Horses instantly not liking someone,

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I had a lady come to see Buzz for sharing on Saturday and as soon as she entered his stable, he spun round and kicked out at her. This is NOT like him at all. Have you ever seen your horse take an instant dislike to someone?
 
Yes I have known horses take an instant dislike to someone. But to spin & kick out is completely unacceptable - I'd be mortified if one of mine behaved that badly
 
Not to that extent no. One of mine always turned his bum on the vet but he wouldn't have kicked out at anyone. Maybe they had a strange smell on them or something, I think they would be more likely to react to that than a particular person.
 
It is not un acceptable, her gave her warnings which she ignored and I told her not to touch him, he didn't make contact and has not done this EVER in the last 10 years.
 
My mare, my dog, and our entire herd of cattle took an instant dislike to a man who knows my dad. He is retired and has nothing to do, so hangs around irritating my dad with inane comments all day, but he's lonely so my dad hasn't the heart to tell him to b*gger off... the animals seem to have no problem doing so! I don't know what it is they hate about him, but the cattle go for him, the mare shot her head out over the stable door with her ears pinned back, and the dog just won't go near him. I know he can be annoying, but you wouldn't think they'd be bothered by conversations about his hospital visits and bowel movements!
 
I would say that is unacceptable behaviour
my friends late gelded gelding did not take a liking to me but he was well mannered enough to behave and I in return was very very very polite with all 17.2hh of him
 
My mare chooses who can touch her face when she's in her stable but I would be mortified if she ever dare to kick out at anyone, totally unacceptable .
 
ihatework said:
Yes I have known horses take an instant dislike to someone. But to spin & kick out is completely unacceptable - I'd be mortified if one of mine behaved that badly
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+1. Regardless of 'warnings' or how much the horse doesn't like the person, kicking is something I'm absolutely zero tolerance on. If he'd made contact, hurt the prospective sharer, and she decided to sue I doubt that a court would accept 'but he didn't like her!!!11!' as a defence.
 
Yes, absolutely. We underestimate horses at times, they can sense things we cannot, or are sense 'blind' to. Maybe stature, scent, attitude, who knows. When a horse does that, out of the blue, totally against everything we know of them, then it pays to listen to them.

ihatework said:
Yes I have known horses take an instant dislike to someone. But to spin & kick out is completely unacceptable - I'd be mortified if one of mine behaved that badly
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I disagree about it being unacceptable, sort of, of course kicking is unacceptable, but for a horse to do this out of the blue there must be something that makes them feel very threatened.

I had a livery owner at my place many years ago, his own horse hated him. He wanted to buy a yearling filly I had bred, I knew her from the moment she was born, there wasn't a bad bone in her body, she was well socialised, loved people, loved everyone else at the barn, but this man leant over her stall wall and she went beserk, I have never seen anything like it, and I've seen some aggressive horses over the years, horses that truly hated people for whatever reason. She pinned her ears, rolled her eyes back, bared her teeth and launched herself at him across the wall, which was solid oak about four and a half feet high. I truly do not like to think what would have happened if she had actually come over.

Yes, I was horrified, and mortified, but nothing, absolutely nothing except the man himself had changed, and she had seen him about before. He was a bear of a man, bearded, always wore a duster and a leather aussie type hat, so his appearance was no different. He had a personal space issue, I always felt crowded by him as he would stand very close, he was a Bulgarian immigrant, and spoke Russian to his wife (a Russian) and family so had an accent, but again she would have heard that before. She wasn't having him anywhere near her, I went in the stall with her and she hid her head against my chest from him.

Perhaps not coincidentally, my big German Shepherd who is a king wuss, and loved and was loved by everyone, loathed the man too, he would stand against me, never leaving my side and every hair on his body stood on end, to feel the rumble going through him left me in no doubt that he would have gone for him if the man made a move towards me.

Needless to say I didn't sell the filly to him. I also gave him notice to leave as he made me very uncomfortable, after he had left, several people said they were pleased he'd gone as there was 'something' about him. None of the horses liked him, they'd all step to the back of their stalls, and pin their ears or turn their backs to him, in the fields they'd move away, not just step away out of his space, but move, as a group, to another area.
 
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Never had a horse behave that badly to me but I did know a riding school horse that hated me. I was the only person she tried to buck off one of the instructors was shocked when she saw her buck and went "I have never seen her buck before ever". Yet she was lovely for other people so it wasn't a back problem. She was nice to me though when I saw her about a year ago, before that she would pin her ears back at me. Was always a fight when I rode her. They didn't put me back on her though after she bucked haha.
 
A friend once came to ride a horse I had. He was quiet as anything and she hadn't ridden in a while but wanted to get back into it.
He was stood dozing in the stable but started rearing and freaking out when she entered.
Really bizarre! She rode my other horse who was fine with her ;)
The first one calmed down as soon as she left him alone!
 
She wont be sharing, i was not a fan of her before she even got to his stable, I did tell him off for being aggressive but have never before see him react in such a way to anything. He usually walks away from anything he doesn't like. She was telling me she had had problems with her last horse and that he 'had a funny look in his eye' i think he too didn't like her.
 
