What's the worst-natured horse you've ever worked with or owned?

[LaurenBay]

There was a Horse at college that was really nasty. He had warning signs all over his door and a full weave grill so he couldn't put his head out of the stable. I remember once a student touched him and he bit two of her fingers of. If you had him for your lesson, the YO would have to hold him outside the stable whilst the student tacked him up.

I felt so sorry for this poor Horse, I even complained about it as I felt this type of Horse should be in a 1 to 1 home as he clearly wasn't a happy Horse and I didn't enjoy working with him.

 

[SusannaF]

Reading all these I'm amazed that some riding schools/colleges keep these horses.

A competition or private home is one thing – the owner is prepared to deal with the behaviour – but to provide a horse with problems like that to paying customers or students seems bizarre.

 

[MiCsarah]

There was one at my riding school when I was a child. His name was storm, he was a big boy, around 17.2 tb. He would bite, kick and charge at you. To be honest looking back at it now, it was probably due to pain but you dont think like that as a child.
Mine now isnt the friendliest. He hates being groomed as has sensitive skin, will bite people walking past his stable. He used to run straight over you when you opened the door but we have sorted that out now.

 

[Lobelia_Overhill]

Reading all these I'm amazed that some riding schools/colleges keep these horses.

I could never understand why the RS I used to go to kept one of the horses that it had - he'd bite anyone near his stable, and found numerous ways to get rid of his rider during lessons - always causing some sort of injury ... Looking back I don't think he was in pain, I think he was either bored, or just plain psycho!

 

[Tangled]

One of the worst natured I've dealt with was a big ISH lad, around 17 hands that shared a field with my share horse at the time. He wouldn't bite or kick, but as soon as you opened his door he would try barging out. Dragging you to the field, and boxing you all the time. A few times his hooves whistled past my head. The owner said he was like this because he used to be on a riding school, and when they turned out the horses - they just opened the stable door! So it explains a lot. He definiately knew his size as well.

I've worked with nasty horses, biting over the door, kicking etc. I think the worst was at a racehorse rehab place I used to work. He was a nightmare to lead, I remember him breaking someone's wrist and when ridden he would throw himself on the ground! The final straw was when he flung himself to the ground in front of an oncoming lorry. He was put down shortly after that.

 

[Naryafluffy]

Reading all these I'm amazed that some riding schools/colleges keep these horses.

A competition or private home is one thing – the owner is prepared to deal with the behaviour – but to provide a horse with problems like that to paying customers or students seems bizarre.

How many years ago was it though, I know it's been 20+ years since I've ridden at a riding school and I would think that with all the beaureucratic red tape they have round health and safety there probably won't be many like these left in the riding schools.

Or does anyone know one that is still at a riding school?
I do remember one that used to turn it's bum and try and kick you, but it was lack of experience by most of the riding school clients (myself as a 10yo included) that allowed him to do it, anyone that was experienced and not frightened of him had no problems.

 

[Spotsrock]

my new pony has some issues, he's an absolute angel to handle but the moment you mount he turns into a stress head, all he wants to do is gallop and jump. I'm exploring the pain angles with him through vet and physio to check it's nothing like that but some days he's brilliant and some, like yesterday, he bolts for home and nothing I can do makes any difference. He will scrape me against walls and spin round backwards to try to get me to dismount. I wondered if it was fear or pain but it honestly looks more like temper. His schooling is getting consistently better though and he jumps nicely, doesn;t seem to buck or rear, plus he is such an angel to be around, a seriously nice person, that I want to get to the bottom of it and at least modify his behaviour to a safe level. He seems so surprised when I cuddle him after a bad session and is learning to trust me I think. It will probably get worse before it gets better as he tests me

 

[LaurenBay]

I still know 1 or 2 that are nasty and at riding schools.

I think it's because they are cheaper to buy. Owners also get fed up with them so loan them out. As long as the Horses are good to ride then most schools and colleges don't see a problem.

I only complained about the 1 Horse though as it was very unhappy. The other Horses that were nasty seemed happy and content enough.

 

[winkles]

I think it's because they are cheaper to buy. Owners also get fed up with them so loan them out. As long as the Horses are good to ride then most schools and colleges don't see a problem.

This, unfortunately, and it's exactly what happens at a riding school I live near in some cases of freebie horses they don't even care what it's like under saddle!

