to result in any serious injuries! Hope the mares at your yard get it sorted!

 

[xTrooperx]

I've had our lil shetland x take down a shire, actually put her on the floor this was because both wanted to be top mare, thankfully was witnessed and both were fine but it never happened again, yet the same shetland mare is now with a cob mare & gelding, she just automaticly went into second place, no kicking/running around very quiet and not one problem.