Quick Update on Filly

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Tia

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Sorry I don't have much time as have to zip off in a minute but I just thought I would let you know how today went.

Caught filly, led her through main corral to small corral. Bit jiggy but nothing to worry about. Left her in there with plenty of hay and water and she was absolutely fine and happy for about 2 hours.....then she just all of a sudden jumps the fence!
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Into a new herds field. The horses in this field ran her....so she galloped towards a fence and then promptly jumped into another horse herd that she doesn't know.....they ran her too!

Eventually managed to call those horses into their small corral (thank the lord for having millions of corrals!). Then decided that for the moment we should just take her back into her field which has an adjoining gate, until we figured out the next plan of action.

Lead her to the gate (she is on absolutely best behaviour now! Walking perfectly and almost snuggling in) and as I opened the gate, I saw the mother in the corral in her field and she just came up behind my lead mare and booted the living daylights out of her. Lead mare had no option but to back down and hobbled off, clearly injured.

Quick change of plan again, had someone catch up the mare and we took both mare and filly down to the round pen......they are still there!

Went back to check on my lead mare - she went into shock so had to deal with her. She's fine now though.

Mare and filly will have to stay in the round pen tonight and so long as they seem calm tomorrow then I think I will just put the 2 of them in the driveway field. This is turning into a friggin' massive logistic problem and you know what, it isn't my problem. The two of them can live in that field for the rest of the winter and the owner can help sort this nonsense out. At least all the other horses and owners on the farm will be safe.

So not a good outcome at all - feeling non-helpful now - an easy life is fine by me.
 
OMG how do you cope. i think you have done the right thing just leave them both together in the driveway field once out of the round pen, and let the owner get on with it, if you feed and water them fine but i wouldnt do anything else if the owner is not there with you. good luck hope your mare is ok
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Bugger, hope your mare is O.K. Sounds like the filly has quite a pop!!! Think your doing the right thing, it's just not worth taking the risk of her hurting you or any more of your horses.
 
Sounds like one of the scenarios here, they test you at times don't they!
I would leave her with the mother and feed them there until you are certain you have all escape routes to the new field covered., I'm not so sure her behaviour isn't just dominant as fear related, a sort of "I'll batter you before you start on me " type reaction.
She's going to hurt someone soon though Tia, as there seems no regular pattern to her behaviour, one minute she's fine the next a demon. I think the horses can sort themselves out if given enough room to run away from her, but humans can't...
I actually think it's a good idea the others ran her off, we have on occasions put really bolshy horses straight in with the main herds, they find with so many chasing them it's easier to back down again. Have you any without shoes who will stand up to her?
 
What a nightmare Tia.

It's bad enough that it's you having to deal with this horse, when she's unpredictable. It's quite something else when they start injuring yours or other liveries horses. Their boarding money can't be worth the vet fees that could result, surely?

I really wouldn't want to have a horse on my land that behaved in this way. Not just the aggression, but jumping out of fields is a pain in the bum. You shouldn't need to be nannying over them, wondering if they're staying put.

If her owner isn't prepared to put some effort into her to try and remedy her behaviour, then I don't see why she's being kept alive? What fun is there in owning such a horse for anyone?

I reckon you should take your shotgun out with you later and shoot her from a safe distance!
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Disclaimer - that was a facetious comment, even though I'm sure the thought crossed your mind when the tinker was sailing over fences!
 
Jeeeesus Tia... the words 'Soooo not worth it' popped into my head!
Incidentally, don't horses that have some sort of brain damage / tumour often behave like that? Or are you sure it's just the way she was raised? (I have been following your saga, btw!
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It is admirable that you have already been so accommodating of this difficult horse but its true she's her owner's problem not yours. IMO the horse seriously needs vets investigations and intensive re-hab - both of which are up to the owner to pay for. If the woman's not prepared to put in some time and money herself, why should you risk your own safety and the safety of your liveries and horses? Without correcting any medical problems and re-education the horse is destined for an unhappy life anyway. The owner either needs to put everything into this horse or just have it PTS, its not up to you to endanger yourself trying to help it with nothing in it for you.
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I agree Tia, its NOT your problem and I think the owner is being extremely irresponsible by just leaving this filly with you but refusing to pay any extra for special care.

I don't really know if there is a solution, but honestly, if it was me, I would put an ultimatum on the owner - filly either has to go [or be shot] or she has to be prepared to pay for anything she needs, whether that be vet, indoor board, whatever. It is simply not fair to just dump a horse like her on you and expect you to sort it out for nothing.
 
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I don't really know if there is a solution, but honestly, if it was me, I would put an ultimatum on the owner - filly either has to go [or be shot] or she has to be prepared to pay for anything she needs, whether that be vet, indoor board, whatever. It is simply not fair to just dump a horse like her on you and expect you to sort it out for nothing.

