Dashboard
Video Library
Q&A
Forum
Instructors
Testimonials
Signup/Login

Forum

Monty Roberts Equus Online University
Horse Training Video Instruction Program

Learn all about Equus • Dually Halter • Shy Boy Mustang • Jumping Horses
• Story of a Horse Whisperer • Riding Horsemanship • Dressage Horses • Willing Partners
• Horse Training • Round Pen Lessons • Performance Horses • Join-Up

← back

Horse Behavior and Training

Agressif with a filly

By:
annemarie.broek
Date:
Please upload your photo 100 lessons completed 150 lessons completed
Hello,

We have 3 adult horses, 2 geldings and a mare, they are living outside together in a field with a shelter. At the end of october we bought  a foal and a filly, they are now 7 and 8 months old. We put them apart from the others, because one of the geldings is quite dominant and very protective of his herd.
So since 2 months they are neighbours, they see each other and smell each other en there is a lot of clacking teeth from the foals when they are near the big ones.
So yesterday I decided to put the youngsters with one of the geldings, the less dominant one, with the idea that is is good for their education to be with an adult horse. I saw the gelding playing a bit once or twice over the fence  with the foal, all nice and friendly.
So I put them together, and the gelding looked at the foal for a second, then to the filly. Then he flattended his ears, lowered his head and attacked the filly. She was quite surprised, as I was, and ran to save herself. The gelding followed her, chasing her around the field, all the time with his ears flattened and his head low. And he kept going on, around the field, biting her in the hindlegs en her back, running at full speed. After 2 rounds, the filly tripped and fell on the ground en the gelding kept on going to attack her. This was near me, so I ran to chase de gelding, shouting loudly at him (I know I shouldn't, but I did. I admit also that my heart-rate was running very high as well). He backed up, the filly stood, and he recharged. So another round like that, now I had opened up a part of the fence hoping to separate the two. I managed to slow a little bit the gelding, but they all kept on running en the filly was stuck in a corner. Luckily she went half over half through the fence to the other side and the gelding didnt follow, so I had them separated. The foal that ran all this time after the two of them happened to go past the opening and I blocked the gelding and could close the fence before he could get to them again. 
I was very lucky to find my filly with only a minor scratch on one leg, but otherwise unharmed. 
So my question is, did anyone ever see this kind of behavior, is this normal? I have never seen this, when putting a new horse in a groupe I've seen some chasing, but never so aggressif, but I have never had foals before. 
Thanks if someone can help and sorry for the lousy English :)


Kicki -- Sweden
Hello! 100 lessons completed 150 lessons completed 200 lessons completed 250 lessons completed 300 lessons completed 350 lessons completed 400 lessons completed 450 lessons completed 500 lessons completed 550 lessons completed 600 lessons completed
Actually, yes, but in a different setting.
I sent my yearling to "summer camp" at a friend's farm about a month after he was gelded so no stallion manners left in him. My friend wasn't home at the time but her teenage daughter was and she showed us to the field. Nalle was to be with an old mare and a friendly but immature gelding 5-6 years of age. 
Long story short, Nalle was chased severely almost immediately by the gelding. When he didn't let up the girl thought of letting in her 4 year old mare, who was immediately accepted by the gelding (not so popular with the old mare, but she wasn't vicious) and she became a buffer between the two, so she sort of adopted Nalle as her baby and took to protecting him so he became a part of the flock but in the fringe of it. After a week, we decided to move him to another field with only the young mare, which worked very well. 

The initial problem, we think, is that the gelding and the old mare had already been together for a couple of weeks - I didn't know this at the time or I wouldn't have released Nalle into that field- and the immature gelding couldn't handle the "competition" he saw in Nalle and blatantly ignored all of his attempts to communicate that he was young and harmless.

Don't know if this is of help to you, just to show that it certainly happens.
a.rumble
Please upload your photo 100 lessons completed 150 lessons completed 200 lessons completed 250 lessons completed 300 lessons completed 350 lessons completed 400 lessons completed 450 lessons completed 500 lessons completed 550 lessons completed
I've never heard tell of any horses being that aggressive to one another,but, I have a stallion and a gelding side by side in the barn in the winter and the gelding is 4 and the stallion is three. They  are constantly jumping up at each other like they are going to tear each other apart,ears back and all, out in the paddocks they are in seperate paddock I keep all my horses that way as I find it is safer and no vet bills but the regular. When the stallion is removed away from the gelding one way or another the gelding runs around in the paddock and hollars for him or the gelding hollars from the stall for him. The stallion doesn't seem to care rather the gelding is there or not. The stallion only goes on like that in the stall and he came here first maybe thats why he goes on I do not know. All of my paddocks are side by side but one. When the gelding is outside with the stallion he does try to kick him through the electric fence and has got caught up only once so far. If the filly is out with him in the paddock beside the gelding the gelding is mostly fine other then hollaring once in awhile for the stallion who doesn't hollar back,another horse does once in a while though. Can anyone help with this problem in the stalls? My other two horses are fillies and a 2-3 yr old stallion which will be gelded I couldn't earlier because of a worm infestation when we first got him.Thank-you soooo much. Angie
bahila73
Hello! 100 lessons completed 150 lessons completed 200 lessons completed 250 lessons completed 300 lessons completed 350 lessons completed 400 lessons completed 450 lessons completed 500 lessons completed 550 lessons completed 600 lessons completed
Hello,  I am glad that your younger horses were not hurt.  The behavior that you described in your post, is in its own way, a very natural herd occurrence.  It is all about the dynamics of what constitutes a herd.  With your setting, the three adult horses were what made up the herd, - Two geldings and a mare.  The geldings, by nature, will be possessive of the mare.  That is exactly the WHY that the mother will stay with a foal in the wild until they are two or sometimes older.  She will always have the ability to take her babies to the paremeters of the herd for their protection.  If you can give the younger horses a little time, they will probably be accepted into the herd.. Their acceptance might have to come from the mare first because of her maternal instincts.   This will be at a later time, however.  Time is a big healer of many problems.

`Hope this will help you,

Bud

Sign Up Now!

Monty and You...

Shop at Monty's Store

Monty Roberts Facebook

Pat Roberts Sculpture