Food Aggression in Horses

Polos

Polos

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one of my horses is absolutely lovely on the ground, whilst he can be a little sharp at times he's generally ok and a nice horse to be around. However, at feed time he can turn quite nasty.

In the hour or so leading up to feed time he will start rearing/kicking the walls/bucking/biting the door and bars and lunging at other horses over his stable door and through the bars (all the horses can see each other through their stables). He's not too horrible towards my other horse stabled on one side of him as he generally only pulls faces at him (think this is because they are turned out in neighboring fields, they stand on my lorry together etc) but any horse that is stabled next to him on the other side he can be quite nasty too them. The stable next to him has been left empty for months but recently a new livery has arrived and when it starts getting near feed time he starts winding this other horse up. The poor horse is spending most of its time at the opposite side of its stable and I feel awful especially as the horse has only been here a week :(

All the horses are fed at the same times everyday so its not like his neighbours are getting fed an hour later or earlier than him.

Once he gets his food he calms down a little but he will still eat a little bit and then start kicking the walls and biting. If I cover up the bars with a rug or something he will still kick/buck/rear and bite. I don't know why he gets so nasty at feeding time, is there anything I can do as I'm really worried about scaring the other livery away
 
Put him in an end box, with your own horse as his only neighbour. At least then he can't bother the other liveries. Does he have ad-lib hay/haylage whilst in? I find mine are happiest with constant access to hay/haylage in the stable :)
 
(a) The other horse's owner, if he/she has a reasonable view of equine behaviour (I know; that's asking a lot), should not get 'scared away.' Lots of stabled horses do this.

(b) My horse is one of them, but she is a lot better and doesn't lunge at the walls when there is a solid partition between her and the neighbor. She's pretty nasty when there are bars. It is what it is. She doesn't mind humans being around her at feeding time.
 
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I'll have a word with YO later and see if it's possible to move him. Would it be polite to ask the people stabled near the end of the row if we could swap stables or should I wait until I've spoken to YO?

He's only in for the mornings really and evenings (about 6.30pm he comes in now) but I do try and give him ad-lib hay when he's in. I tend to give it to him on the floor as I'm not a great fan of nets but most of the time he drags half of it through his bed and then because he's fussy he won't eat it even if i've taken it out of his bed while mucking out and put it back at the front for him. I don't know whether it's worth trying a net so that he's actually got hay he can eat at all times
 
Polos said:
I'll have a word with YO later and see if it's possible to move him. Would it be polite to ask the people stabled near the end of the row if we could swap stables or should I wait until I've spoken to YO?

He's only in for the mornings really and evenings (about 6.30pm he comes in now) but I do try and give him ad-lib hay when he's in. I tend to give it to him on the floor as I'm not a great fan of nets but most of the time he drags half of it through his bed and then because he's fussy he won't eat it even if i've taken it out of his bed while mucking out and put it back at the front for him. I don't know whether it's worth trying a net so that he's actually got hay he can eat at all times
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Could you try a hay bar?
 
Polos said:
I'll have a word with YO later and see if it's possible to move him. Would it be polite to ask the people stabled near the end of the row if we could swap stables or should I wait until I've spoken to YO?

He's only in for the mornings really and evenings (about 6.30pm he comes in now) but I do try and give him ad-lib hay when he's in. I tend to give it to him on the floor as I'm not a great fan of nets but most of the time he drags half of it through his bed and then because he's fussy he won't eat it even if i've taken it out of his bed while mucking out and put it back at the front for him. I don't know whether it's worth trying a net so that he's actually got hay he can eat at all times
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When I swopped stables I cleared it with the YO first to see whether anyone was likely to be amenable to swopping and then spoke to the other liveries.
 
Why cant you put boards up so he cant see other horse.
We've got one like this at work, and on a previous yard he bent the stainless steel bars!! He now lives in the end stable with no one next to him as its not fair on him to get this upset! Can he have a haynet? Hate hay on the floor, such a waste!
 
