HELP! HAVING PROBLEMS WITH MY HORSE JUST KICKED ME

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Cor

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Hi guys, I need your advice on sth....
My once very friendly and quiet mare has just kicked my on the back, intentionally, after giving her her feed. I would never expect it from this horse, she has always let me approach when she had her feed, letting my put on her fly mask and rug.. This is truly unexplainable...
But in combination with some other signals, I start to believe that sth is bothering her.
During her riding, she puts a lot of resistance, not wanting to come into contact, tossing her head around, putting her tongue over the bit. I should mention she had her teeth checked a month ago by the dentist, who found them in a really good condition, she has a lovely, mild bit, (Neue Schule verbident) with which she would come into contact very easily, with no force at all. Anyway, as we thought that the rings perhaps pinch her in the end, I tried a couple of other bits (full cheek and an eggbutt) but no improvement as far as resistance is concerned.
Saddle fits her perfectly, I should mention that we have increased her feed a month ago to help her gain weight, my other horse which was next to her in another paddock had to be moved to another place and then I was asked to move her to this paddock, it starts to get hot in my country (not UK), and she shows some resistance when I take her from her paddock to the yard to groom and ride her, I should also mention that on a couple of occasions when I was tightening her girth up, she turned her neck as if she would bite me, but I did not pay any attention to that.

Any of these factors could explain her behaviour? Do you think it is something medical/physical/hormonal or do you think she is just avoiding work and also starting to believe she is the boss...

I am giving her a week off... Is this the right approach?? In the meantime I ordered a couple of bits to see if any fits her better....

Please reply soon.. Really need your advice..
 
Is your extra feed cereal based? If so I'd try to cut it back and resort to a high fibre diet adding oil and sugar beet or copra for weight gain. A diet high in cereals can contribute to ulcers which would describe some of the changes, and also behaviour changes.
 
I would be calling the vet - could be hormonal, or with the agression when girthing, could be a sign of ulcers.

Good luck and hope you get things sorted x
 
Hi, thanks a lot for your replies.
Her diet consists of chaff, sugar beet and pony nuts, we have increased slightly the pony nuts and kept the other quantities the same. I have had her for almost two years now....
I told the yard to gradually decrease her feed back to the original quantities.
I will check the fit of the saddle and try the new bits, if problems persist I may have to call the vet...

What are the symptoms of ulcer?
 
My mare was like this a few months ago. She was very resistant to the contact when ridden and lots of head tossing. She also kicked my daughter's mare whilst leading and being tied next to each other when they are usually led/ tied up with no problems. She was also trying to bite me when doing girth up. I had her checked by Mc Timoney chiropractor who found her pelvis was misaligned and also her poll was out. She is back to normal now with only a few grumpy moments which is normal for her.
 
Are you sure it wasn't just a completely unrelated incident to anything you have mentioned and she got a nasty fly/insect bite just as you were behind her?
 
I think it was intentional, I was standing opposite her and I gave her her feed, and then as I was leaving (i was on her side and had some safety distance) I felt a sideways kick on my back...

If this was an insect would she kick sideways??
 
Cor said:
I should also mention that on a couple of occasions when I was tightening her girth up, she turned her neck as if she would bite me, but I did not pay any attention to that.
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Reading your post and especially this bit makes me think of stomach/gut discomfort.
 
Cor said:
I think it was intentional, I was standing opposite her and I gave her her feed, and then as I was leaving (i was on her side and had some safety distance) I felt a sideways kick on my back...

If this was an insect would she kick sideways??
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I can't imagine there's anything wrong with her other than bad manners.

Personally, I feed a horse and leave. Preferring to let them eat in peace.

It's what I'd do with your little horse from now on.
 
Cor said:
she has always let me approach when she had her feed, letting my put on her fly mask and rug.. This is truly unexplainable....
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Hmmm, sorry if being numpty here; but when you feed her, what do you then do?? What I mean is, do you, in effect, hang around here, or do you use the opportunity to put on her fly mask and rug whilst she's eating???? Or even immediately after she's eaten.

Are there other horses around or in the vicinity while she's eating?

Having never had a mare until recently, I've never really thought about things which mares seem to be ultra-sensitive too, often. But now I'm having to learn!!! And bless her, the little mare I've got on loan is a brilliant teacher of what she does and doesn't like - and feed times are sacrosanct; she's let me know that she needs her space, not just away from me faffing about but from other horses as well.

So I'm wondering if this was merely a situation of her telling you (not very politely!) to back off and give her more space? Coz this is exactly what she'd do in a herd situation if another horse (or a predator) was invading her space.

Is there somewhere quiet where you could take her to let her feed, like a stable or something? I think it may be of benefit to think about your routine of when you feed, what you do whilst she's feeding and what you do immediately afterwards. With my girl, as soon as she's eaten up I remove the feed bowls coz if I don't she can get quite possessive with the other horse in the field - as soon as feed bowls are gone she's OK.

