Is my horse showing aggression towards me, and why?

Question

I have 2 young appaloosas, a 3 year old gelding and 1 1/2 year old mare. I was recently outside brushing them in the pasture with the others and everything was fine. About 5 minutes later, my young mare started butting me with her head, her ears went straight back, and she literally chased me out of the field. I didn't make any startling movements, and all of the other horses were farther away from us. This has never happened before, and after watching her with the others, I realized that she was biting my other horse on his neck over and over, and chewing on the wooden fence some. I need to know why she was acting normal and then went crazy for no reason. Is it something I did? Why is she acting this way? I am a little scared to handle her now.

Answer 1

First of all she's young she's going to act up. Yearlings are known for bossy and bold behavior, i've known plenty to try and trample me when i'm walking through the field, carry a stick. You don't necessarilly have to be rough just firm. Best not to put up with it.

Answer 2

she is trying to establish a pecking order and doing something that is natural to horses by challenging the lead mares for the right to be leader of the herd.sounds like she needs to be knocked back a few notches in the herd.

Answer 3

OK, she's a year and a half right now, so this is still workable. You need to show this girl who's boss and you need to do it now!!!

Don't let her get away with a single thing as far as with you. If she is in your space get her out, if she is in your way make HER move. Don't be affraid of her, no matter how aggresive she is acting.

Right now she is testing you out, if she is succesfull your in trouble. Once you have allowed her to gain dominence over you you'll find it VERY hard to regain to spot!!!

Good luck!

Answer 4

She seems to be a little dominant, try to spend more time with her. And if grooming is getting difficult then tye her up and groom.

Answer 5

Appytude+boss mare. You need to show her whos in charge before she really gets out of line.

Answer 6

i have a mare same way same age carry around a crop and act as if it were part of your body then if she shows aggression and tries to chase you chase her back and use the crop as self defence if she fights back

Answer 7

You need to establish some respect from her.  You can do this with out beating on her.  I have seen some of the natural horsemen trainers and the one I like the best is clinton anderson.  He is easy to understand and really cut and dry, no fluff.  If you can, get one of his round penning tapes.  You don't need a round pen, just a smaller area to work in.  I would start doing some kind of training with her to get her respect soon.   If you are out there and she starts biting on you again, wave your hands in her face or bring a dressage type whip with a couple of bags tied to it with the bottoms cut out and wave it in her face.  Rule number 1, always be safe.  She will only get more dis-respectful and nasty unless you start teaching her respect.

Answer 8

Yes the horse is showing dominance. A dominant horse moves the other horses around. That is why she is chasing you out of the field. She really isn't interested in getting you out of the field, she is just making you move off the way she would make a lesser horse move off by say chasing him away from the hay stack.

One of the first things we need to teach our horses is never to invade our space. Second, never let a horse dominate you by chasing out of the field. So you need to turn this around. To turn this negative into a positive, you need to start moving her around instead of letting her move you around.

Step one you need to take is never go out in the field without a tool you can use to give yourself more confidence. This can be a lead rope, a whip, or a carrot stick. If a horse comes at you, take the end of the lead rope and whip it around like a helicopter blade. Don't be afraid to smack the nose of an aggressive horse with the end of your lead rope. This can be really helpful. I know I used to be intimidated by aggressive horses, and being able to swing a lead rope or whip in the air was really helpful in giving me the confidence I needed to keep a horse from chasing me out of a field.

Something else you can use is kick dirt at the aggressive horse and make a hissing sound like a snake as you do it. When an aggressive horse comes at you or won't move off, assume a confident stance with your body language. Then look down at the ground toward your right foot, and kick some dirt toward the horse. While you are doing this make the "ssss" sound (think snake). This is pretty effective at getting horses to move off. I may post a video on You Tube showing how to do this properly.  You can also stick your arms up in the air to make yourself look bigger when doing this. I do this all the time when aggressive horses come at me.

Step two is to start doing some groundwork with this horse to let the horse know YOU are in charge and the mare IS NOT. To do this, you need to start using your body language to communicate to the mare in horse language, which means body language, that you are in charge. Can you catch this mare? If so catch her and put a lead rope on and perform these simple leading exercises:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMh0hyaqN...

If you cannot catch her, consider getting this video:

http://www.nmhorse.com/Catching-Your-Hor...

The idea of this exercise is to catch your horse using body language that communicates leadership rather than trying to bribe the horse.

Next, every day start planning a half our groundwork session that begins with the hook-on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmu0pu4I-...

Now, a great way to deal with dominant horses is give them more than their share of backup exercises. Horses do not like to back up because of instinct. They are prey animals, and even though they are domesticated and live in more or less safe environments, their instincts have them on the look out for lions and tigers all the time. So walking backwards where they can't see makes them uncomfortable as a general rule. But the alpha mare can certainly ask them to backup. So assume the role of alpha mare and put a lead rope on  your horse and ask her to backup. If she doesn't listen shake the rope aggressively. Spend 20 minutes a day doing this until her behavior improves. Its easy for you do do and produces results.

Also, take some time out to do other exercises that just involve moving the horse around. Remember as I said the dominant horse gets other horses to move off. So you do that to your mare. Make her move her forehand left, then right. Then ask her to disengage her hindquarters. Then repeat. This is all tedious, but it will get your horse to respect you so that she will not chase you out of the field. A horse that chases you around like that does NOT respect you. And would you want to ride that horse? Probably not a safe idea.

David

http://gentlenaturalhorseman.blogspot.co...

Answer 9

She is showing dominance, literally pushing you away from the gelding. Don't let her get away with this. You need to establish that you are the boss and she needs a firm hand, I don't mean abuse though. I don't believe in hitting your horse. Maybe you could consult a trainer or read some books. I had a similar problem with one of my mares and she has turned out great. Every horse is different so you need to figure out what will work with her.Also, appaloosas definitely have spirit and attitude!

Answer 10

To put it nicely put the horse in a stall away from the other horses so it can't see them. She is looking at you as another horse and she is putting you in her picking order..

Answer 11

You can't show her fear. You need to show you are dominate. You need to approach her with your head up, confident and an in charge attitude. If she does this again, face her. Throw your arms up and yell. Act aggressive. You are the predator. She will back off. When she does put your arms down and resume your confident approach. If you show fear she will know it.