The Ozzy Diaries

24th November

Ozzy's first time under saddle since the famous bucking incident (over a month ago!)

We've been leading Ozzy out in hand and working with him on the tacking up. Things did improve quite a bit, and once we'd changed his bit for the Myler-type snaffle he was no trouble with the bridle at all.
The more I get to know him, the greener I realise he is. Yesterday OH was clearing poo from around the haybell and Ozzy thought it would be hilarious to grab OH's beanie hat in his teeth and chuck it in the mud. Clearly, this is not acceptable (and OH has a mark on his head from this incident) - he shouted and left Ozzy in no doubt that this would not be tolerated!
We chatted about how Snoopy used to do this when he went through the Kevin phase, age 5-6. Ozzy is 8, but so green!

A friend contacted me to ask if her daughter, who is doing a full-time equine management course, could come over for a hack today. This would be our very first chance to get all three horses out together! I rode Snoopy, my friend's daughter rode AJ and OH had the dubious honour of riding the cheeky beast for the first time in ages.
Ozzy was good to groom and tack up. He was fine when OH mounted him. And then, as soon as he was asked to move off, he threw a fly buck. Fortunately, OH was half expecting it and was well prepared, but shouted out "OI!!!" loudly...Ozzy didn't do another buck and moved forward towards the other two.

We decided to sandwich Ozzy between Snoopy and AJ and went on a decent circular hack around the village. What an excellent boy he was! Absolutely no napping and moving very nicely, listening to his rider. All three horses seemed so happy and relaxed! It got quite dark (and wet) at one stage and there were lots of cars skimming through the surface water with headlamps on...Ozzy didn't bat an eyelid.
Of course, he got a huge fuss and a Stud Muffin when we all got back.
So we're now thinking that the napping is insecurity/lack of confidence - he clearly doesn't like leaving a horse behind in the field.
It's a pity we can't hack all three out more often. But right now we're very happy. And OH is pleased - it takes a bit of nerve to get back on after all that.

The only thing that stopped him getting the Bestest Cob award was the initial buck. OH thinks that Ozzy is one of those green cobs that likes to 'try it on' with cheeky behaviour at times. Hopefully he will learn - but if anyone has any suggestions re. the buck, I'll be interested to hear them. (He was stationary when he kicked out and OH hardly moved - but I'd really rather he didn't do it!)

Here they are, having got back from their hack, acting like they've done a major endurance ride. They're now having a good sleep!

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kaiserchief said:
Great work! Can the friend's daughter come over more often so you can take them all out until it becomes just another thing you do?
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Unfortunately she's away almost full-time at college, which is a considerable distance away. But it would be great if she could come over whenever she's at home. It was lovely to get them all out together!
 
I don't pretend to be an expert but I do have a young cob cross who is the sweetest boy but is prone to throwing a cheeky buck when he's excited and thinks he can get away with it. I generally find an immediate loud, sharp verbal reprimand followed by firmly pushing him on (while muttering crossly about what a naughty sod he is!) and otherwise ignoring it is most effective. In other words, exactly what your OH did. I think with types like that there's a balance to be had between letting them know you are displeased while not making a big production out of it which would either wind them up further or (worse) teach them that behaving like that gets them out of work, even for a few minutes. Of course it depends on the horse but that's been my experience with my boy.
 
25th December

Ozzy's first Highland Christmas!

We've been taking Ozzy out with the other two recently (as we have another rider available sometimes) - OH has been riding him and he's been excellent! Good to mount/dismount, very good in traffic, relaxed in his mouth. He likes his new bit and he seems to like his new Equitex pad, which is a good job as it cost a fortune!
He will have been with us for 6 months on Boxing Day. He is quite a different cob to the one who arrived in June! Still very funny about his legs being touched, especially the front right...when the EP was last here, she was trimming his frogs and found a stone that was deeply embedded into the frog of that foot. When I saw it, I couldn't believe that he hadn't been lame - but it obviously hadn't been doing him any good! Ozzy is very food-motivated and clicker training works really well with him. So we'll be working on desensitisation with the legs now that the weather has calmed down a bit (we couldn't get out for ages due to gale force winds and torrential rain!)

