Horse tail cut in field

[Lill]

What would you do, if anything?!

His tail had been cut quite randomly about 5 inches off the bottom but not all of it, just random bits. Almost like someone had cut off the mud dreadlocks or cut out a branch maybe that had got tangled? But I have no idea who and have asked all that are at the yard... the field he was in did have a public footpath running through it but who walks through fields with scissors?!

 

[Mule]

Mabey it was someone in the yard, but they didn't say anything because they figured they were out of line when you asked about it. I can't imagine some random person doing it

 

[yhanni]

No goats or sheep in with the horse?? My pygmy goats ate the tails off 3 horses one night - I was not impressed!

 

[Theocat]

Could be another horse - it looks EXACTLY as though someone has been snipping out small chunks with scissors.

 

[LouisCat]

Other horses chewing tails make it look like they've been hacked with scissors. Unfortunately they never chew in a nice neat line ��

 

[YasandCrystal]

Is or was the tail really long? I have 2 with super long trailing tails and I had to shorten them because I found the horses were stepping on them and ripping parts out.

 

[MissTyc]

Could be another horse - it looks EXACTLY as though someone has been snipping out small chunks with scissors.

THIS!

We found this out after several horse tails were "cut" in our herd over several weeks - started on Halloween about 5-6 years ago. Had horses coming in with the WHOLE tail "cut" right under the dock! Camped out on yard, got local media involved, Facebook campaign to catch the culprits .... Culprit was indeed caught red handed - 5yo Shetland mare; been in the herd her whole life but we never found out what triggered the behaviour. It stopped again a few weeks later, and took YEARS to regrow the tails.

 

[Lill]

Another horse? They were straight cuts hence looking like scissor cuts...he hasn’t changed company in the field for quite some time? No goats or sheep and tail wasn’t long enough to tread on - it is rather on the short side now of course as I cut it all to the same length as the random cuts!

 

[Theocat]

You'd expect a chewed tail to look chewed - but horses will take chunks out as neatly as any hairdresser.

It's worth having a look around the field - you might find the offcuts lying in clumps!

Be warned, if one of his companions has learned the trick if it now you might find more chunks disappearing.