riggy behaviour opinions please

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maree t

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Hi, ready for a long post ?
Yesterday my daughters 15 yr old gelding acted rather bizzarely. They had hacked up to a friends and left the boys there while they hacked out the mares and then returned to tack them up and ride them home. They were shuffling the ponies around so that they could get the boys out and her boy started to get stressy. When she went to catch him he jumped a 4ft plus fence from a standstill. He got into another geldings field and started pawing the ground and shouting at him. They managed to get the other one out so he jumped two electric fences to get in with the mares. He was rounding them up but not hurting them. Daughter tried to catch him (I wasnt there at that stage) but he kept turning his back on her. He didnt kick her or try to, just wouldnt let her touch. They got some pony nuts and she managed to catch him.
He was a right pain to tack up and tried to run off with her several times on the way home which she dealt with very well. When we got home he called for hours to the little mare which was well away from him.

He does seem to have the odd moment and it seems to be spring and autumn. He is good as gold the rest of the time so surely he cant be a 'proper rig can he ? dont know wether to get him tested or if any of you have any experience of this .
 
We havent taken it too seriously in the past but he caught his back legs on the fence, with no harm done but worried about what the silly sod will do next.
 
Geldings can show stallion-like qualities for two reasons;
1. They haven't been cut properly (retained testicles up inside them usually) - this needs blood tests for testosterone, and then an op to remove any testes.
2. Because they are 'behavioural rigs'. A while ago, there was a fashion for people not to cut their colts until they were older - between 2 and 5yrs old. The testosterone they produced created stallion-like muscle development - good topline, cresty necks etc so was thought to make the horse's conformation better for showing, selling etc. The downside is that the horse's brain was pretty convinced it was a stallion, and 'riggy' behaviour patterns were set, even after they were late cut, and no hormones remain.
If the latter, all you can do is to try to minimise contact with in-season mares/geldings until you are sure he will behave - manage him as a stallion, effectively.
Good luck.
Sorry about the novel I've just typed!
S :D
 
I don't think that is typical riggy behaviour.

I once had a rig and he was a pain in the bum nearly all the time. He'd get erections whenever a mare was near - even though he didn't have the tackle to do a proper job - and turn into a bolshy nightmare.

Also, as mares cycle frequently during the warmer seasons, he would be acting like this more than a couple of times a year imo.

He may just be excited. A lot of geldings like to have "girlfriends". The Sec A in my siggy was a gelding and he liked nothing better than to herd the girls around.
 
My late-cut boy goes through riggy phases...he was very riggy earlier on in the year and RigCalm by Global Herbs really helped (as well as electric fence and careful re-introductions)..apparently you can also buy the main ingredient of RigCalm - Agnus Castor just by itself and I've heard that's much cheaper.
I didn't get him tested in the end, as whether he's a true rig or not, he was behaving very much like one, so I went down the behavioural route first and he calmed down.
 
Yes.. We have a five year old cob who seems to think he can do the job. He's bitten another gelding quite badly and started herding the mare constantly. She's finally given him a good kick so he's backed off a bit. He's now separated from the other three geldings and left with the mare to save any further incidents. He only started being like this in august when the mare was in season again. He never bothered her before this.
 
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