It's official my horse hates men!!

[PnO]

I don't know whether some of you will remember reading about my troublesome two year old filly, well shes getting on much better with me now and things are going well. Apart from she hates men! She is ok with my dad, boyfriend and my mums boyfriend but she has known them since she was born as we bred her. But since moving to the new yard i've noticed she has been worse but then again before she was just out in a field and never really saw men apart from the farrier who after months and months of trying with her was eventually able to trim her feet with her behaving 'reasonably'.

For example when the guy who keeps his horses next to mine walks past she puts her ears back and almost lunges out the stable - she has never bitten him! The guy also occasionally comes into my stable to fill up his water buckets as the tap for our four stables is in her stable, he is good and will normally try and fill up the buckets when she's turned out, however the taps have been frozen most of the time recently so he hasn't had the option to use it all the time. Anyway the other day he was in there filling up his bucket and she was acting very weirdly, almost staying as far away from him as possible but then pulling faces at him, then when he walked out she tried to kick him!! There is also another man on the yard who will come and talk to me occasionally and she will put her ears back and pull faces at him horribly as soon as he walks round the corner. Neither of these men have done anything to her ever and the first guy tries to give her carrots over the door and she takes her very reluctantly then runs off to the back of the stable! Obviously having bred her I know her history and can think of nothing that would give her any reason to hate men!

What is her problem lol??

Sorry it's long and I rambled on!!! x

 

[evelynb]

My horse hated men before I got him too.

I think it was the dealer my horse came from originally that was bad to him but the lady that bought him before me got the YO who was a man to bring in the horse at night so that he would get used to men and he is fine now.

 

[miss_c]

Ooh I dunno why she would hate men as you've bred her and know her history etc... Weird one. There used to be a pony at the riding school I worked at who hated men... The vets would always send a new vet out to see him almost like an 'initiation'! Let's just say that without fail he would kick them where it hurts most... One poor vet had to go sit in his car for half an hour! They were very pleased when he was finally pts aged 30!

 

[unicornleather]

It is often a problem I come across at stables when out saddle fitting,sometimes I can't anywhere near the horse to fit the saddle!
On the other hand I have seen a horse that hated women and only men could get near her, ride her or handle her!
In most cases but clearly not yours , the horses have had a bad experience in early life with men whether being roughly handled or shouted at, yours seems a bit of a mystery as it is usually something they associate with to make them like that. I am no horse handler but perhaps if you can get all the men at the yard to keep going near her and talking to her it might de sensitise her?
Oz