 

[StormyMoments]

worked with a horse called gumage at a racing yard (like his name, he was as ugly as sin) no one except his owner would go near him without him tied up. he used to have to have his head tied to the roof (he was a big bugger at 18.1hh) he once caught me off guard and picked my up by my thigh and threw me across the stable and he use to cow kick like you have never seen a horse before he truely was horrible and when he was racing he was really, well, crap.. he would only run in straight lines so when you were coming up to the corner he would carry on running towards the fence.. think there was something wrong in his head tbh

 

[littlescallywag]

There's a school horse at the local rs that hates the instructors, he breaks out of line and charges after them all the time and I knew a polish warmblood mare that was pure evil,led everywhere in a chifney, couldn't turn out at same time as shed would attack any horses in vicinity.
she had a full grille and still lunged at you, her teeth were all chipped from making contact with the grille. Very talented showjumper though but that was literally her only saving grace

 

[POLLDARK]

We had an Anglo arab mare years & years ago, when we tried to back her etc would buck, twist & throw you (for no good reason I might add) & while you lay on the floor would turn around & come at you. pretty scarey. Needless to say she is the only horse I know of then never got broken in.

 

[fidleyspromise]

Hmmm, I can't say I've come across any bad-natured horses.I've worked with around 500 horses in total throughout my life and any grumpy horses were down to nurture.

The one that springs to mind is one that stable staff were scared of. Don't believe anyone will have brushed her tail or legs. She was brought in, tied up with a hay net and if she was loose in stable - a carrot was used to coax her over - and putting a rug on scared everyone.
Poor horse was 13hh, had bad sweet itch and was miserable with it to the point she scratched 'til she bled. I spent 9 months around her, spending time with her, scratching her itchy bits and she went from squealing everytime it looked like you'd touch her to standing still. I put cream on her constantly and the YO commeneted that I'd taken my life in my own hands, when I brushed her tail out. Pony just stood there quietly. I so wish I could have bought her.

I remember the day two girls decided to put her rug on, hoping to confuse her by one at each side so she couldn't kick them. Well, they came running to me because "the pony likes you, and she just lashed out with both legs". What did you expect? A few minutes spending time with pony to let her know what I was doing and rug and leg straps were on with minimal fuss.

YOs son found it amusing to let a yearling rear and so laughed at her - making her worse. A few words and firm handling brought her around.

A Welsh when I was 11 used to bite. I kept pushing her head away and within an hour of brushng her, she stopped biting. I'm not sure what her circumstances were but don't think she had a lot of handling.

I haven't had a lot of experience but the horses that were the worst were the result of bad handling. My handling isn't the best but I do what feels right with each horse. To the horses I have worked with, they have used whatever defence mechanism they were able to, at the time.

 

[Luci07]

I slightly hesitate as I know why this particular horse was dangerous but I did give up on him in the end. I rode him for someone I knew (I won't call her a friend, turned out she was looking to diddle me on the insurance). He was a LOU horse and had formerly been a very good SJ. Whatever happened to that horse in his previous life had turned him completely, massively sour. I got on fine (completely oblivious to all this). First sign of something wrong was out on a hack, met some other horses and he just went absolutely off into one. Bucked me off - and then came back to get me on the floor before going home. Worked around. Eventually took him back on loan to me with an agreed price. He was possibly one of the most awesome horses I have ever sat on over a jump, but if changed something he would have a complete paddy. Taking him out to shows was a waste of time as he would warm up, then go in the ring and just buck and buck till you came off. I did a lot of flatwork with him and ground work and he was a complete angel with that. Went out competeing at dressage and he was brilliant. Owner thought he had a mug on his hands and tried to double the original price so gave him back. I couldn't compete him jumping but would have kept him and only done dressage as that was all was safe.

4 months later had a call from another mug. Who had bought said horse as she felt sorry for him as he was chucked out in a field, and massively underweight (this was a porky horse when he left). Wanted the xrays and details of the injections I had paid for which I did refuse to give unless she wanted to pay for them. I did warn her.. she had been sold the horse.. for hacking and jumping. However she ignored me and obviously thought it was sour grapes on my behalf. Both my vet and YO had been adamant that I should get rid off as well. Still the only horse I have ever seen that actualy would come back to try to hurt its rider.

 

[PitPony]

My mare was a demon when i got her...she was aggressive and defensive all in one black body! she would bite and cow kick...once biting a chunk out of my back. You never lt yourself get in a corner in her stable otherwise you would be climbing over the wall to get out. Just taking her rugs off and brushing her could take a couple of hours with 2 people in attendance. 15 years later and I still have her and adore her!!! Mad! I must have been but I realised alot of it came from how people had treated her and though she still has her quirks she will look after me always and no-one would be able to get to me if she was around!!
also I knew a horse at a yard I was at once and we called her Snakehead as she had a realy long neck and would whip it round and and clobber a groom against a wall...she had a foal and he was called Monty, after Monty Python. She was an amazing mum though!

 

[mle22]

Seriously folks - why do people put themselves at risk from big viscious horses? If this was a thread about dogs they would all have been pts. I would not have a horse that picked me up with it's teeth or tried to double barrel me etc!

