Liveries horse bullying my two!!

G

Gypley

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 August 2012
Messages
586
Visit site
Liveries have been here for a little over a month now and their horses have now found their feet. The the chestnut Arab x mare (who I originally envisaged would be trouble) is an absolute sweetheart. But the coloured is an absolute sod!
He's really picking on my two and its making me hate him.
I feel awful that I actually hate someone's horse, but I do and he deserves it!
My poor youngster is petrified to even be turned out and gets the brunt of the coloureds tanturms. He won't walk past him, and if my horse goes anywhere near him he charges at him. Even if I'm on the other end of the lead rope.
This morning he cornered my old girl and started double barreling her!
I can't remove the coloured as we don't have the grazing to give him his own field so I don't really think there's a solution other than to hope mine stay out of his way.
His owners come up and tell him how much of a lovely good boy he is ( he's their horse, so obviously they think that!) but I sit there seething because I know he's so horrid.
When I turn mine out, I feel like I've left a child at school when I know there going to be bullied!
Pointless post really, but I had to air my dislike for that bully of a horse!!!
I never thought I could hate someone else's horse so much!
 
Poor you :( It's horrid isn't it? Is there no way to section off the field so that her two and yours are separate?

You may find that given a little more time things will settle - one month isn't actually that long to establish herd dynamics - or, yours will learn how to stay out of this horse's way.

I've been on both ends of this and neither end was pleasant . . . Kal kicked a fieldmate (happened at night when they were on 24/7 turnout) and I felt terrible - it was completely out of character and I was abject with apologies to the owners of the other horse . . . and in Kal's last field he was constantly harrassed and picked on - for nearly a year! Both other horses continually ran him off the good grass/hay, kicked and bit him and lead horse wouldn't even let Kal roll - would march over and make him get up :(. I'm afraid that situation didn't end well - Kal didn't get out of the way quickly enough one day and ended up in horsepital needing his right hock flushed.

Have a good look at what is actually happening . . . is this horse kicking out at the others are actually connecting? Is there a pattern, e.g., is it when the others are leaving the field/when hay is given, etc.? What happens if you drive this horse off when you are leading yours? If it's mostly posturing, that's one thing - however, if the horse is consistently hurting the others then something needs to be done.

You say the owners seem blissfully unaware - why not have a quiet, non-confrontational word?

Best of luck.

P
 
Gypley said:
This morning he cornered my old girl and started double barreling her!
I can't remove the coloured as we don't have the grazing to give him his own field so I don't really think there's a solution other than to hope mine stay out of his way.
Click to expand...

If you have enough grazing to have them all in together, you have enough grazing to separate him. Why can't you fence him off with electric fencing? :confused:

We too have a coloured who is an absolute bully and will corner and double barrel others. He has his own small paddock and will never be turned out with others again. You will end up with a dead horse if you don't do something. Biting is one thing, running down, cornering and booting is another!
 
Last edited:
Gypley - I gather it is your place so you make the rules. GET HIM OUT OF THAT FIELD! I have lost a mare to a broken hock after being beaten up in the field, I can't believe day after day you stick your horses in with him and leave them to it - that is incomprehensible to me.
 
You need to section off the field I think.

I was once the owner of a horse that bullied another, he wasn't bullying all of the others just this one particular horse and when I found out I was mortified. The YO came to tell me to put my horse in a separate paddock which I agreed to do and i felt really awful that i had got a bully of a horse on my hands. Then the owner of the other horse was really quite nasty to me about what my horse had been doing.... I hadn't even known about it up until this point and it ultimately made me leave the yard and keep my horses at home. It's quite ironic that the owner of the bullied horse became a bully herself so I would ask that you approach the owner in a matter of fact but also friendly way, she probably doesn't know what her horse has been doing.

Incidentally my bully horse never bullied another horse after that, he must have really just took a dislike to this particular one
 
Thanks guys. Think it's given me the kick up the backside I need.
I'll talk to the liveries this weekend about splitting the field.
I didn't want hassle when taking on liveries but I suppose some things you can't plan.

