Horse bullying

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Smith88

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We have three horses in our field two of which are not mine, I've had my girl for about 6 months she has always been the bottom of the pecking order she is not dominate at all so she always will just take getting kicks and bitten. A few months ago she got we a kick which has cost us £700 in vet bills and 3 months of rest for her, there is one mare who is horrible to her, she wil constantly push her around at feeding time, kick her and bite her and Buck at her. just this morning I noticed she had been bitten and was bleeding and was bitten several times while I was there I'm fed up and am considering moving her- of course they are mares and it is winter but it is not fair on my girl so does anyone have any ideas?
 
Horses are horses, you can't control what they do when they're in the field together. I think you'd either have to separate your mare (not something I would want to do as I don't like individual turnout) or move her.
Are you on a larger yard but with them split into different herds for turnout. If so could you ask you YO about her going in with different horses to save you having to leave?
 
I'm so glad my mare is the way she is, she would be the perfect companion for yours! She isn't at the bottom of the pecking order, but she isn't a bully either, if she doesn't like a horse, she simply ignores them!

I think you need to ask to be moved to another field. You can't control what horses do out in a field but if it's costing you money in vets bills, you can remove them from that situation.
 
In the field there is not Much you can do, as
Said above horses will be horses unless you move her. I would also bring in and feed separate if Your referring to hard feed? They can become more of a bully around hard feed. If referring to Hay, can you not make various piles in the field so your mare can eat peacefully or if pushed away get to another pile?
 
I think your right, to move her it would be a massive shame as the other horse is fine and we are close friends with the lady who owns the other two, our area has massive grass livery charges so it's a tricky one.
 
They are worse around hard feed but they will push her round no matter what you do with either the feed or hay- it has gotten to the point where I stay so she can finish eating otherwise they just won't leave her alone-p.
 
Is a companion an option, fence the field off and have her on one side with a friend.

Are they living out 24/7, do you hay and feed in the fields? If so, are there anough piles of hay well seperated that everyone can have some so no fighting?
 
We keep ours at home, the plan being that all four would be out together, we keep them as two two's, as the old Daught mare and the young cob will knock the stuffing out of each other in the field. Neither will back down, it isn't about food, they just fight, so we keep them apart. It isn't ideal, but better than injuries.
 
Smith88 said:
We have three horses in our field two of which are not mine, I've had my girl for about 6 months she has always been the bottom of the pecking order she is not dominate at all so she always will just take getting kicks and bitten. A few months ago she got we a kick which has cost us £700 in vet bills and 3 months of rest for her, there is one mare who is horrible to her, she wil constantly push her around at feeding time, kick her and bite her and Buck at her. just this morning I noticed she had been bitten and was bleeding and was bitten several times while I was there I'm fed up and am considering moving her- of course they are mares and it is winter but it is not fair on my girl so does anyone have any ideas?
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there is no way I would leave a horse in a field to be bullied like this. It must be horrible for the mare to be someone's punchbag let alone the risk of serious damage to her. I would run a strand of electric tape through the field and divide it 2/3, 1/3 so she had company but was not bullied.
 
Can you fence off a bit of the field for her? I have a similar thing going on with my boy ,(except he's not bullied he just plays boisterously and is regularly missing chunks of himself!).
Other than that the only thing I can think of is moving. Or could the aggressive mare be fenced off maybe?
 
paddy555 said:
there is no way I would leave a horse in a field to be bullied like this. It must be horrible for the mare to be someone's punchbag let alone the risk of serious damage to her. I would run a strand of electric tape through the field and divide it 2/3, 1/3 so she had company but was not bullied.
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LHIS said:
Can you fence off a bit of the field for her? I have a similar thing going on with my boy ,(except he's not bullied he just plays boisterously and is regularly missing chunks of himself!).
Other than that the only thing I can think of is moving. Or could the aggressive mare be fenced off maybe?
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This. Better to be fenced off in individual turnout than be bullied to the extent you describe. Most horses are perfectly happy in individual turnout so long as they can have contact with others over the fence. My young mare and an older mare cannot be in the same field as they will fight, but they will happily groom each other over the fence! The older mare prefers her own space since having her foal four years ago. Now if I try to integrate her with any other horse, even after weeks in the next field she squeals and kicks them really hard causing injury. It's just not worth it.
 