Anyway, Ozzy would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful new year!
Here he is with AJ, who - as you can tell - can't believe that Ozzy is being given a Christmas Pudding flavoured Stud Muffin as a special festive treat.
(AJ did get one just after the photo was taken!)

Here's to good progress for us all in 2026!

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19th January 2026
What's up with Ozzy?

Ozzy has been doing fine. None of them have been ridden much due to the vile weather but we had plans for a friend to come over this week, which means we can take them all out as a group of three - Ozzy loves this.

Every day when I feed Ozzy, I put the bowl down and give him a little pat, then walk away. This has been going on for months, no problem.
Sometimes, before giving him his feed, I ask him to step back and he'll step back no problem.
Today I gave him his feed and he looked a little grumpy. I asked him to step back, he then went ears flat back and refused to move. I asked him again and completely out of the blue he lurched forward at me. He bit me on the shoulder, went straight through the padded coat (which now has a shredded shoulder) - he then sort of threw me over and I hit the tarmac. I had a gilet on, which was a good thing, as it's not really broken the skin but I have a massive bruise from the bite just below the shoulder.

This is pretty serious aggression - he's been quite objectionable in the past but this was on another level. And I've no idea why. He's showing no signs of pain or problems with movement. He has free access to hay. We thought all the food-related aggression had gone.

Still in a bit of shock to be honest and not really knowing how to deal with this in terms of next steps.
He clearly needs a lot of groundwork but I'd be worried for OH because even though I'm in pain, he was actually on the other side of the fence...goodness knows what might have happened had he been on the same side.

Not wanting to over-react but obviously this is a bit of a setback, esepecially when he's been so gentle and doing so well.
 
Okay, well it wasn’t completely out of the blue. He flattened his ears and threatened you*
Based on the work you have done with him and the improvements you have seen, you probably need to be more alert to this type of language and understand he escalates quickly.

*obviously we don’t want this behaviour. But having known a couple of biters, their triggers aren’t always obvious or even reliably solvable. What is wrong with him is anyone’s guess I suppose.

PS - hope you aren’t too bruised, and lecture over x
 
ihatework said:
Okay, well it wasn’t completely out of the blue. He flattened his ears and threatened you*
Based on the work you have done with him and the improvements you have seen, you probably need to be more alert to this type of language and understand he escalates quickly.

*obviously we don’t want this behaviour. But having known a couple of biters, their triggers aren’t always obvious or even reliably solvable. What is wrong with him is anyone’s guess I suppose.

PS - hope you aren’t too bruised, and lecture over x
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He did go through a biting phase a while ago and I posted about it here. But it was generally just going for the hands. The biting stopped pretty quickly and he's shown no signs of biting for months.
What was different about this was the sheer aggression. OH saw the whole thing and said that he actually reared up a little before coming down on me, mouth open.
I agree that I should probably have taken the 'ears flat back' more seriously.

Shoulder is sore and I have numbness/pins & needles down the arm & hand, which I suppose is to be expected.
Obviously, at the moment I am terrified to go anywhere near him. It's a good thing that OH is here. But he's not happy, to say the least!
 
When feed is involved just concentrate on giving the feed, because he is a cob, because he has known aggression, because your safety always comes first

Holding food in front of cob while delaying the handover, those seconds really count

I would just give the food, quickly, while concentrating on cobs body language

Time will modify his impestouosity, gaud now there's a word, ((for me)
 
tristars said:
When feed is involved just concentrate on giving the feed, because he is a cob, because he has known aggression, because your safety always comes first

Holding food in front of cob while delaying the handover, those seconds really count

I would just give the food, quickly, while concentrating on cobs body language

Time will modify his impestouosity, gaud now there's a word, ((for me)
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Good advice, which I will heed.

But I'm still a little shocked at the aggression. Has anyone else been through this sort of thing and come out OK on the other side?
He has certainly been known to bite the other horses (not so much recently, admittedly) - it was like he was treating me just like them, which isn't good!

Snoopy was a food-aggressive, resource-protective bad mannered cob for many years at feedtime - but he never did anything like this.
 
I’m really sorry this happened, it must have been very shocking and frightening, especially when it came so out of the blue for you. I’m glad your injuries weren’t worse.

