Hi Kicki, sounds quite scary for your yard friends. I would be tempted to have a small rattle bottle, you can make this easy with a small drinks bottle and some small stones, if the horse is charging towards her she can shake it which makes a loud noise and jump up and down, as soon as the horse stops or changes his expression to stop the rattle. You need to try and find out what is trigering this behavour, how long have you had the horse? Has he had a bad experiance in the past? Is he herd leader and looks to take control of new people in his field? Was she alone or with someone else or have a horse? Does she do anything different when in the field than you do?

I hope you manage to get to the bottom of it. Good luck.

Hi lucy,
Thanks for the suggestion!
I've bred and raised this boy myself, so I know him pretty well. Some would say his problem is that he has never had a bad experience in his entire life. ;)
Being the youngest of the three in the field he certainly isn't the leader.
I can't say what triggered this in him. He hasn't done it again, that I know of. I wasn't there, but the other woman is quite used to be around horses, so I trust her assessment of the situation. (She hasn't hit him! Just had the whip as a "brandishing weapon".)
All I can think of is that he was hungry and wanted to be the first into the stable rather than left alone in the field and overdid his bid. (Maybe he aimed for the other horse and she misread him?)
I'll fix some cans with pebbles in them to keep in the barn for the others to use. :)

If you got a horse that's trying to charge at you, try the Join-Up technique Monty uses first, which is to drive the horse away from you with eyes on eyes while slapping a lunge line. That's my answer, not sure if that helps, but try it.

I had a very damaged gelding who would run at me ,teeth bared.when I tried to Join up with him he ran at me like a train and stopped an inch from my neck ,I could feel his hot breath .. freaky, but I just went passive and my head bowed hoping he wouldn't rear up and pop my skull.Then one day,I had been standing on a high stone wall and holding him away with eyes on eyes ,shoulders square, and then I walked into the field ,arcing,and he came to run in at me with ears back and way too much energy and I leapt forward towards him with my arms raised and said WHOA !loudly! and he changed from that moment onwards.His eyes changed his demeanor.Everything.My heart was racing and I didn't know what effect it would have.Your situation sounds more like herd behaviour.My other horse herds me away from friends when we go to see them.Funny if it only happened once ? Maybe it was just the removal of his playmate ?Good Luck !

Hi Kicki - This seems to be a bit of a problem with home bred and very much loved horses who are also on the bottom of the horse pecking order. I think they try to find a lower being which they can boss like their mates boss them. My home bred and very much loved Palomino filly (Tricka) whom I have now broken in had a bit of a tendency to do this and I still do not trust her with my small grandchildren when she is running free. She used to charge at dogs in her paddock (didn't mind this too much as I preferred her to do this than be scared by them and we get numerous large dogs running free that have chased my horses) my hens and really anything that was smaller than her and would run away when she attacked. She even tried it on me once but instead of running away or appearing frighted I ran at her with my hands and everything I could flapping saying wooo back at her. Fortunately she subsided and cantered away but I wouldn't recommend this method. I followed this up with a good join up session and have not had the same problem since. I now take my old golden retriever into the paddock with me and she has now learnt that it is off limits too. She has even stopped chasing the hens. She was getting a bit narky with me when leading her away from her mate with a rope halter but I purchased one of Mionty's dually halters and this has been wonderful with her. No more ears back and nashing teeth and no more coming into me!! Her mother (Pie)was a very scared aggressive horse so I was fearful that this streak was coming out in her too but NO and largely thanks to Monty's methods - join up and the dually halter! (See my Forum note Pie for further details re Pie)

Pie's Story
Pie, had every reason to fight back as she had been re-trained by an extremely cruel man using the old fashioned cruel methods. He managed to damage most of her joints in her legs and she has two floating ribs because of him. She had such a strong personality that all this cruelness didn't make her submissive but it did make her fight back. She was only 4 years old when I first saw her. When her young owner went to catch her she went full on at her and swung around ready to kick. For some reason when I walked into her yard she just came up to me passively. Her then owner was amazed. She had been broken in by a very kind lady hence her acceptance of me. After been broken she started to rear with her young rider so was sent out to this awful man for re-training. When I saw Pie she was on sale as her owner couldn't handle her and was trying to recoup some of the money she had paid for the re-training. I wasn't interested in buying Pie at all but her owner pleaded with me to have her as a free lease while she continued to try to sell her. This was a challenge! I had long service leave at the time so I agreed to have her for awhile as I felt so sad for her. I soon realized just how bad her physical and mental injuries were. Generally Pie stayed responsive to me but if she felt she had been mistreated by me, a farrier or a vet she would fight back. Once after a vet had been and we had trouble with her she did come at me full on in the paddock - no way would I have run at her as I did for Tricka (See earlier comment) she was far too dangerous and determined. Instead I hid behind my quiet horse and fed her carrots around his neck - he was her boss too which helped. Two months after I had brought Pie home her owner called excitedly tell me she had found a buyer for her Palomino. A guy who wanted to buy her for bending races! There was no way Pie could have managed this. I almost laughed but instead asked how much the man was going to pay and I then just said that I would send a chegue for that amount. I couldn't bare for Pie to be mistreated again but then I unwittingly did so myself. I could ride Pie out but she was sore and when a vet felt he could improve her worst joint by injecting some flued jell into it I agreed. Somehow the needle must have hit her cartlage which ended her riding days. I felt so sorry for her as I had unknowingly added to her pain. Once the pain killers had worn off She came to me at the garden fence screaming in pain. She had her leg stretched out to me and her knee looked like a football. I nursed her for months until she could hobble around relatively comfortably. After 10 years I decided to see if she could have a foal. So many friends told me I was crazy to try to breed from her as she still nashed her teeth occasionally at people. Some even felt I would be in danger from her if she had a foal to protect. However I knew she was kind and gentle underneath all her fear and I felt she would enoy being a Mum. Pie trusted me totally by this stage too. She was such a pretty horse to be just wasting away in the paddock year after year. Giving Pie a foal has been the most wonderful experience I have ever. She gave me the most perfect foal and horse - Trickortreat, Tricak, the horse with me in my photo. Tricka was born on Halloween now five years ago. Pie ahd been in labour for a short while when I crept up the paddock to see how she was progressing. I saw the hooves poking out and Pie in pain. I couldn't resist the temptation to help Pie out as I had pulled many calves from young heifers in the past. Tricka came out perfectly still in her birth bag and I said to Pie "I guess that is it Pie you can't even produce a foal it is dead. when I broke the birth bag to take a closer look up popped Tricka - hence her name! Pie was the perfect mother and so gentle with both me and her foal. She would not let that foal run further than a metre or so away from her. Somehow she managed to keep trotting after it all the time. No more lying in the paddock resting her leg. I still have Pie - she is now 19 years old and still hobbles around but can occasionally canter. I had a cartlage operation myself last year and the pain was so horrific that I felt perhaps I should say good-by to Pie. I couldn't do so as I feel she is happy still and content with her life. I have her agisted on a very flat paddock with her favourite mate who is also a bit lame. Given her temperment it has seemed better to have had her away from Tricka my paddock was too steep for her.