"Hate at first sight"

[domane]

Has anyone had horses that they have been unable to keep together, after persistently trying, because they hate each other? For example 2 x dominant horses or 1 x big domanant horse and 1 x very submissive smaller horse that is scared.

If so, were they same sex or different? (I appreciate that it would be daft to put a pair of stallions in together) And how did you keep them, to try to help them to get along - side-by-side paddocks, next door stables, riding out together? Finally, how long before you gave up and kept them separated?

Thanks

 

[seoirse]

Yes had this problem with an elderly but very bossy gelding, we put a new young cob mare out with him, she beat the cr*p out of him, he fell down and she STILL kept kicking him, it was awful, trying to get her off him was scary as she was so enraged. Somehow he didn't get hurt! Needless to say we seperated them and she kept jumping the fence to get in with him just to beat him. It was awful. We had to make sure there was always a paddock between them! We've had her turned out with several other horses since and she's been totally fine. She just *HATED* him for some reason.

Forgot to add - we didn't really persist with trying to keep them together as we were so worried she was going to hurt him. So gave up pretty fast!

 

[Caol Ila]

My horse. All the time. She can only be turned out with the sort of submissive horse who will run first and ask questions later. She would never accept sharing a field with a horse who would stand up for itself. That could only ever end badly.

 

[Wagtail]

Horse behaviour is very strange, isn't it? We have a cob gelding here that when he was young, my huge ID gelding took an instant dislike to, unlike I have ever seen before and chased him trying to jump on him and bite and kick him. A lovely mare we had here managed to get in between them and protect him long enough for us to get him out. Then another gelding arrived on the yard. He too took an instant disliking to the young cob and repeatedly ran him down, cornering him and kicking him. The cob was screaming. I have never heard the like and it took us an age to separate them. I actually had to ask the owners of this new gelding to leave as he would break through fencing trying to get at this cob. Both geldings were fine with other horses. But a couple of years ago, the cob worked his way up to the top of the herd (separate to my ID). Things were fine for a while, but then he turned into a little hitler. Running down any horse that even looked at him the wrong way and booting hell out of them. In the end he had to be kept in a paddock on his own and has been for three years now. He escaped into the herd last summer (whilst I was there) and inside a minute had booted two of the horses, even though he had happily been grooming with them over the fence for weeks. He just can never be trusted with others. But what I do wonder is, whether my old ID and that new gelding that arrived on the yard, saw something in him, something indicative of things to come? Or did the fact that he was run down by these other two geldings when an impressionable youngster, colour his current dangerous and antisocial behaviour?

 

[Archangel]

My teaser gelding and my broodmare hated each other on sight - both very dominant characters. We had several stables kicked to pieces when they were on the same yard just because they could see each other . Stallion was on the same yard and very puzzled by all the hostility. In the end I moved the mare to the next farm for a bit of peace!

I would have sworn that I could never ever in a million years put them in together but gradually over time age mellowed them and a grudging respect developed. They also had a mutual friend and I put him in the field between them and he almost acted as the go between.
In the end they led the herd jointly, gelding in charge, mare a strong deputy. When the mare was very old she became ill and the gelding guarded her.

If these are two horses that you own and you are keeping both for a long time it is worth working at but not worth the risk for the short term (if they look as if they might like to kill each other).