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The ONLY way you'll wean this filly is to put her in a stable (with a grill over the door!) and put mother out of eye and ear shot. It shouldn't take MUCH more than a week before she MIGHT stay in the corral (although it would be worth running some electric tape along the inside of the top rail - won't raise it's height but she should only need one 'zap' to discourage her from jumping it.

And SO agree with others - if owner won't pay for what she needs, owner should be given one week to remove her!
 
Personally, the owner is absolutely [****] scared of the filly (therefore useless) or quite happy to take you for a ride while having the horse out of sight, out of mind.
 
So she wasn't actually aggressive until the sight of her mum gave her courage? Would it help to send the mother back to the owner? That would halve owner's livery fee & leave her enough money to pay for proper stabling / vetting etc. and it would decrease the danger a bit.
 
I think you are FAR too kind hearted for your own good. We all have enough problems in life without taking on other peoples!

Now this filly is jumping out you are in a worse position than before. Your own mare is injured. What if it was a livery? Or your daughter that accidently got in the way and had her head caved in? Given this filly's history a lawsuit could be slapped on you no problem and if the horse was killed or badly injured you could be seriously out if pocket. if she jumps out, heads off your property, runs into a car, kills the driver you are looking at a lawsuit for millions. Don't think it will never happen to me - I'm a lawyer - its does. If it was your daughter that was injured or killed, well words can't describe how tragic that would be.

Horses like this need absolute consistency. There can be no room for errors. No time to think for a few seconds such as 'is this the correct way to react?' She does need a full health check and if it is psychological to go to someone who does this day in day out and can provide immediate, consistent reactions. The fact she is now jumping out as she pleases means no-one is safe - not you, not your family and not your liveries.

No disrespect to you - your posts show you to be an excellent horsewoman who has forgotten more than I will ever learn, but this is a pretty full on project and with a young family and liveries I can't see you have the luxury to give this filly the time she needs or to make mistakes that may be costly ones.
 
Oh dear
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I think a roundpen is the best place tbh and I would for sure keep them there. Keeping mom with will surely keep her calmer and I imagine she will stay put and not try and bolt through and demolish your panles. I realise that weaning once and for all cannot be done this way but as you said, it is not your problem. This is way more trouble than it is worth and keeping it simple is the best at this point.


Glad filly did not manage to hurt herself ( or anyone else)

Hope your mare is ok.
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I imagine she will be but this chaotic behavior must be stressing the herds.

I hope psyco filly gets the heck out of there asap for all involved.




Glad for now it is calm and you and your family can settle in to a nice relaxing Christmas
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Did you get dumped on anymore? We had a horrible blizzard here last night!
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QR -

Hi everyone, just a quickie as only popped in for a moment.

Latest update is this;

The filly appears to have learned a bit of a lesson. At no point the other day did she threaten me, or anyone else. She was well behaved, mind you she was almost literally pooing her pants after the big Spotty Horse chased after her - she was pretty much running for her life. He's good though thankfully and when I called him, he came, along with the rest of his herd and I was able to lock him in the little corral in his field.

That field adjoins the big field that her mother was in, so made sense just to take filly back into there. I have absolutely no idea why the mother beat the cr4p out of my mare as she was completely oblivious to what was going on elsewhere; she didn't even know that her filly was no longer in her field. Anyway when the mother started to seriously lay into my mare that was when we decided to just take them down to the round pen. Both walked perfectly; filly was excellent!

Yesterday, I decided against putting them in the driveway field as it is right next to the foals field and I couldn't have any of them jump in there - way too risky.

So what I did was this. Had a couple of boarders come up to help me. I took all of my boys out of the new field with the vinyl fencing. This is our tallest fencing and the top rail is 5ft tall. We put the boys in the driveway field and then moved the filly and mare out of the round pen and put them in the new vinyl fenced field. The mare was NOT happy at all. I checked out of the bedroom window on them a number of times last night and she was pacing up and down the fenceline and shouting across to the herd where she used to belong, however one of those rails is hotwired and I switched it on yesterday.

This morning, went out to feed everyone and the two of them had settled down. The mare has been VERY narky with the filly and I almost feel sorry for the filly now....her mother does not like her at all at present. I feel this is a fabulous opportunity to spend time with the filly and be the only nice thing in her life right now; I know it's only early days, but she does seem to be responding.

I spent an hour with her this morning after I fed them, and she didn't once do anything aggressive in the slightest.....even when I fed them, there were no ears back or teeth bared and since being in here, she hasn't attempted to turn her rear on me. So we'll see how it goes. This may just have been the shocker she needed, I hope so.
 
Doh, I got completely the wrong end of the stick and thought it was the filly that kicked the crap out your mare!!!!...........Guess this is where the filly gets her dominant and rather unpredictable behaviour from, especially if the mare is the only real influence the filly have ever known.
 
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