Just gently though, as already mentioned, it doesn’t sound like there was no warning from his point of view. Ears pinned flat back is a pretty clear signal, particularly in a horse with a known history of food aggression, and once that’s there I’d be stepping right away rather than asking again.

As he's a tricky character anyway, and particularly around food, consistency is really crucial, and sometimes asking him to step back and sometimes not can be confusing from his perspective and can add pressure around something he already finds emotive. It doesn’t excuse his reaction at all, but it may help explain why things escalated.

I don’t think this means he’s suddenly unpredictable, but I do think being very cautious around feeds (as I'm sure you will be) and taking food out of any training for now would be sensible.
 
foxy1 said:
As he's a tricky character anyway, and particularly around food, consistency is really crucial, and sometimes asking him to step back and sometimes not can be confusing from his perspective and can add pressure around something he already finds emotive. It doesn’t excuse his reaction at all, but it may help explain why things escalated.
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Once we'd established the request for 'step back' we were using it in a variety of situations and it was working really well. It's something we've done with the other horses as part of reinforcing groundwork. Obviously I'm not going to do it again! It feels like a case of something that worked for Snoopy, Finn and AJ (plus a few others) just isn't the same for Ozzy.
And although he did put his ears back, to be honest he does pull a few faces/put ears back at times, nothing to do with feed. Most of the time he seems quite happy but he can be a grumpy sod.
I think this is true of lots of horses but I've never known one to be so aggressive. Admittedly, my experience is very limited compared to some people here.
 
Nancykitt said:
Once we'd established the request for 'step back' we were using it in a variety of situations and it was working really well. It's something we've done with the other horses as part of reinforcing groundwork. Obviously I'm not going to do it again! It feels like a case of something that worked for Snoopy, Finn and AJ (plus a few others) just isn't the same for Ozzy.
And although he did put his ears back, to be honest he does pull a few faces/put ears back at times, nothing to do with feed. Most of the time he seems quite happy but he can be a grumpy sod.
I think this is true of lots of horses but I've never known one to be so aggressive. Admittedly, my experience is very limited compared to some people here.
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In all honesty I’d have quite possibly done the same as you and ended up getting bitten too. Difficult to say as I didn’t observe the body language, but if stepping back for food was a behaviour I’d trained in, then I’d have reinforced it I suspect
 
Have you been standing in the field with him loose when you are feeding him?

I would never feed any horse if I was in the field with them and they were loose. Especially one who had previously shown signs of aggression.

As I’m sure you are now aware he did give you advance warning.

It must have been a horrid shock, but he’s never going to be a horse that you can drop your guard with.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Have you been standing in the field with him loose when you are feeding him?

I would never feed any horse if I was in the field with them and they were loose. Especially one who had previously shown signs of aggression.
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No, we always feed them from the other side of the fence. He had to lurch forward some distance to get me.

It wasn't just that it was Ozzy reverting to the rather difficult cob that arrived last June. It was actually much worse than that; had he behaved like that within the first month, I don't think we'd have gone any further with him. I suppose I was lulled into a false sense of security because he seemed to have made so much progress.
 
I understand why you used it, especially as it’s worked with your other horses. I think the issue is doing it sometimes and not others; consistency around feed really matters in some cases.
I don’t say that as criticism at all, just in the hope it helps make sense of what happened. After all you've been through with Ozzy and the brilliant progress you have made it must have been very upsetting for you.
 
Nancykitt said:
Good advice, which I will heed.

But I'm still a little shocked at the aggression. Has anyone else been through this sort of thing and come out OK on the other side?
He has certainly been known to bite the other horses (not so much recently, admittedly) - it was like he was treating me just like them, which isn't good!

Snoopy was a food-aggressive, resource-protective bad mannered cob for many years at feedtime - but he never did anything like this.
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Not as bad as Ozzys.
We had a smaller pony that was a rescue and we knew he had been starved. He came from a herd of neglected horses that occasionally had a round bale chucked in the field. He was bottom of the pecking order so got no food.
We managed him around feed times as suggested above, food was given and no training around bucket feed. We didn’t hay the fields when he was in them or if it was it was chucked over the fence line. Usually we hayed before he went in. He occasionally went escaped the field and we found out the hard way that although he would let you catch him. He would then bolt straight ahead and kick out with startlingly good aim. If you let him graze for 20 mins he was ok and wouldn’t bolt off but it was trial and error.
I think because he was only 13hh we didn’t see him as particularly scary and children didn’t handle him.