 

[FanyDuChamp]

Seriously folks - why do people put themselves at risk from big viscious horses? If this was a thread about dogs they would all have been pts. I would not have a horse that picked me up with it's teeth or tried to double barrel me etc!

I risked it because I could see in front of me a desperately unhappy, stressed horse, who I believed underneath was a really nice person. I was right, it took a lot of patience and time but we now have a total gentleman who is a sweetheart. Sometimes you have to take a chance but in our case it paid off.
FDC

 

[proctor]

We had a 14.2hh Arab mare who was very grumpy. She would bite but would kick more, she would turn her bum on you the moment she saw you coming anywhere near her with tack, even if it wasn't her's, and it was meant for the horse in the next box! I cant remember what they are called but we had a woman out who could read what they were saying and she said that the mare hated people as she had a foal and the day it was born, humans took it away from her, and she's never been able to like or trust a human again. She ended up doing this to me...

 

[LeannePip]

thinking about it, nearly all the ponies at the RS where i learnt would bit or kick or do both!

MY YO bred a beautiful foal out of her old SJ'er and by Catherston Liberator, fine as a baby had a few more nibbling tendancies than the other foals but overall a nice chap. he was kisked in the face as a yearling by another horse, it was a horrific injury and he was on a drip of days and it was touch and go as to weather he would loose his eye apparently the only thing they thought that was keeping it in was the swelling on his face! he pulled through but turned into a complete psycho!! when i first met him he was four he'd be as quiet as a lamb one minute then climbing the walls the next,the biting and kicking goes without question but only when he was 'in a mood' he was a psycho!! she did loads of GW with him and began backing him, started off well, tacking up no problem, leading/lunging no problem, sat on him, no problem. had a baby moment one day and threw her off in a tantrum next day tacked up beautifully, put the lunge line on him with saddle and bridle, walking to wards the school, something clicked in him, he reared bolt upright pissed off, Kicked YO to the floor galloped off turned round and trampled her on the way back before standing over and pawing on her back, she managed to crawl under the fence and call an ambulance with a broken back, collar bone and sternum, none of of the ambulance crew could get near him but managed to shut him in the field, her partner called us and by the time we got there he'd been running riot on the yard for four hours, still completly tacked up lungeline in tow! none of us could get near him whilst he strutted around the field would charge any one who even looked at him in the wrong direction, and in the end was a danger to himself, a 're-trainer' offered to take him off her hands whilst she was in hopspital, she refused to see him again after this, he was going to try and do something with him and promised if it didn't work, he'd be destroyed. sadly we had a call a number of months later from a new owner of this animal asking if he'd been abused in the past and had he always been like this, neither my YO or the new owner could get hold of the man who took the horse of her to ask what had happened but in the end i think he was put to sleep. it would seem all the 're-trainer' done is found this horses breeding, doped him up and sold him on to some poor un-suspecting victim, for a VERY healthy profit!! YO said if she had her time again she would have had him shot before hand but when it a foal you've bred you want to try for them! the vets said this horse was not 'brain damaged' by the kick but there is not other explanation for the way this horse behaved, horses, being pray animals, if they felt scared or threatened, WOULD NOT go back for more after dumping their rider. he was a nasty piece of work!!

 

[SusannaF]

thinking about it, nearly all the ponies at the RS where i learnt would bit or kick or do both!

MY YO bred a beautiful foal out of her old SJ'er and by Catherston Liberator, fine as a baby had a few more nibbling tendancies than the other foals but overall a nice chap. he was kisked in the face as a yearling by another horse, it was a horrific injury and he was on a drip of days and it was touch and go as to weather he would loose his eye apparently the only thing they thought that was keeping it in was the swelling on his face! he pulled through but turned into a complete psycho!! when i first met him he was four he'd be as quiet as a lamb one minute then climbing the walls the next,the biting and kicking goes without question but only when he was 'in a mood' he was a psycho!! she did loads of GW with him and began backing him, started off well, tacking up no problem, leading/lunging no problem, sat on him, no problem. had a baby moment one day and threw her off in a tantrum next day tacked up beautifully, put the lunge line on him with saddle and bridle, walking to wards the school, something clicked in him, he reared bolt upright pissed off, Kicked YO to the floor galloped off turned round and trampled her on the way back before standing over and pawing on her back, she managed to crawl under the fence and call an ambulance with a broken back, collar bone and sternum, none of of the ambulance crew could get near him but managed to shut him in the field, her partner called us and by the time we got there he'd been running riot on the yard for four hours, still completly tacked up lungeline in tow! none of us could get near him whilst he strutted around the field would charge any one who even looked at him in the wrong direction, and in the end was a danger to himself, a 're-trainer' offered to take him off her hands whilst she was in hopspital, she refused to see him again after this, he was going to try and do something with him and promised if it didn't work, he'd be destroyed. sadly we had a call a number of months later from a new owner of this animal asking if he'd been abused in the past and had he always been like this, neither my YO or the new owner could get hold of the man who took the horse of her to ask what had happened but in the end i think he was put to sleep. it would seem all the 're-trainer' done is found this horses breeding, doped him up and sold him on to some poor un-suspecting victim, for a VERY healthy profit!! YO said if she had her time again she would have had him shot before hand but when it a foal you've bred you want to try for them! the vets said this horse was not 'brain damaged' by the kick but there is not other explanation for the way this horse behaved, horses, being pray animals, if they felt scared or threatened, WOULD NOT go back for more after dumping their rider. he was a nasty piece of work!!

