Horses that dislike children

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KingCharles

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Has anyone ever experienced horses/ponies who show extreme aggresion towards children?

I took my daughter up to the yard with me today. She has cerebral palsy but is used to horses and has been round them since a baby. Over the years she has seen many horses and its always been a positive experience.

Its always been as thougth the horse could sense she had special needs and where always intruiged by her.

My daughter is 7 , and has a low mental age. She isnt a very loud child and in fact i have found that even the yougnsters have always been good with her.

Tonight i took my horse into the indoor school for a roll, he is always very docile, and is never botherd by anything or anyone in there.

He had not met my daughter before, but to be honest he is 18 this year and has seen life. Sometimes we have had strangers come up while he is in the indoor loose and he is tottaly unphazed.

He can be a bit protective of me at times, if i m talking to someone he will put him self between me and the person, and if they try and touch me he will try and bite them.

He is always worse if in his stable, if im in there with him and someone comes over to talk to me he will drive them off. If i tell him no he will back off, but will become aggitated and start to paw the ground.

Tonight my daughter sat down on some straw bales stacked up in tears in the corner, where peopel ussualy sit when a horse is being worked ect. Chales is used to this, and is never phazed, he is just so laid back.

Tonight when i let him off he came over to try and sniff my daugther. He sniffed her from head to toe, had a good sniff at her face.
As he isnt much of a peopel person i thought it looked rather positive that he had shown an intrest in my daughter. However, then he backed off,, and started to snort, with his ears back and pawing at the ground. I was tottaly shocked by hisbehaviour and sent him away. He trotted off with hisi head low and licking, then he came back towards me i was by now stood in front of my daughter. He was trying to get at my daughter.

So i made my daugther sit right out of the way hight up onto the straw bales so he could not get at her. she never made any noise during any of this, just sat quietly.

He trotted away again and kept circlign back to where my daugther was, guarded by me.

Then as i walked towards him he trotted past me and procedded to try and climb up the stack of straw bales with his ears back, trying to get at my daugther.

he kept tryign to striek out at her with his legs and snorting. I sent him away and he stood in the middle of the school head held low and licking.

At that point i decided to remove him from the school as i realised it was not safe for him to be there with my daughter. My daugther is not very mobile and was just sat there doing nothing.

when i went to catch him he dropped his head and walked slowly towards me, lickign and chewing. He then kept trying to put his head in my hands.

as i lead him away he kept looking back at my daugther and seemed really aggitated.

I am dissapointed as i realise that he will never be safe to have my children around. Daughter was wareig a hat and body protector even though she was only sat up there watching him.

I took charles on 4 months ago, and he has really bonded with me. I love him to bits, but he is very much a one person horse. Gnerally though as long as no one else trys to handle him he is ok.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what the hell happened tonight?
 
OH YES,but he was a pig with other horses aswell
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I was at a place once and the top dog was an absolute pig with other horses,he would take chunks out of them,rip their rugs etc,refused to be caught 80% of the time by his owner!He would run from one side of the field to the other just to take a nag out of one of ours,horse with serious issues,however he had complete respect for people,,that is what i thought
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My little boy was 4 at the time,he was with me in the field with my guy at the time(before anybody shouts i had no idea what would happen next
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),he was in the field shelter playing with the shavings and this bastard thing tried to fly in with ears flat back etc...fortunately he met me instead,and yes he got the biggest punch in the face he probably has ever had,and i would do it again!!!
Fortunately my little man was safe and from that day on he was stuck to my side like glue,he wasnt allowed anywhere were this nag was!!Personally i would have had the damn thing shot,it was evil!!
 
I do apologise,i didnt read all and didnt realise it was your beastie
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,my guy is 15 this yr,and 8 yrs ago i was pushing a pram round his field and a little person was toddling round in the field with me,he was amazed
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as was every other neddy in the field,they seem amazed that there are smaller versions of us!
tbh you have 2 choices..keep him and keep your daughter WELL away from him!!
OR get rid and find something you can deal with as a family!!
I certainly wouldnt introduce him to your little girl again after the aggression he has shown!
 

