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Doesn't Like Men?

5K views 21 replies 16 participants last post by  Skyseternalangel 
#1 ·
So... I'm encountering a bit of an issue with my mustang colt lately. He won't allow the man who works at the boarding facility to catch him, or at least not very easily. I was hoping it would get better over time as he realized that this man was only going to lead him out to the fields in the morning and back to his grain in the afternoon (good things, right?).

I'm just wondering, does this mean he's not fond of any men... or is it something more personal? I've been the one working with my colt primarily, gentling him and training him to lead, pick up his feet, stand tied, yield haunches, etc. There aren't many men around to offer a counterpoint to the female interaction he's had... except the vet who gelded him, which I don't imagine was the most positive experience. He also stood much more willingly for a female farrier to work on him, whereas he wasn't so keen on giving a male farrier his feet. I thought it was more an issue of their training approaches than gender.

Finally, what do I do? My colt is an angel for me to catch. He'll even come to meet me at the gate. Unless I'm able to come out to get him back in though, he won't be able to be turned out.
 
#2 ·
If it's possible, get a guy to hang out with him. Just so he knows that men aren't evil! It's just like a horse not liking getting sprayed with water or something, you just gotta show them that it's not going to eat them!

I had a welsh/QH gelding and he was soooo scared of men. He hated them! It didn't matter who it was, but if it was a guy, he'd just start vibrating. We raised him from birth and he was hardly even swatted by a human his whole life! He just didn't like men.
 
#4 ·
I would not jumpt to a gender aversion based only on this.
How socialized has your colt been? I would suggest making a point of exposing him to as many different people (not just gender, ages, people with disabilities, people in hats, etc) as possible and constructing these exposures as positive experiences (ie scratches, pats, treats, etc) Think of it as being similar to exposing him to different situations (cars, bicycles, dogs, crowds, noise, quiet, wind, still, etc) to help him become accustomed to them.
 
#5 ·
You're right themacpack, he's still needing more socialization overall. He will allow other women to catch him however (still not super easily, but far better). It's just difficult to get him exposed to men in particular, especially considering that I can't really expect the guy who works at the barn to put down the hundred other things he has to get done in order to hang out with my horse.
 
#8 ·
Just having them be present will help. Right now it seems that males are an oddity in his life and with horses the unfamiliar = scary. Your borrowed males don't have to be working him at all. You can have them just be visible and NOT do anything scary or, if you feel comfortable, have them interact in a positive way with the horse. The idea is simply to allow him to generalize "people" vs the person he knows/all those scary strangers that look different than this person.
 
#9 ·
I used a trainer (for couple months or so) both my horses and my friend's horses hated. And I mean that. My paint didn't allow her to come close, my qh tried to smack her with the tail every single time she got too close. Was it a smell? A voice? Her movements? To this time I have no idea. But the fact was there.

I also used to board in place where all horses neither liked nor respected the BO including her own horses (she was a nice person, took good care of the animals overall, etc.).

So my bet is on something inter-personal between your horse and that guy.
 
#10 ·
My gelding doesn't like most men. He loves my BO (who basically raised him from a weanling until I bought him at 2-years-old) and he tolerates my farrier, but probably only because I make him. Other than that, good luck getting him to let a man come even close to him. When the BO's older son cleans stalls (he'll sometimes sneak in and clean my stall, even though I only pay for partial care :-p), Aires will be on the other side of the stall from him and watching him like he would watch a predator. The BO's son has never even touched Aires, to my knowledge (and I've asked both the BO and his son about it). I tried once to have one of the male boarders "love" on Aires to get him used to men and realize that they aren't bad. What I ended up with was a 2yo dancing around me, trying to stay as far away from the man as his lead rope would allow.

We attribute it to the fact that women are MUCH more likely to come up to a horse and love on it and give it treats than men are. Sure, some men will, but most men are very business-like in their treatment of horses. Because of this, we've come to the conclusion that a lot of horses will associate women with good things (petting, treats, etc) and want to be around them more, whereas they associate men with "bad" things (not necessarily "bad," but not good...like work, maybe being poked with a rake for being in the way, etc) so aren't likely to want to be around them.
 
#11 ·
I'm having a similar problem with my horse, Toothless, and the BO's son who does the feeding there, except T tries to push him around when he feeds him and even kicked out at him yesterday. T just doesn't respect him at all.

