Herd pecking order or stallion like behaviour?

[Ginger Bear]

Over the weekend my horse, tb gelding was turned out with his herd who he has been with since sept, he moved from an old herd to go out with the owners horse as we both like to t/o early so easier if we can t/o our boys together. The herd is made up of the yo 16' horse who I would say is top dog but not nasty in any way, my horse, 2 sj ponies, a 16'3 gelding, an old shire x & a tiny welsh pony. Now on sat yo horse was being ridden & so there was just the 16'3 & the 2 sj ponies.. They were all playing as they usually do & then my horse stopped to graze, the 16'3 then chased him galloping trying to bite him, tried to pin him against the fence & this went on with them bombing about for a good 5 mins, thankfully neither horses were hurt just sweaty.. Now these 2 horses have always played fine together, got on & we have never had any problems.. But this was scary & was like he was trying to run my horse down.. Has anyone had any experience of this? My boy is such a soppy woose & would not stick up for himself.. Just greatful he was faster & the other horse is unfit! Thanks in advance..

 

[Ginger Bear]

Also forgot to add that was told tonight that this horse has not been ridden for a few weeks, owner is on holiday & the full livery girls said that he has been a git to catch lately and a bit bulshy too.

 

[Ginger Bear]

Anyone??

 

[Piaffe63]

Not sure- could they be maybe re-establishing a pecking order? Hope that was any help!

 

[MochaDun]

I think sometimes when there's a slight change the dynamics can shift. Maybe with that other horse out of the way the 16'3 was more at freedom to assert himself over others so just herd pecking order I imagine. My gelding pony is out in a herd of 11 - was 13 over the summer. He is bottom of the herd bar one other pony and currently on their winter turnout regime where there is no grass in a small paddock is getting shoved around a bit by the bigger horses at bring in time when they all start to gather at the gate as we have more very large breeds than ponies. He has always been far down in the herd and someone actually apologised to me at the weekend about what their cob had been doing to mine (which I wasn't aware of until then). Mine thankfully is very sensible and will get out of the way and I've noticed keeps a good distance away from the gathering at the back of the herd and then usually will be brought in last. He gets quite grumpy in himself though when being bullied as I think they do find it a bit stressful. We lost a gelding in the herd a couple of months ago and the one that is now hassling mine was close to that other horse so I think it might be this other horse is looking for a new friend but mine is not interested as food is his main friend . We are very lucky in that gelding herd though as have one horse there that is excellent at keeping the peace, looks after new horses when they join the herd and also my only ally as he can get all the others out of the way of the gate for me by making them move.

 

[deicinmerlyn]

My TB behaved like that when he was fielded next to mares. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed anyone. He is usually the most wimpy of horses and behaved like this to horses he had originally been out with before with no problem.

He didn't actually do anything but chased with his ears flat back and teeth bared for apparantly no reason.

once he was moved away from the mares he stopped it - the only other reason that i could think of was that he'd had quite a few changes in a short space of time and maybe was unsettled.

 

[Ginger Bear]

I did wonder if it was that he was trying to b top dog while the boss wasn't out.. Was just so out of character.. They've always been so chilled together.. But I've never seen a horse just keep going & going chasing before.. I'm not sure where my horse is in the pecking order.. He is buddy with the boss but in both herds on the yard.. I would describe him as the nice horse that everyone likes to play with, he isn't dominant just cheeky. Hopefully it will never happen again.. Just really scary to watch..

 

[Ginger Bear]

My TB behaved like that when he was fielded next to mares. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed anyone. He is usually the most wimpy of horses and behaved like this to horses he had originally been out with before with no problem.

He didn't actually do anything but chased with his ears flat back and teeth bared for apparantly no reason.

once he was moved away from the mares he stopped it - the only other reason that i could think of was that he'd had quite a few changes in a short space of time and maybe was unsettled.

Our boys are in a field on one side of a riding track and mares on the other..they can see each other but not touch each other.. But the mares did start tonight & my boy was refusing to come in in the rain & the dark, generally pratting around, he's usually so docile! Was bringing the boss horse in with him, just them 2 out today. Boss horse came to the gate & waited my horse running round not coming in so boss tried to round him up to the gate, he ran off again so boss horse chased him & told him off.. No idea what's got into them.. he then went to the end of the field & stared over the fence & would not come in!

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

My gelding does this intermittently chases a little mare round like a dog chases a cat. once he is worn out he leaves her alone. When I last saw it i was dee pooing the field i was screaming at him toi stop and eventually had to catch the mare and bring her in.


Sometimes he is just in once of those moods

 

[Ginger Bear]

My gelding does this intermittently chases a little mare round like a dog chases a cat. once he is worn out he leaves her alone. When I last saw it i was dee pooing the field i was screaming at him toi stop and eventually had to catch the mare and bring her in.


Sometimes he is just in once of those moods

What ears back bombing after the mare or just playful chasing.. My horse was swerving like barrell racing to get him off his ail..

 

[Dolcé]

It sounds as though your horse has overstepped the mark in some way, possibly because top horse was out, and the other was putting him firmly back in his place. I have seen our 16.2, very gentle, herd leader fly at our little 13hh mare and keep it up until she stayed well out of his way, I thought he was going to kill her her was soooo angry. He really isn't the bully type but she must have done something major to upset him so much. It is quite scary to see them when they act like this, how they behave with us just shows a fraction of their power, (unless you come across one that wants to hurt you) and when dealing with each other they can really let fly.

 

[Ginger Bear]

It sounds as though your horse has overstepped the mark in some way, possibly because top horse was out, and the other was putting him firmly back in his place. I have seen our 16.2, very gentle, herd leader fly at our little 13hh mare and keep it up until she stayed well out of his way, I thought he was going to kill her her was soooo angry. He really isn't the bully type but she must have done something major to upset him so much. It is quite scary to see them when they act like this, how they behave with us just shows a fraction of their power, (unless you come across one that wants to hurt you) and when dealing with each other they can really let fly.

That's very interesting.. The horse didn't try & kick or do anything to injure him just chase.. Then he got another telling off today from boss because he wouldn't let me catch him & boss was waiting by the gate.. Looks like he's in the naughty books this week!

 

[Dolcé]

That's very interesting.. The horse didn't try & kick or do anything to injure him just chase.. Then he got another telling off today from boss because he wouldn't let me catch him & boss was waiting by the gate.. Looks like he's in the naughty books this week!

It was just the chasing, with neck fully stretched and ears flat back, should have said, I thought he would kill her if her caught her I have seen ours chasing dogs like this too, although striking with front feet too, you just know they mean business and will cause damage.

 

[Ginger Bear]

Yo has offered to move horse to another herd but it obviously is just natural & their way of sorting out pecking order.. I supposes this probably goes on all the time when we're not around all the time!

Do domesticated horses also 'banish ' others from th herd if they've been bad too?