The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

I need to know why she does this and how to stop it.

4K views 29 replies 19 participants last post by  Light 
#1 ·


I don't know why she does this or how to stop it. She doesn't do it when I am around. The girl that owns the other horse in the video is the one who filmed it for me. Any help would be great.
Thank you.
 
#26 ·
To prevent - kicking chains on both rear legs. But since running in them is VERY bad for her they MUST be removed before she's turned out to pasture or any place she can run.

Another thought is running a hot wire between the 2 horse - about a foot inside her pipe corral fence. If you don't have electric a solar fence charger and push in (plastic) hit wire fence posts with wire will probably run you about $100.
 
#4 ·
Thank you.
She has hurt herself. I just don't know what to do to make her stop. I have had her about 5 months. She is 18 years old. There is no horse on the other side of her. I can't pay for two corral spaces, so this is the best I can do. I have a freedom feeder on the other side of her corral just in case it was about food. I was told she did this at the other place she was boarded, and there was nobody next to her there. I just had never seen it for myself so I didn't know how bad it was. She doesn't act like this at all when I am around. I didn't even know she could make those faces. Do you have any idea what the yawning is all about?
Thanks again
 
#5 ·
Thanks Natisha;
I was kind of thinking that she was almost flirting, but in a very unstable way. So.....The only thing I can think of is an electric fence between them but it seems really cruel. Then again her swollen leg is worse I am sure. I have been wrapping her back legs with standing wraps for the last few days. Then when I drove up early this morning (still dark) I could hear her kicking. So, I don't know what to do. I don't think I can or should keep her legs wrapped all the time. Thanks for your help.
 
#6 ·
Seems territorial to me, marish flirting is a different reaction.. I would ask your barn owner if you can put up a strand of hot wire. Otherwise you'll have to teach her manually.

Basically she needs to learn to "get along". That stall is your territory, and that horse is part of your territory too. First I would wait until the other horse is gone, and see how she reacts when you go into her stall with food. Is she aggressive towards you? Does she crowd you? If she acts this way when you try to feed her, she needs to learn some manners.

If she seems okay, I would halter her and march her back and forth against that side when the horse is around. If she makes a fuss I'd make her do a bunch of circles.

If she still doesn't do anything, I would plant my butt out there all day if I had to. I'd sit and wait until she did something, then throw a lariat at her butt to get her to move off the fence. And I'd be forceful about it. You do that once or twice really hard and she'll stop. But if you nag her she'll just treat you like that horse.

Dunno, just some food for thought. That's why I hate pipe corrals.

EDIT: Electric fences aren't cruel. They get shocked once, then they never get shocked again. It's a safety issue. Would you rather her get one little shock or end up with a broken leg?
 
#8 ·
Yeah, I'd definitely advise an electric fence. As oh vair oh pointed out, once they figure out it hurts they won't mess with it. It's not really cruelty because they have the option of touching it or not.

It would probably be better for her to get shocked once or twice and then go on with life rather than to risk really hurting her legs.
 
#10 ·
Thanks Blue Spark, he sure can't can he?

oh vair oh: She won't do that kind of behavior around me because she knows I won't allow it. She used to be pushy with food. She is very very food motivated. She used to be very rude. We got past that. If her food was in her corral and I was taking her back to her corral, I would make her stop every step or so and then make her back up and then make her go back to the place we started from and start over again if she didn't "get it" quick enough. She has very good manners otherwise. When I am bringing her food she has to wait until I tell her it is okay before she can eat or she has to be lunged before she can eat. I know I am kind of hard core about those things and I do understand that she is hungry but until she buys me dinner she has to show respect and not be an idiot. She is over 16 hands and I am barely over 5 feet. She must give me space when I am in there and she knows that. I think that is why she won't do this in front of me. I have waited and tried to spy on her to catch her in the act. Mostly I didn't believe it was anything like this. I do have permission to run a hot wire if I want to.
Thank you for your help.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Looks like dominance issues to me. Has she ever been corrected for this behaviour?
The other thing that I would want to look at is what is going on right before she starts this. Also what is her daily life like? There are a lot of factors that can be playing into a behaviour. Frustration, lack of exercise, lack of free herd time etc. But from the video it looks like she's acting out with frustrated aggression. Is she in cycle?
Does she see you as lead horse? If she does then this would explain why she does not do it in your presence. To be honest it looks like she is "asking" to be dominated/corrected. Hence the challenging.
Just on this little bit of clip it looks like she is challenging the other horse and because of the fence both are unable to connect in the normal way horses would. Because the other horse is clearly unaffected by her dominance moves and does not move off when she tells him she escalates to the point where the clip starts.
Ok, resist the urge to laugh out loud...have you ever "claimed" the area for yourself, including the fence?
So yeah, no real answer but questions to consider because you have to look at the whole picture that got her there and not just the end result.
 
#12 ·
Eolith: Yes, I think it is hot wire time. I will try to get that set up real soon.

Boots; I lunge her daily and spend allot of time with her. I ride her as well but think she may have a bad back or hip? (maybe from her kicking) so I haven't been riding her lately. I have a vet coming out to check her and do her teethe tomorrow. Any ideas on what I could do to help keep her from being bored? The other horse does have a fairly large corral as she does. He just likes to hang out over on her side. I have seen them grooming each other before.