In the last couple of weeks I have been working on some round pen training, Clinton Anderson style and T is really doing very well with it. Someone has definitely worked with him in this or a similar style before and he is very responsive to the cues. I asked the BO's son to watch me work T in the round pen today as I explained what I was doing. I told the him to carry the stick I use and drive T away when he comes into his field to feed and keep moving him off until he is ready to let him come in and eat. Hopefully that will help, T is a big boy and I don't want him to hurt anyone.

His manners are great with everyone else and he is fine for the vet and farrier who are both men, so in my case I'm chalking it up to "something" about the BO's son that my horse just plain doesn't like. :?
 
#12 ·
This is a regular topic - 'my horse doesn't like men'.

One reason in the UK could be that they don't get to meet with many.

However whenever I see the statement I ask myself how exactly the horse knew the man was a man.
Was it the smell of his breath
The design of his clothes.
The length of his hair
Or his beard.

I've heard women with deep voices and men with high voices.
I've heard men talk soft and I've heard women shout
I've seen men with hairy hands and women with callouses.

And most women working around horses usually wear jeans which button up
or have a zip. They are very similar to mens jeans - give or take an
allowance for the hips

DO you think the problem could be with the man's after shave?
 
#13 ·
We went through it too. Our QH rescue absolutely avoided all men. She would charge them or just run away and not go near any male. My daughter, myself, MIL and GF's all had no problem with her. We found out that she was beat quite a bit by her previous owners (male). It took some time, but she came around and finally realized that all men are not bad and want to hurt her. My hubby rides her all the time now. Took almost a year of having various differnt males just spending time with her. Hope this helps.
 
#15 ·
You said your horse was originally feral? It may have something to do with the way he was captured from the wild. If he was rounded up by men, handled by them, etc in the very first moments of human interaction, it could have been a mental shock that stayed with him. Perhaps the manner in which the man goes to catch your horse (if he's busy I'm assuming he hurries, which is what a round up of wild horses can become - hurry to get them in a pen, tag them, separate them, etc) brings back some of that old fear??

I like the suggestions of just having a guy hang out with you and your horse. Positive experiences will eventually trump the negative one that started all this. Good luck!
 
#16 · (Edited)
Men are wired differently than women are. Some men give off a very rough vibe and some horses are sensitive to that and try to stay away from it. Which is why I joke around saying my horse must approve the men in my life hahaha.

Also the way they handle horses may differ from that of a woman. Usually they're more likely to use strength than anything. Maybe since he was gelded, he now thinks all men are after him. It could be any reason. Who knows. But I agree that you can't jump to conclusions. You need to have men in his life, maybe grooming him or feeding him once or twice or taking him out for grass. Nice things, no pressure.. and watch how they handle your colt.

My horse used to haaaaaate men.. he'd try to kill them. But if I'm there, for some odd reason, he's fine. When I'm not.. then he gets very concerned.
 
#19 ·
Men are wired differently than women are. Some men give off a very rough vibe and some horses are sensitive to that and try to stay away from it.

This is a good point. But beyond just gender, I think animals are sensitive to our energy in general. I don't know if I want to go as far to say that they can "judge" a person, but maybe some animals just are that intuitive. Perhaps your horse is just more keenly aware of the humans around him than others. Maybe this guy at your barn is shady, and your boy is picking up on it. ;)

Or, maybe, he just needs more socialization. lol, sorry. I wish I had something more definitive for you. I agree with previous posters that a good first step would be to introduce him to all manner of humans... and go from there.
 
#17 ·
I had a similar situation with my off the track TB. We had and still have farrier issues. He cannot be done by a male farrier (as of a year ago when I gave up trying). I don't want to generalize by saying male but three different male farriers had problems with him. He's now being trimmed by a women with only a few issues. Formerly he had to be tranquilized with the male farriers to prevent him from being dangerous. I'm convinced though that it is more an issue of him reading body language than the fact that he can tell someone's gender. At the barn I'm presently at he is often turned out or brought in by a male with no problems. I would just try and find some horse savvy people and have them do ground work with your horse so he learns that people are different.
 
#18 · (Edited)
I've owned two horses that had been traumatized by men and were fearful when I got them. What I did was earn the horses trust, then once we were communicating well, I'd ask a male friend to come to the barn with me. I would do round pen work with my guy friend just kind of hanging around. I acted like it was no big deal, and both horses were able to get over it.
Some horses work better with just women or just men, but part of good training is to have the horse respect all humans, of all shapes and sizes.
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#21 ·
Guess I'm lucky my mare prefers men. Although, on an individual basis, she'll accept and even, with time, like a woman.

Maybe it has something to do with the sex of the humans the horse spends the most time with?
 
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