Scary incident yesterday

Foxhunter do you seriously think a horse who attacked in this manner is going to take note of a lunge whip?! If anything it will pee him off and god knows what could happen. It is clearly stated that this is completely out of character for this horse. Violence is not thd answer to everything and in this case could get the op killed!
 
CaraT said:
Thank you for the replies! I agree that a vet should have a look at him, my friend did say today that she was going to get him checked over so I hope she will go ahead and do this.

I still can't get my head around what happened. Clearly something is very wrong for such a sudden change in behaviour. :confused:

Dogrose - that is very interesting about the line of Friesians that you mentioned. I'm going to try to find out a bit more about that.
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Cara, do let us know if you find out anything about that line of Friesians. There was a Friesian gelding at my old yard that regularly attacked people and subordinate horses in the field. I was lucky because although my boy is a dope on a rope he was head of the herd and the gelding stayed well away.

Eventually the Friesian had to be kept away from everyone and the poor thing spent a lot of its time stabled. You had to stay away from the stable as he would lunge at people as they went past. One poor girl got picked up by the shoulder and he tried to drag her into the stable, the bruise she had was appalling! His owner was an experienced person but even she was wary of him. I don't what happened to him as I moved away shortly after that.

Take care and stay safe.
 
What a hideous experience, OP. I hope you're okay! I agree with the advice given so far, vet and keep your horse (or the culprit) away from each other until the issue has been sorted.

It may be no comfort, but something similar happened to me once. I went into the field one evening to check on my horses (which were turned out with a few others on our yard), with my mother and my spaniels. I had done this every single day for over a year. All the horses knew both of us and the dogs were always around, in the yard, in the field, etc, but usually off rabbiting in a hedge or walking beside me. Usually everyone would be checked over, given a scratch, and go back to eating.

Out of the blue, as we turned to leave, one of the other livery's mares (who had been fine 5 minutes before) came charging at us, head snaking, teeth snapping, rearing and boxing. I whirled my long rope to keep her back a bit, yelled 'out' to the dogs, who scarpered for the gate. The mare didn't even look at them, just hurled herself at us, straight through the rope. What she would've done if she'd got within striking distance, I dread to think. Luckily the alpha mare (one of mine), came hurtling across the field and gave her an absolute walloping. One of my others (my youngster, bless her!) came cantering over and literally walked us all the way out of the field. The horse had never done it before and never did it again. There was nothing different that night. I still don't know why she did it and neither does her owner.
 
Definitely sounds like a rig to me. Until the vet has checked him over I would stay well away from him if I were you and leave him to his owner to sort out. One of mine has had riggy tendencies in the past, we knew he was cut late in life, but we only found out how bad he could be when he reacted badly to a visiting horse one night. He reared up, tried to attack the newbie through the fence and came down on my shoulder (I was standing next to him at the time).

Fortunately we came to an agreement whereby the owner of the newbie wouldn't bring her horse through our yard as a short cut to home because of what had happened. Since then he's only displayed mild symptoms, a bit of pawing and jealousy but never another full on attack. But then we have been aware of what he could do and have made sure that the opportunity to set him off hasn't arisen again - he seems mainly triggered by geldings larger than he is approaching his little stallion shettie friend.
 
Poor you OP, I hope your arm is better soon.

I would not recommend carrying a whip and trying to 'discipline' this horse in the field as it will likely antagonise him and make him worse - I found out the hard way and got double barrelled for my efforts.

I hope your friend gets to the bottom of the fresians behaviour.
 
How scary and strange.
Hope your okay now OP must have been really frightening.

My colt did a similar thinf to my OH last summer, for no reason he tried to bite him then reared and boxed at him. Luckily he got out the way.
He has been cut now and he's fine with the OH. OH still nervous of him (he's non horesy)

Could it be a hormonal thing, as someone suggested has he been cut properly and did he have 2 down?
My colt only had one down, other was in his abdomen and had to have an op to get them both removed.
He's really quiet now.
Hope you get to the bottom of it
 
i agree with other with regards to a vet check, he may have a tumour as already mentioned, i would not go back in with him or ask owner to move him until health reasons have been ruled out, is he still behaving strangely now? if he gets the medical all clear i am not sure what i would advise i would not want to be going in the field with him or handling him either.

i am shocked by how many people seem to think this behaviour could be purely down to being a rig, i have dealt with many rigs and a few stallions and this would not have been expected/accepted behaviour from any of them. in fact if they had behaved like this on more than one occasion (at a few places it would only take one incident like this) then they would have had a bullet. they are big powerful animals and when they behave as described they could easily kill someone
 
Patterdale said:
Foxhunter I'm afraid I have to disagree.

OP DO NOT go into the field and beat this horse with a lunge whip. There's a world of difference between a bit bargy, and something seriously attacking you.
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I agree, I have experianced this sort of behaviour once and there's no way a flimsy bit of fibre glass will protect you from a horse in full on attack mode it's a frightening thing to see I and the horse I was getting out of field only escaped because I threw stones from the drainage ditchrunning along the gate at the horses head hard and repeatedly which knocked it back just long enough for us to get out . It then crashed at gate which was going to give we turned a fire hose on it that cooled it down .
It's a long story but it was cured by giving regumate the stuff you give to mares .
OP just don't go in with it it's not worth it.
 
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