Riggy Behaviour in a Gelding

[astewart13]

My 4year old gelding who was gelded as a two year old has recently gone out to grass for a holiday after being broken and riding for about 12 weeks. He has moved from the yard to the field which he came from and has been turned out with the older mare who was his turnout companion at the yard. She has since gone into and come out of season and has set my gelding off and he is displaying riggy behaviour toward her, particularly it seems when we are there to check on them. I can see them from my house and they don't seem to bother each other too much when left alone. He is also displaying territorial and stallion like behaviour toward me, shaking his head, barging, biting and striking out with his front feet, which is not normal behaviour for him at all, he is usually quiet and laid back. Today he has left me with a rather large bruise and I would like to nip this in the bud before it becomes dangerous.

Would you recommend trying a supplement or is it likely this behaviour will calm down once he is back in the stable?

 

[Bertolie]

My daughter recently bought a new horse that was displaying extreme signs of riggyness. Very protective of the mares in adjoining paddocks and displaying signs of aggression towards other stallions, although he was really good towards my daughter and myself. We had to seperate him from my cob, as he would continually corner him and at one stage forced him through a stock fence onto a road.

On the advice of the vet we put the new pony on Global Herbs Rigcalm and the change in the pony has been amazing. Although pony still likes 'his' ladies, he no longer feels the need to protect them from the other geldings. We have even re-introduced my cob back into the paddock without incident. I would certainly give the Rigcalm a go.

 

[Inchy]

We have a gelding who was cut late, who displays very territorial behaviour in the field (an angel in the stable though) but only when there are people around, he comes at you teeth bared, ears back to 'chase' you away from his friends. He starts this up every time we get a new horse on the yard that he decides is his!

To sort this out I always take a lunge line in the field with me, coiled up. If he comes at me all guns blazing I can fling it out at him a fair distance away and send him off course, I keep doing this untill he puts his polite expression back on and walks up to me nicely. Seems to work with him, he soon gets the picture that if he is going to be mardy he'll get chased away by the rope, but if he's friendly he can have a fuss.

 

[Miss L Toe]

I think it his age, I had probs when my boy [aged four], was put in with a mare, he was very protective, but when she was not in season he was mouthing like a baby.
A year later I saw him with all bits out and mounting his little lady friend.
Nothing happening this year.
No reason to think he was late gelded.

 

[undertheweather]

On the advice of the vet we put the new pony on Global Herbs Rigcalm and the change in the pony has been amazing. Although pony still likes 'his' ladies, he no longer feels the need to protect them from the other geldings. We have even re-introduced my cob back into the paddock without incident. I would certainly give the Rigcalm a go.

I used to have a rig, would be an absolute nightmare getting him in and out of field, he would snort, prance and strike out with his front legs (and back for that matter!), squeal and bite, and be a genuine PITA around mares. He used to have a gate that followed him from field to field as he used to strike at it all the time when horses passed... Each time he moved fields we had to hammer it back to a respectable straightness!

Anyway, on vet advice as he was old (19) and no point risking operating on him, we gave him Global Herbs Rig Calm, and what an amazing difference it made. We tried lots of different calmers but this was the one that turned him from rig to perfectly normal gelding. Amazing product, I only buy global herbs supplements now after how well Rig Calm worked.