21 year old gelding trys to kill newborn foals??

Question

We have a breeding farm with 8 broodmares which are bred to our stallion. The stud has a seperate paddock so that he wont fuss with the 3 geldings that run with our mares. The stallion has sired 2 foals which have not been bothered by our geldings but we recently allowed a lady to pay rent for her gelding to run with the mares as well. The third foal was born and I went out to check the mare and found the new gelding charging after the newborn and biting at her and trying to kick her. I ran out and got the filly before he could hurt her (and penned them away from the others) but I am worried about the next mares foal due in a few days now. How do we handle this???

Answer 1

Take the gelding that is a new resident and put him in either a seperate pasture or in a stable, he probably isnt used to being around other horses and can be a danger to the other broodmares and foals. Please seperate them before he kills a baby. If he shows any aggression, call his owner and come to agreements of what should happen. Good luck!

Answer 2

Seperate the geldings and the broodmares.

Answer 3

That lady needs to find a different place for her horse and that is taking a risk for your horses,,, if her horse was to kill the baby then that puts a lyability on the lady who owns the gelding,, you could sue her and she would have no right to win,, that gelding could be doing it because its a new horse in the group,, take the gelding out

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Answer 4

I agree with Jeff!! If they were mine, I would have them all separate!! Mares with  foals, then gelds & then stud all by themselves!!

Answer 5

ive had this happen to me b4 too, the new gelding is jealous of the baby and also doesnt want him to be on a higher level than him. what i did was i kept my ( in my case it was a mare) mare away from the others but in a pen right next to the others. they only do that to show whos boss, he would stop after he got done showing him that, but the foal is too small to stand up for himself. im suprised that the mother isnt protecting him though....

Answer 6

It could be that he just doesn't like foals or that he is being territorial and just feels like the foal is invading his area. You could try just keeping that foal with the mare and gelding in a separate area keeping an eye on them of course and just let them socialize.  Other than that there isn't a whole lot that you could do besides ask that lady to leave with her horse.

Answer 7

The best thing to do is move the gelding out of the field and explain to the owner what has been happening. good luck

Answer 8

I've got one gelding who HATES babies of any species!  Fortunately his best buddy gelding LOVES nearly everyone and will step in the middle of the other gelding if he tries to hurt a baby.  

NO, I've NEVER let my geldings run with my mares and foals.  I had a filly (6mo old) who got UNDER the pasture fencing once and my loveable gelding had to intercept the other gelding as he was in the process of trying to kill the filly.

She's 3 now and he has finally accepted her and leaves her alone.

Answer 9

Remove the gelding from the herd before he succeeds. He'll keep trying.

Answer 10

Jeff is absolutely right. Boys will kill babies that aren't theirs. It's very complicated I know, but it has to do with the wild and resources and such.

Seperate them ASAP.

Answer 11

Simple, pen the gelding separate during foaling season or send him home...it's that simple.

Answer 12

tell the lady you can not board her horse. ur horse should come first

Answer 13

Mares are supposed to be separated during foaling for this reason.  Sometimes other mares will do this too.  Another thing that can happen is that the other horses can interfere with the imprinting process and the mare will not accept the foal thereafter.  

Simply put, separate the mare for foaling and get the gelding out of the pasture with the young foals.  Some geldings can never be trusted around foals even at the two and three month stage.

Oh and the gelding was not showing the foal who was boss.  It is instinctive stallion behavior to kill all foals not sired by them.  Thus the gelding moved in on the herd of mares, considered the mares 'his new herd', so now instinct is taking over and he will try to kill all the new foals.  This reserves more resources for his offspring (and yes I know he can't have any but nature doesn't).