Gelding turned aggressive when in a mixed herd

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teach

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I have recently purchased a 3rd old gelding whom I saw in his previous home and was the bottom in the pecking order-he was out with a gelding and a colt. Since i brought him home he is very aggressive-almost stallion like! He is in a herd with 6 geldings and one mare. He is happy to launch at anything with teeth baring and will go mad if anyone tries to bring anything out if the field. I have spoken to his breeder and said he wasn't at all dominant-even before he was gelded!
Any ideas on how to solve this? It's mixed turnout or nothing at the yard I'm on!

Sorry for the essay but this is so frustrating!
 
How long have you had him and how long was he separated from the herd to start with? I would say really it's just about him establishing himself in the herd and maybe he is actually a dominant type. I would also suggest that the fact there is one mare in the field could be making the problem worse. Is he keeping the other geldings away from the mare? I imagine it is quite likely the mare is in season and this may well be bringing out hormone reactions in your gelding he is not used to. I have a pony who is very riggy in his behaviour and is the boss but he is kept with all geldings. However, he once went out on loan and after a while they got a mare as well and had her in the other field. My gelding jumped out on two occasions to get to the mare. He would NEVER do anything like that as he's a really wimp and neurotic about fencing etc. This behaviour was totally out of character. Can the mare not be put in a separate field with other mares or is she the only mare there?

I think eventually your horse will settle down once the pecking order is sorted. It's not pleasant to witness though (we had a horribly aggressive gelding many years ago!).
 
Thanks. She is the only Kate there, and, understandably the other liveries aren't too happy about the chunks that keep getting taken out of their horses! I've had him a month, he spent 2 weeks going out on his own whilst we checked he hadn't brought any bugs with him, and has been out with the others 2 weeks, but he seems to be getting worse not better!
 
Does he try to herd the mare away from the others or stick close to her?
How old is he? My gelding was fine in a mixed herd when he was young but has to go out with geldings only now. If there are mares he will spend all his time keeping the other boys away, aggressive chasing and serious bites.
 
He is 3. He seems to be herding all of the others away from her, but not actually bothered about going near her himself! Think the answer is going to be to find him somewhere he can be in a group of geldings...
 
Sounds like he needs to be in a smaller all gelding environment. If it's getting worse, it will get no better.
 
There is a herbal mix for stallion behaviour (global), also it might be worth while testing for "rig", its a blood test, you would have to return the "gelding" and get your money back, don't meant to be sceptical, but no vendor is going to admit that they sold a badly behaved problem.
In the mean time could you try him in a muzzle?, my boy did get all mixed up when he was that age, he got in tow with a mare in season, then went all foal type "yappy" when she was not in season, we had to remove him.
We have had a few problems off and on since, but he is now in a mixed herd and seems OK, his main thing was having a pal and then another horse moved in to take up that position when he was not in the field, so that when he was turned out he "had" to be very aggressive, to the point of being in a frenzy, kicking and backing in to the "intrudor"
 
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Horses can completely change in a new environment, even ones who were bottom of the pecking order before, I experienced that first hand with a mare who was bottom of the herd, changed yards and she turned into a demon, beating up another mare who was above her before, constantly bullying and trying to work her way up the ranks. I'm sure the move gave her that little window of opportunity to change her ranking because everyone was unsettled. Can the mare not be moved into another field with a couple of the geldings? He may need a smaller group to bond and settle down with, the group could be just too big and add a mare into the mix....;)
 
We have a new gelding here who I found cannot be turned out with mares. He tries to kill them! And any gelding that gets in the way gets a good booting. I had to take the only mare out and put her with my two horses. He's nice and calm when it's all boys.
 
It's unusual for them to display that sort behaviour straight away in a large unknown heard unless they have not been castrated properly or cut late.

I'd stick him on the RigCalm by Global Herbs and see if is behaviour changes, purely for the sake of the other liveries to start with, however you'll need to give it a month to work properly before you'll see any definate difference, meanwhile this hopefully will settle him down, once he's established himself as the 'alfa male' even if he's just a domimant type, the heard (even with mares) will accept him, know their place and peace will be restored apart from seasons and if people float about with food.

If he calms down I'd take him off it, if the behaviour starts up again, have a blood test done.

My horse has been tried in different fields (geldings only) even with known dominant geldings which I thought would bring him down a peg or two, but it never did, now although he's not got into a fight and a I mean a fight, (because no other horse has challanged him like a stallion would)
but he was a hinderance to other livery owners because he'd chase others away when they were trying to catch their horses, if left be, they all got on providing the horses kept out of his way and no mares were in the next field.

Could just be his age, obviously some horses have stronger characters than others but I find it hard to believe he was not like this at his previous home because I know mine was, even with horses that were older than him, he was only a 2yr old and he was a nasty buggar with others back then...nothing changed!
 
Thanks all. I have decided to move him, not Ideal to move him again so quick; but I have found a yard that has gelding only turnout in small groups. I will get some rig calm as well though to cover all bases!
 
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