I certainly wouldn't want to give a horse that gets so upset and flings itself about like this one does a haynet - definitely an accident waiting to happen imo.
I have a mare who isn't keen on neighbours watching her eat and if she is hungry on a winter morning, will lunge at her neighbour when the hay is being filled up, if she doesn't think her turn is coming round fast enough. She was worse when I first got her - what does this horse eat as well as hay?
 
This is when a set routine causes problems, my lot never wait at gates to be brought in/hayed in the field, because I have no set times for doing this, inside I have hay out ready for them at tying up points, an open barn, I clip each one up before feeding, making them stand back while I put their buckets down, then tell them they can have it, my WB mare was very food aggressive when she first came from a 'rescue' looking like a hat rack, within a couple of weeks of making her wait for her feed, building up from her raising her head and not mugging me, to being quite patient and waiting for her feed, she now knows she gets fed and isn't stressy about it, but depending on work, mine get fed anytime from 6 am-10am, evenings from 4pm-8pm
 
I do not like bars in the walls at livery stables for this reason as to why your horse does it he might have been short of food at one point and had to complete for it .
The bigger worry is ulcers I have been this behaviour in horses who turned out to have ulcers .
He should go in an end stable so there's only one wall and I had one friend whose bought a vinyl banner and tied it to the bars so there was a permanent barrier .
Would it help to distract him with some sort of fibre block when the behaviour starts you could leave it outside his door and whoever was there could pop it in .
 
Sounds strange but a thinking a bit outside the box - horses with ulcers can display behaviour like this around feed time because eating hard feed is uncomfortable for them. Does he ever leave feed or eat some and take breaks?
Just another angle to consider
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I certainly wouldn't want to give a horse that gets so upset and flings itself about like this one does a haynet - definitely an accident waiting to happen imo.
I have a mare who isn't keen on neighbours watching her eat and if she is hungry on a winter morning, will lunge at her neighbour when the hay is being filled up, if she doesn't think her turn is coming round fast enough. She was worse when I first got her - what does this horse eat as well as hay?
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That's the reason I'm not a fan of using nets. I've always fed their hay to them on the floor.

In his feeds he gets anxikalm (his calmer) and 1/2 a scoop of speedi beet and a handful of chaff. I've kept him on what he was on when I bought him from my friend as it suits him well. He's hard to keep the weight on him and he has gone through phases where he's looked ribby so we've had to up his feed. The calmer has been a recent addition as recently at an away show his behavior stabled was starting to get worse and he was also starting to get quite anxious in the ring (as soon as you cantered in the ring he would get quite stressy and tense so I'd been waiting until he was relaxed before retiring).

He's not done too much for about 7 weeks as I broke myself so he's spent most of his time in the field with my other horse, he loves spending time in the field and its nice seeing him have a buck and a play. My friend has started to take him for little hacks now so he's at least doing something but he won't be in proper work for a couple of months yet. I think a break would do him good.
 
mega spoilt ponies said:
Sounds strange but a thinking a bit outside the box - horses with ulcers can display behaviour like this around feed time because eating hard feed is uncomfortable for them. Does he ever leave feed or eat some and take breaks?
Just another angle to consider
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hmm It might be best for me to call the vet out to have a look at him just to rule that out. My other horse is due his vaccinations next week so I might as well make the use of that vet visit.

He doesn't leave feed-most of the time he licks his bucket keen. however, he does take breaks but generally its to kick the wall or lunge at another horse.
 
Goldenstar said:
I do not like bars in the walls at livery stables for this reason as to why your horse does it he might have been short of food at one point and had to complete for it .
The bigger worry is ulcers I have been this behaviour in horses who turned out to have ulcers .
He should go in an end stable so there's only one wall and I had one friend whose bought a vinyl banner and tied it to the bars so there was a permanent barrier .
Would it help to distract him with some sort of fibre block when the behaviour starts you could leave it outside his door and whoever was there could pop it in .
Click to expand...

I could try a fibre block as that would give him something to focus on. I'm generally there most feed times which is when his behavior starts so I could give it a go.
 
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