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?

 

[Birker2020]

My horse who was bought at aged 10 and was seven when gelded exhibited some stallion traits when I had him (paces, trumpeting, tail lifting and exaggerated neck lift). Horses were getting bitten in his field and mounted and everyone blamed my horse. I knew it wasn't my horse but the yard owner insited he couldn't go out with the others and he didn't cope well turned out on his own either. In the end he was on continual 'box rest' which was extremely unfair on him. No one had ever seen him attack their horses but they all thought it was him and although I spent many hours sat in his field with my camcorder trying to film the horse that was attacking the others I could not get any footage. I got him blood tested for a rig which came back negative as a 'true rig' i.e. if he had retained testicular tissue he would have been a true rig, so it was assumed he was a false rig, i.e. a horse that develops behaviour although doesn't have testosterone levels of a true rig. The vet said he could go on a hormone supplement which was injected every three weeks at great cost and I had to sign a disclaimer as it was unlicensed for use in horses but was licensed in humans only. After the third injection he was allowed out with the others. Then one day I was at a show with my horse and my friends horse was badly mauled in the field. She apologised to me later saying it hadn't been my horse and that she was sorry. I left the yard shortly after as I had lost trust in my friends and hated the people who I thought were friends ganging against me and my horse and I felt very bitter towards the yard owner who had taken peoples words when there had never been any proof it was my horse.

About a year later Billy dropped down dead in the field of a heart attack. I never knew if it had been due to the injection of depo provera he had been given and felt very guilty. I would never go down that route again. Poor Billy. Although my present vet did say that horses that are gelded late have a slightly higher risk of heart attack than those gelded young, and also said something about it was quite common in horses that had good breeding and had covered a lot of mares.

So please don't be tempted if your vet suggests depo provera or anyone else for that matter. It could have killed my horse.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

I'd get the rig blood test done so you know what you're dealing with and take it from there.

 

[sanchob]

i brought a 3yr old gelding (with castration scar tissue i have to add ) who turned into pony from hell. You couldn't lead him without a chifney ,he bit ,struck out ,all his poo in field was around the perimeter ,and he was rampant!!!
I put him on a product called CUSHY LIFE by james hart herbs ...it was amazing it really took the edge of. Apparently it's made from Chaste Berry / common name is Monks Pepper( the monks used to use it to subdue their natural urges.)
I then had a rigg test done which was positive so then he was re-tested using the female hormone which again came back very positive. In oct 2009 he went to RVC (turned out he was crypto orchid )and had 2 testicals removed from his stomach. If you are in doubt get him tested as if there are testicals inside their body they are at risk of being cancerous . Sometimes even a small piece of testicular tissue floating around can make them have riggy behaviour. Hope you get him sorted. Also i believe that depending on when they were cut makes a huge difference

 

[Nightmare before Christmas]

my 4 year old is also riggy, he bites and strikes out when he gets a bit excited or is around mares. Hes sweet as a puppy otherwise. He was gelded this year so he most likely needs time to settle. I know there are supplements if things dont chill

 

[muff747]

I'd get the rig blood test done so you know what you're dealing with and take it from there.

Ouch BoF, that's a bit blunt. Maybe you didn't mean it to read how it sounds

He will only be a rig if he has any testicles or remnants. He could just have been gelded late which can cause this sort of behaviour.
My gelding was cut at age four. He behaves just fine with geldings but mares are attracted to him and have been known to jump out of their field and into his for a bit of lurrve. He will perform fully if they insist but he doesn't try to get out of his field to them.
He can get very clingy if kept with mares, shouting for them when he's brought in. He was blood tested years ago and found to have highest level of testosterone in the vets experience but nontheless, - a gelding.
Somehow I find the name "rig" a bit offensive, hence I was a bit ouchy with BoF.
I prefer him to not be with mares as I have had bad vibes from mare owners because he is a babe magnet but lets face it, they're only doing what comes natural.
Problems can come about when injuries occur. Unfortunately an elderly mare, who was very attracted to my boy (when I was at a yard with mixed fields), came in with an injury under her tail, blamed on my boy. The vet attended and treated her and she was kept in overnight and she must have dropped dead in the night. It was very upsetting for everyone and I was treated very cooly after that
The YO did seperate mares and geldings after that.

 

[TarrSteps]

Why is "rig" offensive? It's true meaning is a horse that's been gelded improperly but it's also used to describe a horse with stallion like tendencies.

When you say he is acting like a stallion towards her do you mean he is mounting etc? I had one who was like that (although a lovely horse to handle if you were a person) and would herd mares, be very aggressive towards other geldings etc. and the solution for him was simply to manage him like a stallion. He had individual turnout, or with a gelding "friend" if available, in a paddock he couldn't jump out of, and we were careful who he lived next to, sniffed noses with etc. His hormone test was normal, he wasn't gelded particularly late (off the track so, as usual, when he came out of racing), it was just "him" and we respected that. Interestingly, stallions he lived with, met at shows etc. all recognised him as another stallion!

HOWEVER he was ALWAYS good to handle. He struck at me once when he was very young and he wanted to go to some mares in season at a fence line and we had a SERIOUS discussion about it and he never, ever did it again. That's not "studdiness" that's rudeness!!! I wouldn't take that from a stallion, either.

I suspect, while there may be hormones at play (the testicles are not the only organ that produces testosterone, merely the main one) it's likely a combination of growing up, spring (both for him and the mare), and the fact that he's gone away and come back, having learned a bit about the world. You can give supplements a shot but I'd also be making it very clear to him that you are NOT to be pushed around, struck at or otherwise treated as someone to be bullied. If he's pushing the mare around there's not much you can do, they'll have to work that out. But his behaviour towards you is a different matter!