I’ve had to handle an aggressive event horse. Hated every second of it. He was unpredictable and violence came from both ends - he broke a grooms arm with his teeth and kicked me at face height, luckily for me I shielded my face with my arm and being the depths of winter had a lot of layers on so suffered no broken bones but I still have a scar on my arm. Owner claimed she’d had everything investigated and vets found nothing. He evented to 4*. Was quite nice to ride once you got through the gauntlet of tacking up. If he were mine I’d have put him down as he was dangerous but he was competitive so he lived to bite another day.
I was glad when the owner fell out with the YO and he left.
 
Its not ideal but he did warn you. You had given him his food and then ignored his warning to leave him alone. Its his food you gave it to him and you know he is food aggressive .
Just feed him and leave him alone.

How would you react if you were hungry and some one was messing around patting you?
Has he ever gone hungry do you know? Can you feed him inside and put his food in before you put him in? That way you are not directly giving him his food. Dont know if it will help.
Sounds like you have worked hard with him. Have you looked at Steve Young horsemanship? I do not agree with everything he does but he seems to have delt with some horses like this.
 
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Yes I had a mare that was aggressive, especially over food.
From your post you put his food down then told him to go back?
I suspect in his brain he was telling you to sod off you wasn't having his food

My mare got to the point I could hold a bucket whilst she ate but id never of trusted her ( she had on one occasion had someone trapped in a stable)

I think now you've had the behaviour you need to be on high alert and change how you feed
Either put a bucket down and walk away,
Always have a head collar on (and I'd have a rope attached to the opposite side to what your on so you have a greater chance of keeping the mouth away from you)

Or tie up to feed. So there's some sort of control.

But equally I think when horses are cold and hungry I can understand some ears back and that they are telling us to sod off. So it may be better for the moment to drop the bucket in and just leave him alone.

I would never take from granted he wouldn't do it again.
 
Sandstone1 said:
Its not ideal but he did warn you. You had given him his food and then ignored his warning to leave him alone. Its his food you gave it to him and you know he is food aggressive .
Just feed him and leave him alone.

How would you react if you were hungry and some one was messing around patting you?
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I didn't pat him today and I don't ever 'mess around'. Ozzy is asked to step back, he's been happily doing this, he gets his feed, he gets a single pat. The whole process takes about 10 seconds.
We've been feeding him every day for months and months. If we asked him to step back, he always did.

Ozzy had very little respect for humans - and other horses - when he arrived. Having had a very food aggressive horse for (who is now 27) for many years, we wanted to get some things into place to establish respect. It has worked very well with the other horses, it didn't work with Ozzy.

And he's really not hungry. He has 24/7 ad-lib access to hay as we have a haybell. He does love his bucket feeds, but he's not starving and hasn't been for some time.

Sorry but this response has made me feel utter rubbish. I accept that I should probably just drop the bucket and run but we've had success with establishing a routine around feeding with other horses and it did seem to be working OK until today. So I probably deserved the injury. Fair enough.
 
Not 100% clear on your original post but was the food already on the floor when you asked him to step back (ie temptingly within reach and a very guard able resource?). I wouldn’t personally try to move a known resource guarder away from something that I’d just given them.

Would you be able to electric tape off a pen at the side of the fence where you could place the feed from the outside then take him in there & leave him to it (so the feed is in there before he is) in the hopes that this removes that potential trigger?
 
jhoward said:
From your post you put his food down then told him to go back?
I suspect in his brain he was telling you to sod off you wasn't having his food
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Sorry, no, I can see that it read like that but he's asked to step back before being fed.
After 6 months of no problem/no aggression at feed times I thought we had established a routine. Evidently not.
I will now just drop the bucket and run. Or rather, OH will, as I'm too wary at the moment and feeling utterly crap about all this.
 
