Aggressive gelding problems

Laura+Phantom

Active Member
Jan 25, 2004
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Bah..its annoying me now. Phantom, my dear pony, is very dominant, leader of the pack, bosses around every horse is his path, as long as he is on his own ground (he didn't get away with it in livery with strange horses).

My little herd of 4 have been together about 10 years, Rusty joined 2 years ago but the other 3 have always been together. Rusty is like Phantom, but he's a mini shetland so he can't really pull off the tough guy routine. Phantom is suprisingly lenient towards Rusty's shenanigans (like running up to P and trying to bite him!).

The other 2 in the herd are 2 mares. Aswell as them, I have another mare on loan. The problem is, I have had Saphy on loan since October, and the first time I put them together, Phantom was so aggressive. I put them in fields next to each other for a month, and tried again. Same thing. Another month went by, and one day I went to catch her and they were all in the same field, grazing together happily!

They have been fine since then, except on thursday when I went to catch her in the evening, Phantom started again, for no reason. He was really bad.. Eventually, after about 20 mins, he just stopped. Turns out he had tied up (had an azoturia attack) so his muscles had siezed up.

What am I supposed to do?

Phantom's been blood tested to see if he is a rig. He isn't :(
 
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Perhaps spilt geldings and mares. I know you said you didn't want the herd spilt, but otherise you will always have that underlying worry that he is going to kick off at her and that will be the time she is seriously hurt. Would they be able to have grazing next to each other? Pants situation x
 
If you don't want to split them up then don't. You said that they were fine living altogether for quite some time. Horses get into squabbles but they usually sort it out . The other option would be to put Rusty in with Phantom and put the two mares in together.
 
Thanks, there's actually 3 mares alltogether, Saphy goes away at night so maybe I could put her with Rosie the shetland mare and Rusty by day, then the 2 big ones (phantom and cassie) could stay together. The 2 little ones would be easier to move around, thats what i'm thinking :) They don't bother her much, they love her actually.

Its just awful when they are kicking off, i've never seen a horse behave so violently towards another like he does :(
 
Kia likes to be the boss. He only has a little welshie filly to boss about at the mo but last year when he went to my friends stables he knocked hell out of her dad's standard bred gelding.

I felt bad but there was nothing I could do about it. I would separate them indefinately as a kick in the ribs is one thing but if it was the legs then that's not really worth contmplating!!!

Poor saphy!! :eek: Hope she is ok

Nikki xxxx
 
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