Problems with youngster.

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amycov

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Just wrote a massive post but lost it! Gutted! I'll try to remember what I put...

I bought a Warmblood X filly back at the end of September. She was fine up until end of October-ish. She then changed...She developed and issue with leg straps. She would raise her leg at me and threaten to kick but I respond with a sharp back hand to the leg and a stern NO. She carried on with this but was not dangerous. It then became worse. She started lashing out at me. I tried hitting her (not beating!) just to show she shouldn't do it. But she carried on. A friend said to try a sharp crack with a crop across her leg at the moment she struck out. I tried this but she got very stressed and started to CRIB!! So I dismissed that idea and just took the leg straps off. She was then fine to put her rug on for a few days now the straps were gone, but then decided she didn't like belly straps! She will bring her head round to bite me and her leg up to kick me at the same time. She is literally trying to attack me. It has got to the stage where I feel intimidated by her. I know she could kill me if she wanted to and she is getting more and more aggressive.

I did initially put the behaviour down to a change of diet. So I changed her back to her old feed but there has been no change.

She had an erratic moment today. I was just going to fill hay nets for the gang, and all I heard was banging and squealing. I turned around and ran back to the barn. Everyone had crowded around her stable and informed me she had been double barreling the wall as hard as she could. She was out to kill! We could find no obvious cause of this. It could have just been that she was spooked but why such an adverse reaction? I can only describe her as completely Erratic.

She hasn't been stabled over night before she came to me, the only time she was in was for a week when she had an abcess. The owner said she was fine. If anybody has any ideas or advice to give me then I would appreciate it. I'm getting to the point where i'm considering selling as a project horse but I really don't want to give up on her! Should I try a calmer? If so what would you recommend? Thanks for getting this far. Cookies all round!
 
You don't say if she's stabled all day half day,how much turn out, sounds like something is spooking her out, could be rats. My old mare started doing the same thing and we found a rat run in her stable near where her feed trough and hay nets were. Or it could be her ovaries as she must be coming into season and she's tender over her back and legs. PMT is a real YUK!! as most of us know and I know most people will say mares don't come into season over winter but I'm afraid they do, specially if they are stabled rugged up and well fed, as that's how they get TB mares in foal so they foal in winter as from JAN-MARCH.
 
First thought was give her 24 hr turnout, sounds like she could be hating being stabled. Some horses are claustrophobic or partly so. My mare doesn't enjoy being stabled, so I don't. Also, although it is needed to teach a horse to wear rugs, if she doesn't like the straps, maybe she doesn't like the rug! Try weaning her off it, and start rug training in the calmer summer (lol) months ready for next winter???
Just a suggestion, I can't think of much else at the moment that hasn't been mentioned!
Good luck, and keep safe.
 
We are not allowed to turn out 24/7 in the winter. I would try it if I could. She also, would get cold without rugs. She doesn't have a massively thick coat. I've been trying to groom her a fair bit though to get her used to me touching her.
 
This is something that happened to me with my mare. Started with lashing out while grooming, then moved on to when she was eating then when rugging her up. She also hated being stabled (pinned me against wall etc)
To be honest she turned into a complete liability and as she was purchased as a childs pony she had to go.
I am not the most confident or experienced person so wasn't happy to persevere.
This happened after being with us for 6 weeks without any problems.
Mmmm your guess is as good as mine.
I did contemplate getting a trainer in though (natural horsemanship) but as she was under warranty chose not to.

Good luck with what you decide though
smile.gif
 
Maybe she's ticklish? This may explain her hatred of you/the straps touching her upper hinds and tum, and also could explain the kicking out in the stable as she tries to dislodge it?

My mare is incredibly ticklish around her stifles and teats. To the point that I try not to touch that area.

She will lift a leg, occasionally kick out and/or squeal. She isn't vicious and I know would never mean to harm me, but it's her only way of saying 'stop, eek, don't touch THERE!'

Why not first try stabling her without a rug? See if that makes any difference.

I don't use leg straps on any of my rugs. X surcingles and a fillet string only.
 
I think you should ask your vet to check out her ovaries. She sounds rather like a friend of mine who gets polycystic ovary syndrome. It raises testosterone levels and makes her a right moody cow! I can imagine that if a mare got it, it would cause her a problem having her back legs messed around with. Maybe not coming into season in the winter makes it worse?

Just a guess, but worth a try maybe.
 
She's definitely trying to tell you something important. Horses don't get that loopy that quickly without something happening to cause it.

There's a new-ish mare at my yard that seemed to be ok for a few weeks but then began to change. She got aggressive in the stable, she would barge dangerously at the field gate to come in, she would lash out at the horses stabled next door to her all the time and would often come flying at them with ears flat and teeth showing. She was one very unhappy horse. Here's the thing though - the walls between the stables in the barn don't have grills on the top, so they stop at about wither height. For most horses, this creates an air of quiet contentment but the owner thought the mare needed her own space more - she felt threatened at the nearness of the neighbouring horses. So the owner moved her into a different stable block with more traditional walls right up to the ceiling, with just a small grill between horses. In one single night, she changed back to the contented mare she had previously been. I wonder if your mare is desperately unhappy with her neighbours? Perhaps they weren't stabled so much at the end of the autumn when you first had her? Or have her neighbours changed? Worth thinking hard from the horse's point of view, what might have changed. Sometimes it's something that from a human's point of view is nothing, but the horse might see it differently x
 
Young horses can be confused about their relationship with you and other horses and that can appear as aggressiveness. Sh may have sussed you out and now thinks she can boss you around. If you are nervous of her then you are on a hiding to nothing unless you develop a good plan of action. Certainly slapping her won't help, you are better of doing ground work with her and establishing yourself as the boss.

BUT I think she sounds like a horse in pain and I am concerned about the cribbing and about the wall kicking. It may be that she had a stomach upset from the food you had her on and has been in discomfort.

You don't say how old she is. That would dictate my treatment of her, but I owuld first of all want to understand what could be wrong with her.
 
Siennamum beat me to it, you haven't said how old your filly is?

But regardless of her age, I would seek professional help someone like Michael Peace at Oxfordshire is excellent and worth every penny. Something has gone wrong and unfortunatly your filly feels that her only option is the fight response, which is the very trick up her sleeve.

Hope all goes well xx
 
I think before you go down the behaviourist route your should speak to a vet. An external pair of eyes may piece together all the different bits and it may point to a classic problem that the vet recognises - like a problem with the ovaries etc. The vet will also be able to do a blood test etc. for hormone levels if they feel it is neccessary.
 
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