I was kicked by my boy not long ago: yes, like you I took it very personally, and then sat down and figured out WHY he'd dunnit. I also talked it through with my trainer - and wonder if maybe you'd benefit from someone experienced coming along to help you with your mare??? Someone who's got the patience to sit and watch and figure things out - maybe help you with some groundwork with her to set the boundaries and put you back as herd leader: personally I would suggest a IH practitioner or someone that practices the Michael Peace way of doing things. It could be something you're doing in the general routine - completely unaware of - which is stressing her out, and that's not your fault but sometimes mares can be a bit hormonal and that bit more sensitive and will react to something you don't even realise you've done (sorry that doesn't make good English!). Maybe she's associating feed (or whenever you do your rugging/fly mask bit) with something she doesn't like - and so you might need to re-think that as well???

But in the interim, I'd think about your feeding routine first and foremost.
 
Well the thing is when it comes to her feed she was never dominant with me (she was with more submissive horses), never, I have had her for two years and she always lets me near her...
Sometimes when I was in a hurry and had to leave, if time was limited, I would put her rug and fly mask on while she was eating and then leave, and she was always ok with that....
however yesterday I put her feed and was about to leave straight away, and got kicked.....

Bottom line is never trust a horse, and especially when eating... Learnt my lesson now.....
 
Cor said:
if time was limited, I would put her rug and fly mask on while she was eating and then leave, and she was always ok with that.........
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Ahhh, this may be the issue??? I always used to do "jobs" whilst the horse was eating; my trainer says don't do this coz horses need space/peace & quiet to eat without being disturbed.

The other thing you might need to do is to assert your herd leadership over the whole eating process; by using your body language to let her know WHEN she eats; and also WHERE. She needs to have the security of knowing that YOU as herd leader is able to assert your dominance over the whole feeding process. At the moment I suspect that she thinks she is very much calling the shots and this isn't what you want.

If you're approaching her with a feed bowl, she must learn that she eats when YOU the herd leader say so and not before. She must be polite and submissive. The idea is to make yourself as tall as possible and you can raise one hand and as it were "push" her back (not manually), but by making yourself taller you are asserting your leadership. THEN when she's polite and submissive (you may see her head lower, she may lick or chew), and then only, put her food down. Then when she's eating, don't turn your back on her to walk away, just keep watching her and back away slowly.

Like I say, you may well benefit from an experienced trainer to help you - the timing of this sort of training is absolutely fundamental and you need to be sure of yourself - she will pick up on any hesitation or insecurity on your part.

It may be that this has been building up with her for a while ....... in fact I would suspect this is the case. I think if you can work on one issue, i.e. the feeding thing, and get yourself back into the herd leader role, you can then maybe work on other things, maybe do some groundwork or schooling, but I think you need to, for now, just take a pause and get this feeding thing sorted for a start.

Sorry meant to say also that someone else has suggested there may be some pain issues??? It wouldn't hurt to get a saddle fitter and/or physio out to just check she's OK, and yes as you've said there may be a bitting issue too.
 
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Agree with the others about the feeding.

However, the riding and girthing issues are saying possible Ulcers to me.
There's a good video link posted by Kerilli which is quite useful for ulcer indication and made me realise my horse was a possible candidate - his vice was biting when girthing up. Its definitely worth checking out.
 
Some symptoms of ulcers are:

- loosing condition/finding it hard to put weight back on
- general grumpiness, but especially when girthed or rugged

Most horse vets have a portable scope, or access to one. We had one of ours scoped and it was a relatively easy and cheap process.
 
Agree with amymay and MiJods... I have just got a mare and I leave her in peace when she is having her feed whereas you could play a brass band and do a shindig around my old gelding when he had his feed.
 
Afraid I disagree with some people here :o

You know your mare, you've had her for 2 years. If you feel this incident might form part of an emerging pattern of behaviour, along with the problems you're having under saddle, I'd think about getting it checked out if I were in your shoes. I've had personal experience recently of putting my mare's behaviour down to being 'mareish' and I feel pretty bad now, because the chiropractor found she had some pelvic and poll issues. After treatment, she's still a bit bonkers but it's improved her way of going for sure.

Can't hurt to get her checked over...
 
My gelding does not like being 'fiddled' with whilst he is eating - the same horse that was scoped for ulcers.

He will put his ears back if I am in the stable finishing off any jobs, but he would NEVER think about kicking out at me and knows better.

If he did I would be very concerned as too why.....

Again, if this behaviour is not ususal I would be calling the vet.
 
Ali27 said:
My mare was like this a few months ago. She was very resistant to the contact when ridden and lots of head tossing. She also kicked my daughter's mare whilst leading and being tied next to each other when they are usually led/ tied up with no problems. She was also trying to bite me when doing girth up. I had her checked by Mc Timoney chiropractor who found her pelvis was misaligned and also her poll was out. She is back to normal now with only a few grumpy moments which is normal for her.
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Would second this, my mare bucked me off in a lesson a few weeks back, when checked, she had dropped her pelvis, probably through rolling in the field - she had only just done it a few days previously. I got a McTimoney practitioner out and right as rain immediately! Couple of days off then back in business.

If not, it could be hormonal, when I suspected that my mare was hormonal ( as she is grumpy as well!) I noted on the diary when she had bouts of bad behaviour or didn't want to do something, this soon showed a regular pattern!!

If this is the case, there are supplements such as Regumate which you can get from your vet. or like I did, you could get a marble fitted.
 
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