I had a supposed child's pony who, when I went to catch him, decided he would charge straight for my sister (2 at the time) who was with my mum by the field gate way. This pony flattened his ears and charged straight at her, he grabbed her by her hand and tossed her up in the air. More by luck than anything else, she came away with a injured finger and that was it.

This pony was sold to me by a friend of my mothers who knew full well the animal was for a novice child.

The next day, the vile animal was on transport back to the woman who'd sold him to us.
I persevered for 6 months and in that time he would go from angelic pony to demon pony in a split second.

We later found out he was a rig.
 
ill not part with him, as i am his last chance. I dont own him i have him on permanant loan. I could not decide if he was being dominant over my daughter, or was afraid of her. either way i wont have her up with him ever again.
 
A friend has a pony who HATED children with a passion. He had lived next to a chavvy housing estate for years and the kids tormented him.

He used to charge at any human under 4ft, like they do with dogs. Luckily he was kept in a secure paddock and was an adults driving pony so rarely saw kids.

He evetually mellowed with age.

Did your daughter sit totally immobile, not moving? Horses see outlines, not the 'full picture' and he may have been frightened by the human-smelling but not human-looking shape. My horse is worried by humans if he spots them out hacking and they don't move - as soon as they move (like a human should, as far as he's conserned) he's fine as he seems to suddenly relalise what they are.
 
My mini unfortunately hates my grandchildren. I put it down to the fact that he has probably been teased and pulled about by children in the past and has never forgotten it. However at 32in he is manageable and neither of my grandchildren are disabled. In your case, I would make sure that you keep your horse and your daughter well apart.
 
I can't really remember where or when it was, but yes - I think I have.

I think the horse was a stallion or a horse that had been cut late, and was generally a really nice and placid horse and actually quite people orietated but became aggressive towards someone with a disability, as if it saw them as a weaker member of the herd. You know the way a stallion will kill off a weak foal or a horse struggling to stand.

I dunno would I agree with that, but thats the context I heard it in.

Is he a dominant horse?

I would have a hard time imagining what I posted above to be true, as I have a really pushy dominant mare with fear issues in her background, she doesn't like strangers and is very reactive if not handled or approached correctly. She is familar with me so I don't have any issues with her... and neither do children. They are not nervous and do not give off any kind of 'vibe'... for instance, a nervous person handling my mare would quickly be trampled and she would refuse to do anything for them, too brazen a person and she is fearful and can be aggressive.

Shes good with kids though, not that I would ever trust her with one unsupervised!

There could be a whole lot more to this though. Would you say his behaviour worsened as you moved your child up above him on the bales?

Do you think that because he wasn't able to investigate her properly and then you moved to safeguard her that he became wary of her.

Maybe your body language was affecting him. If you were afraid FOR her he could have been reading your fear.
 
Having thought about this I am seeing 2 things. As you say he has bonded with you and you are "his human". He can sense your relationship bond with your daughter and feels threatned by that.

The other thig that crossed my mind is that your horse can sense your daughters condition and to him it is an "abnormality". In a herd anything that is strange / vulnerable is seen as a threat to herd security and has to be "removed".

Whilst all her other experiences with horses have been positive the chances are that those horses have been predominently "non Alpha". This guy sounds like he is a fairly dominant character. It has to be remembered that the Alpha horse - male or female is not always the one who goes round "yelling and screaming and creating". They are generally laid back, until they need to be otherwise.

BTW the licking and chewing is him "processing". He obviously respects you and in his eyes he is protecting you and you are defending what he is trying to protect / seperate you from. Poor lad, very confusing for him.

It is a real shame and one I hope you can resolve. I can think of a way you can get over this really.
 
what i mean by her not moving was she was of course not sat rigid, but not doing anything considered a threat, like waving arms of making a noise.
charles is a 16.2hh id x tb, who has hunted and compeated most of his life, and is tottally unphazed by dogs, motorbikes, traffic, i am yet to find anything he is scared off. he ussualy acts quite stand offish to people he dosnt know, like he isnt intrested in humans. he is better with me and is very playfull and affectionate with me.
 
i only reacted when i saw he was trying to attack my daugther, prior to that everything was calm and not out of the oridnary. he is a dominant horse, thats why i have him.