There was an ex-racehorse on a yard I was on when I lived in Norfolk. It had had a bit of a troubled life and was very difficult in general but had a really experienced owner retraining it. Our stables were in an L shape - my horse was on one leg of the L, and the racehorse was on the other side. My dad came to visit us from London and walked across to my stable to see my horse. Crazy racehorse absolutely lost the plot - to this day I've never seen anything like it - he switched between running to the back of his stable and hiding to trying to barrel his way out and smash the door down to get to my dad (who was nowhere near him) and would have absolutely killed him if he could. I'll never forget the look in his eye. My dad isn't horsey but obviously reminded this racehorse of a character from his past life. Poor thing must have been absolutely traumatised by someone in the past to have had the reaction he had. We couldn't get it to calm down until we took my dad away, poor sod.
 
My horse from back in the day did a completely out of character massive chunk bite on the shoulder of a non horsey male friend. I was mortified. The now former friend later went on to be a cheating, horrible, predatory twonk who broke the hearts of at least two women, never mind his children. I reckon my horse was a good judge of character. Better than me.
 
Yes absolutely. My ex-racer was in a dressage warm up one day and spotted a man watching and was too terrified
to go near him. Poor man was so apologetic and went away but the horse spotted him again later among other people and again was frightened of him. I'm sure he reminded the horse of someone who had been unkind to him.
 
The Tank said:
She wont be sharing, i was not a fan of her before she even got to his stable, I did tell him off for being aggressive but have never before see him react in such a way to anything. He usually walks away from anything he doesn't like. She was telling me she had had problems with her last horse and that he 'had a funny look in his eye' i think he too didn't like her.
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I shouldn't think she'd want to share after that incident. How did she react ?

Agree it is unacceptable behaviour but animals usually are good judges of character they have far greater senses than us.
 
DirectorFury said:
+1. Regardless of 'warnings' or how much the horse doesn't like the person, kicking is something I'm absolutely zero tolerance on. If he'd made contact, hurt the prospective sharer, and she decided to sue I doubt that a court would accept 'but he didn't like her!!!11!' as a defence.
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They are animals not robots. How exactly would you stop them kicking if they wanted to.
 
I wouldn't find it unacceptable in an otherwise non-violent, non-kicker. I would defer to their superior instinct and assume there was something wrong which I wasn't aware of.

One of my childhood ponies once double barrelled someone, making full contact (a male and admirably precisely!). This pony had never shown any sign of aggression before (everyone else could do literally anything with him) and never did since. As it turned out, this pony did have a superior and correct instinct about said person.
 
I think horses are usually better at sussing out people than other people are! In the case of the OP, if the potential sharer wanted to still share after that episode with the horse, then I think the horse was absolutely right!
 
madmav said:
My horse from back in the day did a completely out of character massive chunk bite on the shoulder of a non horsey male friend. I was mortified. The now former friend later went on to be a cheating, horrible, predatory twonk who broke the hearts of at least two women, never mind his children. I reckon my horse was a good judge of character. Better than me.
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This sounds like my ex. Pie hated him with a passion, didn't want him anywhere near him. Just wish I'd listened to my horse sooner!!!
 
My horse has never tried to buck anyone off. Not her thing.

Except for the friend of friend, who was visiting the barn for a weekend and apparently was a sh ** t hot rider who succesfully showed Prix St. George. I should have gotten wise about her character when she kept making narky comments about the random boarders (liveries in British) doing their thing in the arena: "I really don't like her riding;" "I don't like the way that horse goes;" "That horse isn't very well put together;" "Her seat isn't very good;" And ad infinitum. It was a barnful of average amateur riders -- we are not talking about people who are Olympic hopefuls here. No one is Carl Hester. Duh. Anyway, I let this lassie have a shot on my horse, as I was wanted to see how she went under a PSG rider.

My sweet, straightforward horse, who is so soft in the contact and has such lovely manners, took off bucking across the arena. Oops.

PSG rider did not think horse was very well schooled.

Horse thought PSG rider was a tool.
 
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At the last livery yard I was on, we had a stable girl all the horses seemed to bully. She wasn't a nasty person but they all seemed to push her around, rather than be scared of her. These were riding school animals used to teach children so had lovely temperments. There were a few of them tied up on the rail on day awaiting their small riders and as she walked past they all kicked out at her, like that scene in Black Beauty! Very strange. She gave up working with horses after that! :D
 
We also have the exact opposite too. Two of our mares in particular, both had foals prior to coming to us, have homed in on people who had traumatic childhoods and absolutely doted on them! Neither of the people had much experience of horses and both mares were so careful around them, allowing them to put on/take off rugs, lead them to and from the field with soppy looks on the mares faces.
 
It is never acceptable for a horse to act aggressively towards a person. You deal with aggressive behaviour from the very start by nipping it in the bud, which is why early handling (of foals in particular) is so important. And horses can take particular exception to certain people - I bred a filly who disliked me (the feeling was entirely mutual); BTW the filly wasn't allowed to kick, bite, barge, lay her ears or be disobedient in any way, she was broken and competed (by me) perfectly satisfactorily but we still didn't like each other. I sold her to a person whom she absolutely adored, so everyone ended up happy.
 
Had an incident with my veteran gelding with the patience of a saint, whom we have owned for years and taught my young sister to ride and care for him, lovely old boy. One day he bit a young sharer of a lead rein pony - he got he right on the forehead and drew blood (minorly). No idea where the mother was at the time so no explanation. He has never acted like that before or since. Child turned out to be a bit of a 'mummys darling' brat who had no regard for the ponies she rode.
 
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