what to do with aggressive mare in herd?

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el_Snowflakes

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Hi all,

Onne of the mares at our yard has become very aggressive and dominant recently. (shes fairly new to yard so i assume this is her now settled in) she has a history of aggression and a few of the horses have come in with bites over the last week. Mine came in yesterday with a small bite and today with a nasty bigger one :(:(:(:( we already have one horse in a strip section due to aggressive tendancies and I dont think there is room to make another strip :S
what would you do in this situation? im worried about my lovely horse :(............do you think its unreasonable to go to YO and say something needs to be done? i dont want it to escalate to the stage where a horse get seriously injured before this is acting on....
 
thinking you've already sorted out the feeding regime that can lead to these sorts of issues ....get some electric fencing and sandwich her between the herd in single turnout but still nose to nose?
 
Bites are one thing, kicks are another. If it's just biting, then it may look nasty, but rarely causes severe injury. Also, it is likely to get less frequent as the herd dynamics sort themselves out. I'm afraid that unless your horse is boss, then she will always be at risk of the odd bite. It's not nice to see when it's your own horse and you keep it at livery as you are naturally focussed on just your own horse. I used to be the same. It was only when I started to have more than one horse and keep them at home that I realised that bites are just a fact of life for lower ranking horses. However, if this new mare is kicking, I would certainly talk to the yard owner. Kicking is another kettle of fish entirely.
 
Ihave to disagree Wagtail. We had a livery that was like that. All the other horses had chunks out of them constantly and their rugs had strips ripped out of them. It was hard to get the smaller ponies out of the gate without her attacking them, and kicking incidents arose as the others got fed up and fought back.

We put her in a different field on her own, just a plain wire fence inbetween her and the others, and the owner left in a tantrum because we were being cruel to her horse by not allowing her to be with the others. She would never admit how bad her horse was, even when she watched it rip rugs she would say it was an accident!

OP I would definately speak to your YO about your worries if things don't settle down soon.
 
It all depends. Some aggression always occurs whilst herds are establishing or changing the hierachy. I would give it a couple of weeks and see if things settle down. Then, if this mare is still biting the others, something should be done. If there is no room for further segregation, then YO will have to request the owner leaves the yard or take some steps to prevent the biting. I have used a flash noseband whilst a mare was turned out which effectively stopped her biting another mare. I kept it on her whilst turned out for 3 weeks. When I removed it, she had ceased her nasty biting all together and there was no further trouble.
 
Definately remove her from the herd. By now the herd dynamics should have sorted themselves. This is an aggresive mare rather than the dominant mare.

The dominant mare doesn't need to asert herself once dynamics have been sorted - she looks and they move.

This horse is not able to establish a dominant spot because it isn't the dominant horse - it's the horse equivalent of a bully.

I kept 32 horses and ponies together with no more than the odd 'look' at another. At one time we had one horse that was agressive and he was definately not the dominant horse. Kept seperate from the others the rug ripping and biting stopped.

Can she be turned out at night alonewhen everyone else is in? What is she like if she is put with the other aggressive horse? She might just be OK with that one.
 
Honey08 said:
We put her in a different field on her own, just a plain wire fence inbetween her and the others, and the owner left in a tantrum because we were being cruel to her horse by not allowing her to be with the others. She would never admit how bad her horse was, even when she watched it rip rugs she would say it was an accident!
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I posted on here a few weeks ago about my friends cob mare turning on my old gelding and being very aggressive towards him. As the horses were a group of 4 and the other 3 mine the aggressor had to be separated as I was not prepared to risk any of mine being injured. Like the poster above was not happy about her horse being away from the others and so moved.

Her horse (a mare) attacked the only other horse at the new field and injured it and my friend was so upset she even talked at one point about having her PTS because the attack was so violent and she was afraid the other horse would be killed if she hadn't managed to separate them.

Personally I would never risk my horse in with another that was aggressive. It's all well saying a few bites are nothing but what if it escalates when no-one is around? A broken leg is not nothing!!
 
Thanks for replies. My mare is not low ranking, in fact she is very dominant although never aggressive.... there is only one other horse who 'moves her on'.....the aggressive one is just that. I dont even want to imagine what would happen if she were put in with the other aggressive one -NOT a good idea :s

i understand horses play and have conflicts etc but this mare has been chasing the others at full gallop and grabbing them by the necks, I feel sick thinking about it.....
 
elsazzo said:
Thanks for replies. My mare is not low ranking, in fact she is very dominant although never aggressive.... there is only one other horse who 'moves her on'.....the aggressive one is just that. I dont even want to imagine what would happen if she were put in with the other aggressive one -NOT a good idea :s

i understand horses play and have conflicts etc but this mare has been chasing the others at full gallop and grabbing them by the necks, I feel sick thinking about it.....
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Actually, putting an aggressive mare with another equally aggressive mare often works well. I had two that were a nightmare with most oher mares, chasing them off their food (even though there was plenty for all!)

I put them in together - rather as a last resort when both were about 6 months in foal. The smaller one came out as top dog and the other backed right off. That situation stayed until they both had foals at foot and hen - overnight - it changed (with no visible wounds to either!) The big one stayed boss until this year - then I added HER mother to the mix. She quietly took over - peace reigns!

That said, I wouldn't do it with shod horses. The changing dynamics of a livery yard herd means an aggressive one usually stays that way - even when there is an established 'boss'!

Just one point to ponder: sometimes a very aggressive mare has a reason - and if a mare is unduly aggressive (and particularly if she's 'difficult' with people too) it is worth getting her ovaries scanned to rule out a Granulosa Theca Cell tumour. This type of tumour is NOT uncommon, and the tumour secretes testosterone. A mare who has this problem WILL be aggressive - and may even mount other mares!
 
elsazzo said:
Thanks for replies. My mare is not low ranking, in fact she is very dominant although never aggressive.... there is only one other horse who 'moves her on'.....the aggressive one is just that.
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Then the aggressive one is the dominant horse.

(Or should I say the "dominant leader"?)
 
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