Self harming horses...

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hellspells

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I think my horse maybe a self harmer.

Poor beast is stuck in today as she has terrible sun burn (through factor 40 suncream - just to add) which she has scratch away to skin/blood.
I've just been to give her lunch etc in my lunch hour and she has rubbed and rubbed on her back end until its furless and has a thick serous fluid ouzing from it. The area is about the size of a dinner plate. This is nothing unusal in itself as when she wears rigs in the winter this quite often happens and is treated. Today I think she has quite literally done it out of boredom.

Has anybody elses horse ever done anything like this?
 
A horse at my yard weaves but whilst she does it she also uses her one of her front feet to scrape down the front of the other front leg so she cuts herself quite badly
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. She will do it even if its bleeding and does hurt herself quite a lot. She has to wear travel boots when she is in but sometimes the owner forgets to put them on
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Sometimes that can be a sign on ulcers (not necassarily but it's one thing to consider!) is she on ad lib hay/haylage when she's in? Is she ever worked on an empty stomach? I'm not saying this is the problem hehe it's just that "bum squashing" is sometimes a sign. x
 
She's no Simple systems feed, generally not worked on a complete empty stomach. She does have haylage.

Its definatly not sweet itch, its in the wrong place and doesn't look like it. I'm liking all the suggestions though because as self harming horse is just plain wrong (although Ezme the other day when I was jumping her, she did seem to enjoy the whip a bit too much)
 
I would'nt say its self harming but Bailey can be known to rub on things when he is bored.. Its because in the past he has always got a reaction
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Ask the vet to do a skin scrape it might be mites.We had one on our yard taking big chunks out of his sides every time the wound healed he did it again.I suggested mites and the test came back positive and he is all cured now.
Forgot to say his was related to his rugs they had to be all cleaned and brushes disinfected at the same time as his bedding was removed to stop further infestation.
 
He could well be a self harmer, PM me if you want I did my dissertation on equine self mutilation, and my thesis on Equine stereotypical behaviour.
 
Could also be an allergic reaction... or maybe... is he rubbing it on wood? Sometimes fungus and bacteria live dormant in wood for 2 years, and then if it comes into contact with skin or a small wound it gets in there and causes irritation, causing the horse to rub more and therefore get worse...
 
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