Thanks for all the replies
 
#13 ·
Hi GreenBackJack;

She best be seeing me as a lead horse!!!! LOL
I have had people tell me she is a dominant mare before. I was kind of thinking she was an insecure mare because of the was she is with this kicking thing. Although when I am on her and we go out with other horses she acts as though they do not exist. Even when they try to kick at her she doesn't even get out of the way, I have to move her out of the way. She has been out in pasture with a yearling before and there were no issues that I know of. He did stay out of her way. There is a mare that has a corral that faces one area of the arena and she developed some fear of that end of the arena. I lunged her on a line directly in front of that horse today and then made her stand nose to nose with her and not show any sort of bad behavior. She was really good and did what I wanted. I could tell she wasn't happy about it but she did do it.
Thanks again for all the replies.
 
#14 ·
Are you boarding? Is there an option of putting a different horse next to her? I've dealt with similar issues in my mare for about twelve years and while she will respect an electric fence (so that is also a good option), the best way to keep her from attacking the fence is to put a horse next to her who won't antagonise her. Some horses really set her off, others aren't a problem. From your video, it looked like her neighbour was really driving her nuts.
 
#15 ·
Thesilverspear: Yes, I am boarding her. I will talk to the BO about moving her neighbor. I have just put way to much money into her corral to move her. But I will see if we can do that. I will check with her before I buy the hot fence today. Thanks.
 
#17 ·
Please don't put hot wire up along the lower pipes if you don't prevent a leg going through the pipes with plywood, fiberglass corrogated roofing material, metal siding, or some such barrier: if she catches a leg on a pipe that's hot wired, she could get stuck thus fried!

Even with hot wire only across the top pipe, she could kick that high & stick a leg up there, so please put the barrier up. It'll also serve the purpose of making any horse next door mostly invisible to her.
 
#21 ·
Just typical dominant mare behavior.. with some "nothing better to do" thrown in. I bet in a large herd setting with more room she'd be less bossy, this appears to be slight boredom due to confinement. But I am guessing that it isn't an option to turn her out. So, I haven't read every reply but is it possible to move her or her "buddy" there? Maybe its just THAT horse she has such an issue with.. That or ask the barn owner if you can put up a solar pannel fencer and put a hot wire about a foot in so that she keeps her butt away from the fence and thus doesn't get a leg caught and hurt herself. There isn't really any way you can just manually convince her to stop this behavior, especially since you aren't always there.
 
#23 ·
Personally, I think it's seasonal mare behavior…she's backing into the pipes in an effort to be "noticed" by the other horse, who is a somewhat curious, but unworthy, gelding.
 
#25 ·
I think she's telling the other horse to get out of her space. And he's not responding so it ticks her off! He is just standing there like "ha, ha, can't get me."

Now it's not really his fault OR her fault in my mind. In a herd situation were they lived together he would learn to get out of her way or get kicked. But because they are living in an unnatural situation, they can't have normal herd dynamics.

I see a ****** mare and a gelding that says "whatever."

I don't think the backing up is her flirting because she is not squatting or squirting. She is backing threatening to kick and he is not taking the hint. My mare will sometimes back up like that to her 2 yr old baby if she's eating grain and then let a kick fly if he doesn't back off. She's just not quite that aggressive about it!

I would show the video to the barn owner and see if the horses can get moved around. Maybe a different neighbor would help. Eventually she will get injured and nobody wants that. And I'm sure the barn owner doesn't want the damage to the fence either.
 
#27 ·
^ to expand on what Valentina has suggested, there is also such a thing as kicking rings that go around the horse's pasterns. They kick, the ring hits their coronet, which is uncomfortable so they learn not to kick.

Kicking rings also have the benefit of improving blood flow to the coronet band (due to massage from movement) and will thus improve a horse's hooves.

I do still strongly agree with the people suggesting kick boards though - pipe corrals are so dangerous to keep horses next to each other in purely because if they kick they can and sometimes do break legs. Even if you use kick chains or rings, boards are still a good idea because depending on your horse it may take her twice or fifty times before she gets the message!
 
#28 ·
Hi;
So what finally happened was she kicked through the wood panel at the back of the corral, and got her foot stuck. This is all after her accident trying to jump out of the arena and flipping and falling. She did this while I was out buying the solar hot wire stuff. I did as suggested and ran it about a foot inside the fence. It ran me close to $300.00 total with the wire the solar panel etc. I should have done it a long time ago. It has stopped her from kicking in her corral. I have not seen her get zapped but when i showed up the morning after having installed it the night before she had a total different respect for the corral. Like an idiot I thought I could leave it off, but she figured that out in about a day and started kicking again. Now it is on all the time. We also changed horses and I moved her feeding location so it is not up against the other horses corral. She seems to like this little paint gelding she has for a neighbor now. He also doesn't seem to bug her. Then again he would get zapped if he did. Anyway thank you for all the advice, and I wish i had done it sooner. She will still kick if she is out to pasture and she thinks I am nowhere to be found. So, now she only gets to go to pasture with me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top