behaviour question

E

ericandern

New Member
May 27, 2005
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Hi, I wonder if anyone has any ideas why my new mare is behaving like this - she is 4 and a half and shares a field with an elderly gelding. At first she squealed a lot whenever he tried to get near her and basically wouldn't have anything to do with him but I just put this down to first days, new surroundings etc. Over the last two weeks I have noticed that she is increasingly horrid to him - laid back ears, chasing him away, biting his rump but I have just put this down to her asserting herself as leader and it only seems to be when there is hay around (always 3 piles). She is like this with the farm dog too. He only has to come in the field with me and she will gallop up from the far end, ears back to chase him away. She is absolutely fine with people, very friendly and shows no worrying signs such as kicking or biting - in fact she is very easy. However today the gelding's owner went to catch him and my mare galloped all the way down the field and chased the horse away from the owner, ears back and biting him and then turned on him and double barrelled him in the flank!!! I am worried about this behaviour from the other owner's safety point of view and also that the gelding is old and not particularly well at the moment. He has gone off his food and I am worried that she may be bullying him. He is in a stable at night whilst she is left outside. I have decided that the immediate short term answer for the moment is to half the field but I would be grateful if anyone has any ideas as to why she is behaving like this. I thought it may be a leadership thing and that she seems to be seeing people as part of her herd but not the dog. She seems to be 'me,me,me' around people.

In fact, she lunged at him so violently the other day when she was having her feed and he was actually no where near her and wouldn't have come near her anyway, that she slipped on the hardstanding and cut her fetlock.

Any feedback gratefully received!
 
We have a mare like this, ok with other mares and people, protective about food and loves geldings when in season but just not safe to turnout with geldings when not in season. Try finding another bossy mare to turn her out with or seperate them for the geldings sake.
 
thank you for that, eml, I will be separating her tomorrow and if the gelding's owner decides, I may have to leave anyway.
 
We had mares like this at one of my yards-very 'herd' and protective. They would do the wagon circle thing when I went to catch in my mare and it took 3 of us to catch in one submissive mare and get the others away from them. Does the mare come to call? We had to call the others and put headcollars on them while someone else caught in her own.
 
Some horses just wont tolerate eachother.
Id seperate them, half the feild with some leccy fencing.Sounds like somebody could end up hurt soon.
My gelding used to be like that when i first took him on, but he was just frightened and starving, once he learned to trust me and wasnt so skinny anymore he settled down.
Is it possible to turn her out with an older, more dominant horse to teach her some manners?
x
 
Hi cinnamontoast, no she won't come to call yet although she usually comes up to the stables when she sees me arrive - the gelding always follows but won't come too close, he just stands and watches. Also, I am on a farm with only the gelding so there are no others to turn out with. I agree Aimee, she would benefit from an older bossier mare but I am new in the area (not far from you actually! - Callington) and I don't know many places yet. I don't want to stable, she has to live out and this place has the benefit of being within walking distance. She came from a herd where there were a few more dominant mares over her and she was quite high up in the herd herself - I think there were only a couple of younger mares and colts below her.
 
The 'keep mares and geldings separate' is something I heard a lot of when I was on my old farm. The general way of thought seemed to be that the mares and geldings would argue and that a horse would be more likely to get hurt. My mare at the time was very introverted - she tended to hang around on her own and was also prone to kicking when we were out riding and other horses got too close. Then, about a year and a half ago, we moved to another farm where the grazing was mixed. The herd was about 12 strong when I moved on and the horses had the run of the whole hillside. I'd say they were about 4 mares, two of them very dominant, to the rest geldings. I have never known a happier bunch of horses! My mare settled in straight away and took to running around with another arab, who was a lovely handsome chesnut gelding. The herd changed quite a lot over the year I was there - when my mare went to her loan home, there were only 5 of them, sharing the fields (three mares and two geldings) but they got on very well and there were never any arguments. During our time there, she also became far less likely to kick and stopped hanging around on her own - when her boyfriend moved off, she took up with another gelding! I think mixed herds work very well, as you get a good variety of horses who'll sort themselves out a herd order and settle to it. But, as there are only two horses in this situation I doubt it will sort itself out. I think you're doing the right thing by separating them :).
 
One of my mares is not happy to be out with geldings - she is lead mare and will be very stroppy with a gelding - unless she's in season, it's just safer to keep them seperated. Some mares are just 'like that'
 
STEFF79 said:
Might be just me but I wouldn't turn out mares with geldings..
Click to expand...

Depends on the horses.

We have a mare, a gelding and a stallion turned out together and no problems at all.

In this case however I'd be inclined to separate mare and gelding. Some horses just don't get on, for whatever reason.
 
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