Horse moved yards and gone mad - how do I catch the monster?

Rachmeister

Rachmeister

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My young horse (6) has been at a friend's being schooled for the past few months and came back to my yard at the weekend. She has gone totally bonkers since arriving, especially in the field hurtling about in the nice weather and is proving very difficult to catch at the moment.

She is I think a dominant mare and handy with her heels - she kicked one of my dogs that couldn't help herself and chased her when she was galloping about after a failed catching session (fortunatley my dog is ok and now on anti-inflamatories after expensive trip to the vet).

She is in my front field next to the yard and I have to walk my other 4 horses through her field to come in so ideally I catch her first as she tries to kick or warn anything that comes through her field. Do you think she will calm down soon? I wear hat / gloves when in her field and have to use direct eye contact / body language if she comes towards me with an aggressive look / turns around and kicks out. A lot of the problem seems to be that she wants to be with the other horses but I can't risk the others being kicked by her until they have all settled down. I don't want to put just her in the back field as the front one is supposed to be resting and wouldn't appreciate 4 horses on it right now, though I guess that might be the only answer for now.

Any tips to deal with a dominant mare in the field please? I'm a bit scared she will hurt me and the kids and dogs are having to stay in the car when she is around. She wasn't like this at my friend's yard but the field set up there was simple and didn't involve a back field! It's now day 4 since she moved and she is still a monster!
 
Hmm, sounds like she's extremely excited in this nice warm weather doesn't it. Is she agressive with you or just the dog/horses? I don't know much about mares but, being that she's still maturing would her hormones be kicking in at this time of year pre coming into season?


Otherwise maybe she is just testing the water to see just what she can bully as, as far as she's concerned she's in a new place and wnats to assert her dominance. I don't know loads about horses psychology but have you read up on soem natural horsemanship type techniques? I am not sure if looking a horse straight in the eye is in fact threatening to them (as it is with dogs) and you may in fact be better stading side on to her with you head down to encourage her to walk to you as opposed to you to her?

If she is threatening you then make yourself appear bigger (arms wide and make some noise) but I think avoid turning it into a staring contest!

Anyway, is some thing to give a whirl - and keep the dogs out of her reach! Our youngest horse had a real dislike for dogs when we got him and double barrelled one of our poor dogs. he still threatens them now but not so severely and they keep well out of his way. He is actualy the lowest in the pecking order though so i think the dogs are the only thing he can bully!

by the way - love the dun on your pic, he/she's a similar colour to mine - you don't get many.
smile.gif
 
Thanks Lady T - I love my dun boy too! Just been offered the spitting image of him but 14.2 connemara - I'm very tempted!

I agree with your analysis - she is testing out plus having a nice time in the weather. I only do the straight in the eye bit when she is threatening - you can tell exactly when - but I can't get close enough to her when she is next to me to get her headcollar on as she throws her head up and runs away when she feels the headcollar touch her and it's then when she kicks out so I have to look at that point to aviod the hooves.

She's definitely thinking about coming into season too - more agressive with the other horses than with me and totally fine with the dogs in the yard (the dog did tell her off good and proper so she must have felt entitled to kick her). Anyway, dogs are off the scene until she is calmer.
 
My horse used to do this. Have you tried sending her away?

What I did was constantly send the horse away (at least in trot) and only stop when he gave in and came towards me. He was never a problem to catch again. It took me only about 10 minutes before he came in although my friend did this and it took around 1.5 hours before it came into her. It was a dominant mare though and she was then 10 times easier to catch afterwards!
 
Will she allow you to put a rope around her neck? Another technique with mine was to hide rope so he couldn't see it. Go up to him and give him a big cuddle, then slowly putting the rope around the neck. I'd then give him a carrot and make the rope into a halter and lead him in!
 
Buy a fieldsafe headcollar and leave it on her. I've had to do this with mine and it has helped enormously with the catching.

Can you risk putting one of the others in with her at the moment, maybe she'll be quieter then.

I know what you are going through. Mine, now she has the headcollar on is very impatient to come in and decided to demolish the wooden gate last night and make her own way in !
 
Have you thought about trying to put a walk way through the field so that you can get other horses in safely and then go and deal with your mare, you know strip of electric fencing?
 
Great suggestions! I especially like hide the rope trick I think that might work. When she is next caught she will have her headcollar left on - need to get a field safe one though as I have seen a horse get killed through getting a headcollar caught in its stable (not my horse but horrific at the time). I don't want to try electric fencing as I have an awful feeling she will get tangled up in it!

I tried putting my submissive tiddly pony mare in with her on the first day and she was fine but tiddly pony mare's pony boyfriend spent the whole day being outraged and galloping up and down the fence line and that's not good for him as he is aged and occasionally suffers foot problems so his girly was returned to him!

I guess I'll just have to keep going and she will eventually be ok. She was fine before after a dodgy start so fingers crossed.
 
Would she actually kick the horses in the other field? Daisy is a very dominant mare and has been at the top of every herd we've put her in but she has only once actually made contact with another horse and that was because he was stupid enough to bite her tail first. She does a lot of hoof waving but doesn't actually make contact, they tend to submit at the sight of her
 
I think she would kick for a few days until they stopped doing stupid things and worked out who was boss - this always seems to take about 10 days. My dun boy has already tried tail and bum biting over the fence within the first 10 minutes of meeting her which resulted in one rail broken and one rail pulled out of the fence! I can't risk injury to him as he is my dressage horse or to her as she is about to go on trial for purchase (will definitely have to fess up about the nonsense in the field when she goes, however). He is daft enough to have a couple of goes before he gets the message.
 
We just left ours in the field when she didn't want to be caught for as long as took for her to want to come in and then we left her out for another day. She was all but begging to come in after that and wasn't a problem to catch after that. Good luck
 
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