rooney
New User
i carnet make my mind up is my horse a bully or a leader what are the signs of a leader and signs of a bully?
is my horse a bully or leader?
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Brightbay
Well-Known Member
Well, think about it
If your horse is a leader, when you put a headcollar and leadrope on them and lead them away from the others, the others will follow. Leaders of horses - and people - are the ones the others choose to follow.If, on the other hand, your horse charges around the field biting and harrassing other horses, and they all look relieved when you remove your horse from the field, you may not have a bully, but you probably do have quite an insecure horse who would benefit from different management
Horses don't bully, but they do defend resources they believe to be scarce or threatened - so if they're on restricted grazing, they will chase other horses off food, if they've been kept alone, they will chase other horses off preferred companions. This might look like bullying to us - it's not, it's just insecurity.rooney
New User
if i have to go get him which isn't very often they all all follow and if he comes to call they all follow
rooney
New User
we have just had 2 new horses arrive in the field first was a pony which he didnt bat an eyelid then the day after another came same size as him 15.2 and all hell let lose he would not let the big one go any where near the new pony or old field mates
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Brightbay
Well-Known Member
Sounds like he's defending *his* herd from newcomers. It usually settles down after two or three days of running off the new one, and everybody settles down to be friends. It helps if the new one has enough space to get far enough away not to feel the need to defend themselves... in a small space, an introduction like that can go a bit wrong, as the resident horse is chasing off an intruder, but the new horse can't get far enough away so is forced to become defensive. IF they have enough space, there's rarely any problems - the chasing of new one will get less frequent over the course of a few days, then usually someone makes friendly overtures and they end up pals.