The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Aggressive yearling

27K views 73 replies 18 participants last post by  jesredneck98 
#1 ·
My incredibly well mannered, calm yearling (19 months now) has recently started in with an attidude problem. He started with simply stopping and refusing to be led until he decided to, nothing I or anyone else at the barn did could get him to move. Now however, he has taken to refusing his halter and biting. When I change my tone to correct him, he pinns his ears and comes at me. He broke out the other day and reared at me, bit me and actually managed to knock me down in the process. I know this is totally unacceptable, and he's now grounded to his stall until I can handle him safely. I know he's healthy, and I know he's bored being inside in the winter. I believe that he's angre at me for this, but I really need some suggestions on how to work him out of this dangerous behavior without getting hurt. I'm not physically big enough to wrestle him around, which has been the only way to make him give recently.
Please, any help is really apprieciated
 
#60 ·
You can't blame a horse for being what he is and the owner restricting what comes natural to him. I think we can agree to that. What needs to be solved is the way to handle him until the proper changes to his environment can be made and he is gelded; all of which needs to be done in very short order.
 
#61 ·
I would say the best advice is get better fence and turn out. he is going to be unruly and dangerous otherwise. The OP said she was not comfortable lunging a yearling. Something needs to be done for excercise. Run him behind a golf cart, pony him with a gelding, run up and down the road with him, lunge him, just do something. Nothing else wil truly work until he has time to run off energy.

At the moment he is set up for failure. It is like putting a two year old child in a romm all day sitting and not expecting them at some point to want to run and play. Its insane and just not possible for a baby.

Everyone needs to calm down. From what I have read many replies on both sides have been rude. I am not calling anyone out but everyone needs to calm down and look at the situation.

It doesn't matter how unacceptable the behavior is, as long as he has no release it will continue. He may become more aggressive if you try these corrections with no way to run adn just let off steam. You are making it more dangerous for yourself and your horse by not finding a way to excercise. Find metal panels, a wood fence with electric wire, something that can hold him and use it. Otherwise you are going to continue to have an unruly baby on your hands, and he will learn from this behavior to be this way throughout life.

I am sorry if I offend anyone. I am not trying to attack anyone, especially not the OP. I am just pointing out that the cause must first be fixed before you can expect a change in his behavior.
 
#62 · (Edited)
My colt blew through the fence once, and it was my fault. He was the only colt among 6 other mares. The colt in the OP was probably not taught to respect his boundaries, or he has 'forgotten' that they need to be respected. And by the way, sweet feed does not always make horses hot. All mine are on sweet feeed and none of them are hot. Regardless of whether he was calm before, those behaviours are unacceptable, and if you think they are then you are quite simply misinformed. I do not tolerate pushiness in any horse, let alone a stud colt. And I guess my 61 year old grandmother who has been in the horse business for probably 35+ years, knows less than you do. The things I have said to do have worked and DO work. We have had plenty of stallions around, and I have worked with several at other places. The question in the OP was how to deal with it. And the stud chain is the easiest and most effective. And quite frankly, I don't care if a horse is stalled for months on end. I still expect that horse to be on its best possible behaviour when taken out. Period. Fidgeting is okay, prancing, trotting is okay. Biting, rearing, striking and aggression is not.


ETA: I am also not trying to attack anyone, just saying what has worked for us in the past and what will work for this guy if used correctly.
 
#64 ·
I understand what you mean, but he is a yearling with no turn out. I would use a stud chain and use it to excersice him in some manner. It is unrealistic to ask a yearling stud colt with no turn out to act in that manner without any turnout or excercise. I would not expect that level of understanding and training until the horse was at least two or three with constant handling and at least 30 minutes of excersice a day or an hour every other day.

I think that your methods will work, I am just pointing out that the biggest concern other than safety should be getting him some excersice otherwise he will continue to act out because he is not getting proper time to let out such energy.

This colt is set up for failure, and I am pointing out that the things which have caused this issue in the first place need to be addressed.
 
#65 ·
I guess I just have really high standards on behaviour. Yes, a yearling stud colt will act out. But it's still unacceptable in my eyes. Chopper was never allowed to act like that, regardless of the situation. And neither were the two other yearling colts I worked with, Jiff and Charlie. They were halter babies, and god forbid it was too cold or too snowy outside they stayed in for weeks on end. They still had to behave to the best of their abilities.
 
#72 ·
Seems that there are a couple of things that are pretty obvious.

1> The stud colt has only learned how not to behave which means that he is smart and knows how to get what he wants.
2> He has decided to excalate his behaviour to the point of being unsafe to get what he wants.
3> He is full of energy--probably need to take a look at what he is being fed--and for sure confining him in a stall is definately compounding the problem.

There is only one answer--proper training which includes proper diet, proper turn out etc. For sure the OP can't provide the total package. There is no other advice--get the colt to someone who can solve the problems.

Gelding him will not "fix" him--it will help but it is not the majic answer--nor is turn out, nor is diet. Its a combo pack and without the correct combination of all of the above he will only escalate his behaviour to become an extremely dangerous animal period.

Please be very careful--he can, and will, hurt you. Get some help as quick as you can. If you can't afford the help--sell him.
 
#73 ·
Lots of great advice, thank you to all who have contributed. He is outside today, running and loving being in pasture, with a raised voltage fence that has a new, higher strand that he can't jump. I'm calling the vet this afternoon to set up gelding.
As for feed, he gets 6 flakes of hay for a 24 hour period. Plus at night he gets two cups total of- hay stretcher 70%, oats 25%, and corn 5%. I don't feed any sweet feed or molasasas products.
I have made a point to not back up from him, and have actually been getting him to stop and think about it when I make him back up, so I have a renewed confidence that this will work, after alot of hard work on my part, and good advice. My vet happens to be a trainer as well, so he's going to help me work.
Thanks again everyone!
 
#74 ·
Everyone is basically right. I have a 5 year old that started acting the same way as soon as I started boarding her inside for training. Because you don't have turnout for him I would reccomend not giving him grain or a low energy grain. Plus if you have the space and you only need alittle lunge him until he can't anymore. Get that energy out as best as you can and that
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top