If you can't change your field situation where you are I would move her not all herds will be like this she should not have to be bullied all the time it must be really miserable, my old mare was kicked and bitten constantly at one yard so I moved and although she was out with 3 other mares at the new yard they all got on no aggression, just a thought but if they live out 24/7 are they getting enough food? and I know you mention one attacked her at feed time I know many horses that would be aggressive to field mates if feed buckets were taken into the field, I would never bucket feed a group of horses in a field it's asking for trouble.
 
Thank-you all for commenting I'll have a chat with the other owner tonight and if she won't allow us to divide the field we will move her to another field or to a new yard, as you've said its not worth the injury -we are going to ride her this week for the first time in 3 months due to her injury, it would be awful to have her on rest again.

There are always plenty of piles of hay we feed them twice a day and none of them are in regular work my mare and the other one are rugged up the only one who isn't is the aggressive one who is a Halflinger. The other two are on the skinny side to be honest, but the haflinger is old and the other one is a TB. They get four slices of hay a day and two hard feeds.
 
I just wanted to add a few things, my mare was bullied by one of my others for a long time, especially around hay and feed, even if we put out 20 piles spread across a few acres the dominant one would just chase her off each pile and not even eat herself. This was solved when we borrowed a feed trailer, typically used for cattle. One large bale of hay in there every few days (4 horses) so now even though they are much closer together eating, there is no bullying. I put this down to the fact that none are worried about having to protect the food as it wont run out.

So a couple of questions are;

Are you putting enough hay out or is hunger and the worry of being hungry affecting this?
What size field are they in? It may be that your mare is unintentionally invading the others space through lack of it.
 
Smith88 said:
They are worse around hard feed but they will push her round no matter what you do with either the feed or hay- it has gotten to the point where I stay so she can finish eating otherwise they just won't leave her alone-p.
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Don't feed any of them in the field. You have stables, take her out and give her the feed in the stables. When putting out hay, put out more piles than there are horses. I will never let anybody feed a horse in my field, they are either taken to their stables or taken outside the gate to eat on a leadrope.
 
I think it will probably be worth investing in some electric fencing. Just divide the field up so the horses are unable to injure each other, but they can still see each other so they aren't lonely. It's not worth your mare being injured all the time.
 
I'd try putting more hay out. 4 sections a day isn't much and if two of them are skinny despite not being in regular work it sounds like they need more to eat. That might solve the problem but if not, I'd separate off the bully as it sounds like she might not need as much hay as the other two?
 
I have two out together and one will bully the other badly if they are not managed correctly. With a bit of thought though, they are fine and happily share a field shelter, play together etc. with no injuries.

If you decide to stay, you need to accept that you will always have to stay until she / they all finish eating their hard feed. You can take her out to feed her, or my solution is to put the bully into a fenced off area to eat her meal and not let her out till the others are all finished. You may need to put a bit of hay in there too so she doesn't make too much fuss if she finishes first, or bulk her feed out so she is the last to finish.

It does sound like they are not getting enough fibre, in my case I provide a supply of straw alongside the hay so this never happens. You do need to be careful introducing it, particularly for an older TB. If they are on the slim side though, you could just up the hay. In my experience you rarely get this behaviour around hay if they aren't worried about going hungry.
 
Smith88 said:
Thank-you all for commenting I'll have a chat with the other owner tonight and if she won't allow us to divide the field we will move her to another field or to a new yard, as you've said its not worth the injury -we are going to ride her this week for the first time in 3 months due to her injury, it would be awful to have her on rest again.

There are always plenty of piles of hay we feed them twice a day and none of them are in regular work my mare and the other one are rugged up the only one who isn't is the aggressive one who is a Halflinger. The other two are on the skinny side to be honest, but the haflinger is old and the other one is a TB. They get four slices of hay a day and two hard feeds.
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if one is skinny chances are it's hungry and that's not much hay a day at this time of year, I have two horses out together in the day in at night and they get more hay than that, and one of mine if his hungry will chase the other horse off and be horrible and they really get on they groom each other and are happy but hungry horses can turn very aggressive.
 
Smith88 said:
Thank-you all for commenting I'll have a chat with the other owner tonight and if she won't allow us to divide the field we will move her to another field or to a new yard, as you've said its not worth the injury -we are going to ride her this week for the first time in 3 months due to her injury, it would be awful to have her on rest again.

