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Agressive mare

1K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Foxhunter 
#1 ·
Hello, I am kind of new to this so I hope I do this correctly. I have recently acquired a 7 year old mustang. I have in the past put 60 days training on her and she did very well. I did not put her with my other horses as she was a bit aggressive. After training I returned her and she was put in a position where she would be going to auction. I knew this would not be good for her so I offered to take her in as I did not want to see an auction be her last stop. She is a very friendly horse, and she seems to want to please me. However she is very aggressive with my other horses. I separated them for a good month before I actually put them together. She is very dominant, she will not hesitate to whip around and kick the others. It has died down a bit with all of them but one. They always seem to be in a battle. Today my other horse was hurt.... again, and this is a mare we have had for years, I hate to see her get hurt. I don't want this new horse to leave as I feel she has amazing potential and I have plans for her, yet I hate that she keeps battling with my other mare, a mare we take everywhere.... what will happen when we put them in a trailer. I am at a loss, not sure how to approach this. Like I said I want to keep her, she has soo much potential. I would love any advice or tips. THANK YOU :):-p
 
#2 ·
Can you just keep her in a separate pasture, or paddock permanently? Sometimes horses just cannot be kept with others. As far as trailering she may be a different horse in a trailer. I have one horse who cannot be turned out with other horses he is very aggressive, but in a trailer, or when I ride with other horses he is fine.

You may need to experiment with where she rides in the trailer. I can pretty much load my aggressive horse anywhere in the trailer and he is fine.
 
#3 ·
I had a horse that literally almost killed an older mare of mine. It was an odd situation but she was closed in the run-in and he was in the stall. He broke down the stall door and started attacking her. We woke up to hearing banging, we thought someone was knocking on our door. It was my horse kicking at the wall in the barn. There were holes in the wall, etc and my mare was seriously injured. She wasn't in the greatest shape to begin with.

MY method to fixing this, because he would viciously attack other horses regularly. I put him out to pasture with 2 very dominate Belgians, who gave him a good whoopin. He never attacked another horse again, he was still dominate, just not vicious.

I don't recommend doing what I did, I wouldn't even do that now. I was like 13 and didn't know any better.

BUT my point to that is exactly was gss said, some horses can't be around others. It's not worth injuring other horses or your own.
 
#5 ·
Has she ever been attacked by another horse?

I ask because my old gelding couldn't be put out with other horses or he'd beat the tar out of them. He wasn't particularly dominant, but he had this "I'm going to get you before you get me" attitude. He had that attitude because he was kicked in the neck for no apparent reason by a mare he used to be turned out with all the time and it severed his jugular vein (she had shoes on all four feet). The owner saw the whole thing and rushed to his aid, calling the vet with one hand while basically holding his vein shut with his other. Her holding his neck closed was the only thing that kept him from bleeding out. I don't have any good pics of it, but he had a divot 4" long, 1.5" wide and 3/4" deep on his neck from where he was kicked.

Anyway, point is, something like that could have happened to make her aggressive like that.

Dakota was fine next to other horses in turnout and was fine in the trailer. It was just when there wasn't something physically separating him from another horse that he freaked out and attacked them.
 
#6 ·
You'll want to get her trusting you before you try riding with strange horses. My horse used to be a terrible kicker (she would go after any strange horse and try to kick them, saddled or not). She freaks out when a horse gets loose. My suspicion is that she was attacked when she was young.

It took a lot of exposure, a lot of miles, and a lot of trust to get her over this. Even then I still ride at the back on trail rides.

And if you haven't already, set up a different paddock for her. If there is one horse that she gets along with well, you could turn them out together and see how they do. But be careful. Don't risk any of the horses.
 
#7 ·
I think both the last two posts are wrong in saying it is a case of "I'll get you before you get me"

It is all to do with hierarchy and the worse ones for scrapping are those at the bottom of the pecking order wishing to gain a higher place from a new horse or a dominant horse wishing to prove the fact when in a new herd.

As for what to do about it, my old boss from a zillion years ago, would wait for hot fly ridden weather and turn two hostile a out together. They needed each other to ward the flies off and it sorted matters between them.
 
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