I only drove him away when he tried to drive at my daughter as it was unsafe to allow him to make contact with her.
 
Quite a curious situation. I am sorry to hear that this happened. Must have been very un-nerving for you.

If it were me, and I know some have mixed opinions on them, I would be interested to get out a Kelly Marks recommended associate, or similar professional who understand horse behaviours better than myself.

When I contacted one for a totally different issue, they discussed it at length with me before coming out. Just think it would be interesting to hear their opinion on the behaviour you have described.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
 
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i only reacted when i saw he was trying to attack my daugther, prior to that everything was calm and not out of the oridnary. he is a dominant horse, thats why i have him.

I only drove him away when he tried to drive at my daughter as it was unsafe to allow him to make contact with her.

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I think you know the answer as there is no safe conclusion as regards introducing your daughter,especially with the tendancies he has already shown
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Keep them apart,not ideal when you want to share family time,my little boy dosnt ride but he loves being with me around the horses,however physcho horse made him well aware he had to stay away from the ones i tell him too!
Fortunately ALL the horses at the yard i am on now are fantastic with him and any other kids..we just had a kiddy that left and she was autistic,however all the horses were fine with her!!
Think your guy has just built up a massive bond with you(which is a fantastic feeling),but looks like it will be just you and him until little girl is a bit bigger!
 
Captain absolutely adored kids at our last yard, he used to have all the baby PC clubbers lined up and waiting to cuddle all 17-3hh of him, individually. He never so much as batted an eye lid and calmly accepted all their fuss and inexpert groomings. He was their favourite and got many presents off them.

We moved him to our present yard and he gets on very well with the YO's nieces and nephews.

On the day the following happened he had happily been playing with a little boy and girl for quite a while. The YO's family had left and another livery was up with her daughter, around 4 yo, same as YO's niece. Cappy was happily out with his herd, he walked over to see what they were doing, deliberately knocked the little girl over and pawed her, luckily she was fine, just shaken up. No warning, nothing. Elizabeth, my daughter and his rider, says little one did absolutely nothing wrong and never threatened him etc. The only thing I can think is that this little one was with the new horse on the yard overwhom Cappy was dominant, or that she was stood between him and Elizabeth, whom he adores.

Obviously we will never know whether he will behave normally with kids again or hurt one, it is not worth the risk!

So I think OP might be correct when she said that her horse was being protective. Hopefully her little girl was not put off by the horse and maybe will benefit from the wonderful therapy horses and ponies can be.
 
I'm not really sure if this is relevant but my old YO's son had a pony that had been abused and had some issues. The pony adored her son and would do anything for him however he did attack the boys two younger brothers biting and drawing blood, he would also do everything in his power to rid himself of the two younger brothers if they rode him.
I'm not sure if it was jealousy that caused this behaviour or something smell related or something all together different.
 
was made out to be worse by his owner, he really isnt like that at all. Ive had him 4 months now and have been able to do anything with him, i have had no problems. I do everythign with him loos ein the stable, groom him, pick his feet out, tack him up and muck out. In the fild he follows me liek a dog, and comes to call. The YO put his breakfast and hayledge net into his stable every morning with no problems. I hack him alone and in groups, i have even ridden him bareback in a head coller across open fields. Ive clipped him my self , done all sorts with him.




I do feel he has been let to get away with murder in his past, and is a dominant guy, but it really is a case of you have to see how good he is with me to belive it.

Since he has come to me, he is like a different horse, ive got the weight on him, sorted his feet out, , he has stopped windsucking. he has never bitten or kicked me, and gives me kisses!

Reading that advert about him, yes you could draw up a picture in your minds of nasty tempered beast. That horse was a miserable horse. Ive taken on quirky, project horses all my horsey life (20 years )

After having charles for 4 months and seeing how well he has come on, and i even have one friend who can manage to put him in the field. I decided to bring my daughter up becasue i didnt feel that by her sitting there it would be a problem.

Whilst i woudl agree charles does have dominant issues, they do not lie with me, and he is as good as gold with me.
 
After giving it some thought the only conclusion that i can come to is that maybe he was confused that my daugther smelt like me, but is a weak person. Im a dominant person, and maybe the confusion made him very unsure.
 
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