There are always plenty of piles of hay we feed them twice a day and none of them are in regular work my mare and the other one are rugged up the only one who isn't is the aggressive one who is a Halflinger. The other two are on the skinny side to be honest, but the haflinger is old and the other one is a TB. They get four slices of hay a day and two hard feeds.
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So the bully is old and skinny? She is hungry. I bet she would be a lot nicer if fed correctly. As others have said four slices of hay a day is not enough for horses living out at this time of year. Most will get through the equivalent of 3/4 - 1 small bale a day.
 
Have hay available all the time, not just twice a day. And if feed times are an issue, bring yours in to eat. Or bring in the herd leader and leave the rest of them in peace?
 
my horse was the bully. Our problems began the day we bought him and he spent quite a long time on his own.
Now he lives out 24/7 with three others , like others i never feed hard feed in the field, they all come in to seperate spaces for breakfast and eat in peace and quiet. They are fed large round bales from a feeder, which the four of them empty in about four/five days. Mine has completely settled and its bliss to see them all quietly feeding from the feeder, theres the odd ear back nipping each other but thats it. Ive not seen any nastiness in the last four years.
 
I am in the more hay club. in winter they need enough so they do not run out and are not hungry so that there is no need to fight or bully over what there is. If the bully is old and skinny that would usually mean something wrong as haffies are normally rounder better covered types (although it does depend on your interpretation of skinny). one of the places I visit has decent size herds of mares or colts/stallions living out and they get fed hard feed together in the fields with no problems but in your case if you cannot separate them I would bring yours into a stable or feed her outside the field so that she has a chance to eat without being beaten up. and would be putting out 2.5 small bales of hay a day in 7 heaps so that they all have a chance to eat without worrying about the hay disappearing too fast
 
Smith88 said:
They are worse around hard feed but they will push her round no matter what you do with either the feed or hay- it has gotten to the point where I stay so she can finish eating otherwise they just won't leave her alone-p.
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Firstly you need to take her out of the field to feed her.

Secondly - how is the hay fed? If it's a round feeder, then you're stuck. If it's piles of hay - then you need to put out at least six piles very well spread out to prevent fighting. This may lesson the bullying somewhat.

But in your shoes I'm afraid I'd be looking for alternative grazing as the situation has not settled after 6 months.
 
I've had a chat with the owner of the two others we are going to separate the aggressive mare with electric tape for the time being so my mare and the Tb will be together they are friends and have never had any issues so that's great.
they will continue on the amount they are fed most horses are on the skinny side at this time of year the halflinger has always gone fat as a house come May and looses it all around November so she is skinny for herself now. A feeder does sound a good idea so I will do some research.
 
I'm glad you've got some sort of resolution. Having read further it sounds as if hunger is the issue. The horses need adlib hay if their out 24/7. The fact that two are skinny indicates that there's not enough forage for them. Increase the hay and the issues will probably be solved.
 
Hard feed fed in the stables and a ring feeder with big bale hay would be my suggestions. It does sound like there isn't enough for them to eat presently.
 
Smith88 said:
I've had a chat with the owner of the two others we are going to separate the aggressive mare with electric tape for the time being so my mare and the Tb will be together they are friends and have never had any issues so that's great.
they will continue on the amount they are fed most horses are on the skinny side at this time of year the halflinger has always gone fat as a house come May and looses it all around November so she is skinny for herself now. A feeder does sound a good idea so I will do some research.
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Most horses are not on the skinny side at this time of year; only those that are not getting enough to eat. She should not be allowed to get 'as fat as a house come May'; that is a recipe for laminitis. Yes, most horses are a little slimmer over winter but should never be 'skinny' if properly looked after. All the horses here have ad lib hay and haylage all day and night in their stables and in the fields. They range from a 2.5 to 3 body score. Come summer, the ones prone to getting fat will be restricted. Not getting at you, OP because it sounds as though your mare is a good weight, but I just hate stingy, lazy horsemanship, letting horses get hungry, cross and thin in winter and then not being arsed to watch their weight in summer.
 
Smith88 said:
I've had a chat with the owner of the two others we are going to separate the aggressive mare with electric tape for the time being so my mare and the Tb will be together they are friends and have never had any issues so that's great.
they will continue on the amount they are fed most horses are on the skinny side at this time of year the halflinger has always gone fat as a house come May and looses it all around November so she is skinny for herself now. A feeder does sound a good idea so I will do some research.
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well mine are not skinny no horse should be allowed to get skinny over winter and if they are they are not being fed enough.
 
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