Help. Horse with potential hormonal trouble

[LucyW]

Has anybody ever experienced a gelding that becomes dangerous in the vicinity of a filly?

My rising 7, 16.2hh Welsh x Thoroughbred gelding has become so uncontrollable that he has become dangerous since a 10 month old filly turned up at our yard on Saturday. The horse is usually fairly hard to handle, although he has been much easier to deal with since he has been on a magnesium supplement, but has gone crazy since the arrival of the filly to the extent that he was totally out of control and rearing and trying to come down and attack a handler using a stallion controller. The handler had 12 years experience successfully handling stallions, but was unable to control my horse. He is now turned out 24 hours on the recommendation of the vet. I am really worried that the next person to try and handle will be unable to control him.

Along with this, my horse is very dominant and has to be turned out alone as he is agressive to other horses. When turned out with my other horse he seriously tried to kill him.

I have had hormone tests taken and am awaiting the results, but was advised by the vet that they are likely to be negative as the tests are usually inconclusive. The only suggestion that anybody has, including the veterinary practice, is that he should be destroyed as he has become dangerous.

Has anybody experienced this problem before? Is there an individual, practice or organisation that may have a solution? I am desperate to find a solution as the horse has fantastic potential, has the most incredible jump and is still very young. The last thing I want to do is have him destroyed. Also has anybody every had a positive hormone test and found that they had a rig? What did you do?

If the test is negative, does anybody have any suggestion of what can be done with him or how he could be bought under control? Removing him from the environment is the obvious solution, but where do I go from there?

[galadriel]

"Chapsi" has been dealing with an unpredictable, aggressive horse for a while. She recently had confirmed that he was in fact a rig, and he's just just been to surgery for it. More info here:
http://www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42233

With "Pegaso," chapsi had a horse that was kept at several different faciliites where the handlers were used to stallions. The problem with a rig is that he is NOT a stallion; he doesn't have the same kinds of responses, and can be much more unpredictable. Instead of having normal, self-regulated hormone levels, his hormone levels are not controlled by anything and may be quite irregular.

If you do have a geniune rig, then surgery may be possible to correct it. We're all holding our breath, hoping that Pegaso comes through the surgery as a *real* gelding, and with less unpredictable and dangerous behavior. As much as chapsi has put into him (*years* of working at this, trying to make it work with behavior training), it will be fabulous if Pegaso comes through well.

Whatever the case with your boy, hopefully you can find something too. If there is a physical reason for his behavior, perhaps there is a physical solution.

[artemis]

I am fairly sure that there is a blood test that can be done to confirm whether your horse is a rig. Measures the level of testosterone I think. Ask your vet.