Horse getting bullied in field

ktj1891

ktj1891

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Mi moved my boy to new yard in September and he was in group turn out. There was one dominant horse bully who beat him up quite badly. Long story short he has now been sectioned and separated from the herd and my boy is back in with all the others. Today he came in and has 3 lumps and skin taken off his spine. Could this be any thing but another horse biting him. We have tape around gate entry and today that was knocked down and one of the ponies got out the field by squeezing through a gap in the gate. Our gate is basically a big metal mesh bit of fencing that has a gap of 1ft between it and the field fence so we have two chains across a low one that is just hooked onto the other end of chain and one higher up clipped onto the gate mesh. The bottom chain got unhooked and pony squeezed through and one of the liveries suggested maybe my boy did this too and scrapped his back. However he is wearing a 200g rug and it has no marks on it and the top chain it really light like a bike chain and has no sharp edges so can't imagine it would be this. Have had so many problems at this yard regarding turnout and he has now been in with this groups for 2 weeks and he comes in with his spine all in lumps! Would you imagine this is definitely biting and nothing else?
 
If he was bitten hard enough to cause these lumps I would have expected some marks on the rug. Hard to know what to think without seeing them.
 
Here's his bites before I appreciate there not same and on sides but it's just like this. 3 raised lumps on his back and 3 scrapes of hair off with reddened skin.
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365589AB-A808-47B1-A738-E0DF3184F98E_zpshsrndb6n.jpg
 
I think you would be better off having your horse in the sectioned off pArt rather than the bully, if you have that option.

Group turnout, at this time of the year particularly, can be an absolute recipe for disaster with horses clamouring round gateways waiting to come in etc. and I personally would not risk my horse in that situation if I could possibly avoid it x
 
They do look like when mine bite each other through the rugs .
I would try to get individual if you can .
At this time of year mine are out only until they start mucking about for this very reason.
 
It's so important to separate your horse asap - even if it means moving yards ! My first ridden pony had his hind leg actually kicked off by a bully in the field, it was horrific. Don't wait for something more dangerous to happen. No horse should be forced to suffer bullying.
 
I've already decided if it happens again he will be separated. It's not fair to him or me. He's not a playful chap in the field he just likes to mooch around in field peacefully and he is always harassed!
 
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