I know that humans with brain damage often have a personality change for the worst - sounds like that's what this kick in the face did to the foal. Dear God.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

known ..... 3

1 was at fulmer equestrian centre.

A livery call FEY never bit me but bot a friend on the face. Always threatning.

2. The other was a livery called lius spoilt brat.

a. put a rug on it went to bite
b. if u went groom it it would go to bite you and lash out at you to kick you
c skipped it out and it would back into to you double barreling till it got you, pined groom in corner kicking her she had to be rescued before it kicked her to death,



3 and actually the first horse was at park farm belonged to the * OLDS * who owned park farm. Horse called Mac
when you went in you had to put hay net between u and him , feedbowl had to be lobed over he door or he would lunge and you . You couldnt turn him out with anything or he would kill it ( literally)

 

[Captain Bridget]

There was a pony at college who I eventually refused to work with. He would bite you, pin you against the wall, kick out at you, generally throw himself around. There were chips in the breeze block walls where he'd kicked out and one time he narrowly missed my head when he kicked whilst I was trying to pick his feet out. I don't think he was allowed to go back to college the next year. But I'm pretty sure he had been abused at some point, sad because he was only 5 or so. His owners would turn up, take him and their other horse out for a couple of hours, gallop everywhere, cover them in mud and then just leave them in their stable for us to deal with.

Another pony at college people didn't like because she'd try to kick and bite but I looked after her for most of the year and she eventually trusted me and only made faces when I brushed her belly. She'd scrape her teeth on the bars at the front of the stable and pretend she would do something. She would trot up to the field next to me without me holding the rope. She did try and double barrel the yard manager but it was his fault for walking up behind her and slapping her bum! Poor mare. I wish I could have taken her home because she became injured and could only hack, but sadly I didn't have the money to keep her. I'd love to know where she is now. She was a wonderful character.

At my first riding school there was a big cob type mare who slowly got worse and worse for being dangerous. She'd throw herself around, lunge at people, generally go a bit crazy. She was the first horse I rode there and she seemed okay then, but after being there a couple of years she was totally different, something must have been wrong with her head to degenerate like that. They had her pts eventually, she was a danger to everyone, especially herself.

 

[Damnation]

I did a stint at a dressage yard and was warned not to go in with this paticular horse.
It barged.
It kicked AT BOTH ENEDS
It bit
It windsucked.
Thankfully never got me when I did go in with it. But I went in armed with a broom.. you couldn't go in with treats to appease him either because he would corner you.. Then kick the crap out of you..

Thats the worst one really..

Even the stallion I worked with at another yard was better behaved then that!

 

[ajn1610]

A 13' hunko'hell called Snowball, really was the product of the satanic union of a Tazmanian Devil and something unspeakable. It knocked down and dragged a groom (who was well used to handling 4* horses) for about 200 yards conpletely skinning her side. It used to let itself out of the stable despite having every clip known to man on the door, and then proceed to liberate all it's stable companions. It could turn in the walker due to being so diddy and would death charge the horses behind it so they flung themsleves backwards and stopped the walker. It used to pull the most hideous faces, when we clipped it (no mean feat in itself) I was expecting to find a '666' birthmark somewhere. It could however happily clear a massive spread an was an amazing JA pony.

 

[neigh31]

I had a loan pony, she would try to bite/kick you when brushing, getting tacked up and getting on, but as soon as i got on her i felt so safe. I loaned her for 8 months and in that time she never spooked, bolted, bucked, reared or anything. Her only problem was that she never had any brakes, but she was never dangerous.

 

[luckyoldme]

mine wasn t the nicest when i got him. he has had me concussed three times.. and threw me off more times than i stayed on. Green owner wise horse!! I gave up tryin to ride him for a while and just messed around with him he is a darling now but i think it s like trying to start a relationship with a deaf and dumb guy. they have issues and cant explain them to you!