I feel sorry for my two, I don't want any injuries and I don't want to hate someone else's horse!

It's mostly biting and empty threats, but I suppose it only takes one kick :/
 
Clodagh, your quite right. This morning certainly wasn't an empty threat! But on the most part it's bottom biting and chasing.
 
Slitting up is easy. When I got Molly, her and Fly went in adjacent paddocks and every time I went to yard, they would be nuzzling over the fence. Fly has a history of being food aggressive, charging at anything that comes even close to a bordering fence when she has food so I was very cautious about putting them in together.

When I did, I would put hay at either end of the large paddock and things were fine for a while, actually, Fly never made contact with Molly, but she charge at her one weekend that I was away and Molly ran through a fence. Luckily just a little friction burn, but enough for me to just put a line of electric fencing down the middle of the paddock to split it.

I think I could put them together again in a bigger field, but these paddocks are just too small.

I see no issue in separating them. Your yard, your rules and so long as everyone is honest and everything is said politely, nothing should go wrong.
 
I wouldn't wait until the weekend. If you have to keep yours in for a day to keep them safe then so be it.

Or, if they are in at night out in the day can you just change your ones routine to the reverse so you always have two out/two in? Shouldn't be that much more work.
 
My elderly horse was being increasingly bullied as they quickly sussed out that she couldn't hear or see so well and couldn't get out of the way quickly due to her arthritis. I managed to separate her from the really nasty one but on the day she was PTS she went out in the field while we waited for the vet and the b*****d was there too and ran her ragged because she went over to say hello to the mare he fancied (he was decidedly riggy). Even while I was in the field trying to catch her again he was charging and attacking both of us. Not the nice peaceful final few hours I had in mind for her. TBH that upset me more than having her put down.
 
My horse can be a bully. He bites thou, never kicks. I split the field up as I didn't want the constant guilt when he bit another horse. He doesn't pick on my other horse just one certain one. But rugs get ripped and I replace them so enough was enough.
 
I was at a yard once where two geldings had to be PTS for EXACTLY the same injury (a fractured foreleg) within a couple of months of each other. The vets said the fracture had been caused by an impact from above, i.e. hoof connecting when coming down from a rear.

I knew who it was - a "gelding" who shared their field who had previously shown plenty of signs of being a rig including:
-fluctuations in weight, not relating to his workload/showing ribs periodically (partly from frustration I think)
-mounting my mare
-attempting to mount other mares (failed because he was 13.2hh & the other mares were 15.1hh & 16hh)
-mounting the farmer

He'd also been seen "play fighting" with the other geldings on numerous occasions, including a lot of rearing in their faces.

Still, it took for two to be PTS before he was removed from the field. And when he was, the subject was approached nicely with his owner - who still took offence & got upset, stating that "he'd been tested & wasn't a rig"! This didn't change what had happened to the other geldings though, did it?

Please do something about it before a tragedy occurs for you. The liveries might not like what you have to say, but equally they may not be aware of their horses's behaviour. Either way, in my eyes, it's not worth the risk. Not after what I've seen.

Good luck xxx
 
I'm usually fine here as I run so many herds that it's generally quite easy for me to find the solution to any manner of horse, however I have one horse here who came about 4 months ago and boy is he a bully. No matter which herd you put him in with he's almost irrational and cannot get along with any of them. I spoke to the owner and said that it couldn't go on like this and in the next breath I was going to give her a months notice to find somewhere else for the horse however she stopped me dead and asked if her horse could go into a particular teeny little paddock I have (only about an acre) on his own. I never use this paddock so it's always surplus. I only ever use it for horses who are here for a very short time. So as soon as she suggested it I kinda queried it and said it's tiny but she said it was fine and she'd love to keep him in there. Problem solved! He's been living in that paddock on his own for about a month now and he's happy as a pig in poop, and more importantly so am I and all the other horses who live here :)

Either split the field or ask them to leave. You can't keep horses like this together once it gets to the double-barrel stage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top