Nancykitt said:
19th January 2026
What's up with Ozzy?

Ozzy has been doing fine. None of them have been ridden much due to the vile weather but we had plans for a friend to come over this week, which means we can take them all out as a group of three - Ozzy loves this.

Every day when I feed Ozzy, I put the bowl down and give him a little pat, then walk away. This has been going on for months, no problem.
Sometimes, before giving him his feed, I ask him to step back and he'll step back no problem.
Today I gave him his feed and he looked a little grumpy. I asked him to step back, he then went ears flat back and refused to move. I asked him again and completely out of the blue he lurched forward at me. He bit me on the shoulder, went straight through the padded coat (which now has a shredded shoulder) - he then sort of threw me over and I hit the tarmac. I had a gilet on, which was a good thing, as it's not really broken the skin but I have a massive bruise from the bite just below the shoulder.

This is pretty serious aggression - he's been quite objectionable in the past but this was on another level. And I've no idea why. He's showing no signs of pain or problems with movement. He has free access to hay. We thought all the food-related aggression had gone.

Still in a bit of shock to be honest and not really knowing how to deal with this in terms of next steps.
He clearly needs a lot of groundwork but I'd be worried for OH because even though I'm in pain, he was actually on the other side of the fence...goodness knows what might have happened had he been on the same side.

Not wanting to over-react but obviously this is a bit of a setback, esepecially when he's been so gentle and doing so well.
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I am sorry if I misunderstood but you do say here you give him a little pat?
I did not mean to make you feel rubbish at all I am sorry if I did.
I did not say or think you deserved the bite. I did not mean it to come across like that. Was only trying to help. I am sorry you got hurt.
 
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Boulty said:
Not 100% clear on your original post but was the food already on the floor when you asked him to step back (ie temptingly within reach and a very guard able resource?). I wouldn’t personally try to move a known resource guarder away from something that I’d just given them.

Would you be able to electric tape off a pen at the side of the fence where you could place the feed from the outside then take him in there & leave him to it (so the feed is in there before he is) in the hopes that this removes that potential trigger?
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Apologies, I hadn't made things clear in my original post.
I think dropping the feed and moving away will solve the problem.
I'm just really scared because I've never been bitten this badly by a horse.
I've been kicked, but the horse doing the kicking was actually aiming for another horse, not for me. This is different.
 
Nancykitt said:
Good advice, which I will heed.

But I'm still a little shocked at the aggression. Has anyone else been through this sort of thing and come out OK on the other side?
He has certainly been known to bite the other horses (not so much recently, admittedly) - it was like he was treating me just like them, which isn't good!

Snoopy was a food-aggressive, resource-protective bad mannered cob for many years at feedtime - but he never did anything like this.
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Sorry Nancykitt, I meant to say, so sorry this happened and hope you recover quickly

I got bitten once in my lifetime, many years ago, by a very docile mare, who had been fed over the fence by passers by, when a horse bites the nature of the teeth clamping is pretty serious, the mare are never did it again, thank god!


This is just a personal view as I have never handled ozzie, but I would treat him as dominant, I'd be quite strict about upping his time to react to demands on the ground and not let let him have too much thinking time, his brain sounds busy and switched on

Hope i haven't said the wrong thing, sorry!
 
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Sandstone1 said:
I am sorry if I misunderstood but you do say here you give him a little pat?
I did not mean to make you feel rubbish at all I am sorry if I did.
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Sorry, I'm not making a lot of sense tonight. The routine is ask for step back, give feed, single pat on the neck, move away. We do it with all three. We've been doing it for a long time.
There was something about tonight that made him react differently.

I've no doubt that we can solve the feed problem by just dropping Ozzy's bucket and getting out of the way.

But I really just needed to know if this can be uniquely food-related or could be something more sinister. In other words - is a horse capable of doing this always going to be this aggressive? Probably an impossible question to answer.

Ozzy was very, very aggressive with a haynet when he first arrived; we solved this with the haybell. None of them are every left hungry.
And in the early days, if Ozzy was unhappy with us, his classic reaction was just to bomb off - although I understand that this is unlikely if food is on offer.
I suppose that it's just the most extreme behaviour he's shown since last June and it does worry me.
 
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