The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

HELP, my horse charges small animals!

3K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  cwgrlup85 
#1 ·
My 2 yr old gelding has a wonderful disposition. Is very calm and friendly but knows to give you your space and is not pushy. However he has a terrible attitude when it comes to small animals and I don't know how or if I can correct it. He charges at my barn cats, my dog (who isn't even chasing him), even my pygmy goat. He has always been around these animals but just recently over the past 4 mths has become aggressive towards them. In fact one day he had my pygmy goat trapped in a corner and was rearing up and coming down on top of her with his hooves, he even bit her and picked her up by the back of her neck with his teeth!!! I have attempted to introduce him to these animals again with him on a lead rope, and he does fine...does not even try to charge them. He is by no means the leader of the herd. I am puzzled as to why he has taken on this behavior. I have had him since he was 5 mths old. He does not act this way toward children or people. Any ideas or suggestions would be aprreciated. :)
 
#2 ·
Wish I could help. We have a mare at the barn who is sweet but deadly to small animals. She will charge anything small. Once I saw the cat narrowly escape with his life when he wandered into her corral. She is not aggressive to other horses. I would be curious if you find any solution.
 
#3 ·
Your horse has a very strong herding instinct. Horses that have a lot of 'cow' usually show this behavior. It's also a very dominant behavior. It's just who he is, so the best thing to do is to keep small animals away from him as best you can. Because he's so young, he's coming into his own, which is why this behavior is pretty new.
 
#7 ·
Your horse has a very strong herding instinct. Horses that have a lot of 'cow' usually show this behavior. It's also a very dominant behavior. It's just who he is, so the best thing to do is to keep small animals away from him as best you can. Because he's so young, he's coming into his own, which is why this behavior is pretty new.

Agree... I have one of these at home. He's now 17 and for his entire life if a dog, cat, deer or even a bunny came into his pasture or paddock the chase was on.

I've watched him in the pasture when a deer comes over the fence. He'll turn so he can keep an eye on them and wait ..... once they are close enough off he goes hell bent for leather after it.
 
#5 ·
There used to be this big TB at an agistment place and there was once a little dog wearing one of those jumpers (it was winter) and the horse picked him up and tossed the little dog about 3 or so metres. It was very impressive (the dog impressed though, at least not positively).

Some horses don't like little animals, and if your horse doesn't exhibit directly around you then its going to be very hard to train him out of it.

A horse I once had was perfect with dogs, but then my little dog was eating his spilt food and the horse smelt the dog who then, out of shock, lightly bit the horses nose and since that day that horse did not like dogs. Maybe a little incident occurred between a little animal and the horse.

I would just advise to keep the small animals away from the horse, its too risky having them around as a horse can easily hurt or kill an animal that size.
 
#8 ·
If it's something new, something must have happened. Maybe a cat scratched him by mistake or something. He doesn't bum rush them when you're around because he knows no one can get hurt when you're around. Does he pin his ears at them? Roll his eyes? He could be newly afraid.
 
#9 ·
Yes ears are pinned back when he charges them. I have kept my dog and goat away from him. Was just curious if anyone else had ever came acrossed a problem like this and if it was able to be corrected. By the way Kevin that was not the answer I was looking for :)
 
#11 ·
I actually had this issue with my Arab mare briefly and I seem to have actually solved it. However, I think my situation was a bit different?

My horse has had many bad experiences with dogs. The first time when she was quite young and green. Friends of my grandpa were over and I was riding and their miserable POS dog came after my horse, snarling and snapping at her feet. Bless the dear, I think she was trying to save me because instead of bolting she reared straight up and slammed her feet at the dog (she's never in her life reared again). So that was episode one.

Then when I was at a boarding barn, I got into a tiff with these downright nasty girls who started abusing my mare to get back at me (and actually ended up simultaneously creating a mortal fear of dogs AND strange humans in her). They'd sic their Jack Russell on her just for kicks. I should have beat the snot out of them when I had the chance.

Anyway, after that, dogs were taboo for her. I had to warn people because if a dog came into her pasture, she'd go after it with death in her eyes (ears pinned, teeth barred, loud huffing knoises). Thankfully, she never caught one.

Since I've been at Shay-las, she's improved tenfold. Shay-las mom has three big dogs and one small toy breed dog. In the beginning, she'd go after them. But she's always trusted me, and it worked to my advantage. When she was tied up for saddling and the dogs were frolicking in the yard, I'd make sure to talk to her and stroke her, and get her relaxed. I'd bring the dogs over to pet and sniff with her, all while continuing to make the experience happy for her by having lovely well trained dogs and always talking to her to keep her calm.

Over the last two years of having dogs constantly around (they do not go in the pasture), and nothing bad happening, she's completely mellowed. She'll reach out to sniff them now instead of trying to go after them, and on the occasion they accompany us into the pasture, she just ignores them, even when they run right in front of her.

However, my mare is pretty forgiving by nature. Hopefully, this can maybe help you, but I agree with the others that perhaps it may just be his mentality as I've seen it in horses before. It was never my mares mentality, she grew up with dogs and was fine until she had some really awful experiences with them. She's never been bothered by the goats and cats before, it was always just dogs.

Anyway, good luck!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top