My horse is crazy and tries to attack other horses?

Question

I have a 20 year old Thoroughbred gelding who used to be an amazing show jumper (almost made it to the olympics!) Well when I'm riding him and a horse gets within 5 feet of him his ears get pinned and he backs up. If the horse doesn't get the idea then he sometimes kicks. He's charged at my friends 13 hand pony (he's a 17 hand bully!), he's bitten horses, everything in the book. He attacks all horses who live near him besides this one pretty flea-bitten grey horse. I don't know what to do. Any tips?

Answer 1

sounds like a horse at my stable named penny. yank him away.

Answer 2

If he is doing this while you are riding, the problem is not the horse, it is you.  You simply are not a quick, nor experienced enough rider to deal with this.  You need some professional help.

Answer 3

He isn't crazy and he is not attacking his pasture mate for "no reason". He is just a dominant horse. But what needs to happen is you need to take leadership of this situation. What I mean is you need to convince your horse that you are his leader so that he isn't playing alpha stallion when you're out riding him. I have written lots of articles about this on my blog and have some videos on exercises to do with horses to establish leadership.

David

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

Answer 4

He's not crazy. He's territorial and is showing the others that he's boss and he's the head of the herd. Nothing wrong, I ride this 13hh pony called Little Ted aka. Bear and he actually backed into 17hh shires, and anything else which is bigger than him, cos he wants to think he's bigger and he's the boss. It's natural for a horse to do that.

Charlotte x

Answer 5

He's not crasy - he either is highly dominant, highly submissive or has not been socialized properly.

Quite often horses in such disciplines as jumping and "big l**k" walkers are not allowed to act as normal horses - they are kept in a stall 24/7 and only allowed out for training, controlled exercise and sometimes individual turnout for short times.  People sometimes are of a mind that turning them out together will result in injury - which may be true.

If he's highly dominant, he'll want to be out in the front of the pack and other horses will not be accepted due to the challenge they represent to his leadership - in the wild, he'd be a herd stallion.

If he's highly submissing, he'll be worried about more dominant horses coming up and being mean to him.

If he's unsocialized, he's just afraid of another horse being too close for any numbers of a dozen different reasons mainly due to him not being experienced with interacting with others and being at such an advanced age it's likely it would be tough to get him to accept it.

Here's what I suggest - in a controlled area like and indoor arena and while under control of an experienced rider (because I don't know your level of ability), ride him at the walk around the perimeter of the arena or controlled area. have someone else well in control of their horse ride about as well passing you at a distance you find to be safe for him.  Slowly decrease this difference when he accepts the other horse passing him as if he's ignoring it.  Do not correct him when he is bad - keep him moving and "working" - when he's accepted the other rider and kept his ears up and done nothing bad, allow him to stop for a moment and relaxed right away.  This is his reward to reinforce the positive behaviour.  Horses don't usually understand reprimands from humans unless they are made in the form another horse would make them which is impossible from atop them.  Therefore, you must reward the right thing.  Get to the point where the other rider can ride next to you and even carry on a discussion and your horse seems uncaring.

Later, when he's not a danger to that other horse - he doesn't lunge at it or try to kill it - you can practice this out on the trails pretty much the same way - asking another competent rider to go ahead, stay behind, come from one side or the other until your horse allows it.  Again, do not reprimand what's wrong, reinforce what's right.

If he's with other horses for turnout, watch what he does - does he chase everyone around?  If so, he's very dominant - they'll usually look to gobble up everyone else's food.  You won't change this - he may even be the equivalent of a kid that's just plain a bully - it doesn't change much, but you can teach him to control his actions with positive reinforcement.

It's not a situation that can't be fixed - it will just take time, focus and understanding.

Answer 6

many tb's are what i like to call "must be kings"

they must be king of the herd and they are going to let everyone else konw it

the horse could also be protecting you or antoher horse

Answer 7

sometimes to others a lot of the times he is just grumpy when he pins his ears back at  another horse just tell that person to move because you think your horse is about to kick or bite his/her horse and pull him away from the other horse until he fells safe around other  horses and sometimes try talking to your horse i do it to help them know not to be mean and that every time he cant be the leader of everything

Answer 8

I owned a very dominant mare once, and have met other highly dominant types along the way.  It is one thing to deal with this behavior when it is occurring in a herd situation.  It is entirely another when it is occurring while you are handling the horse. I would never allow a horse to act this way under any circumstance.

This is dangerous and absolutely unacceptable behavior, and you have no business exposing others to it, anymore than you would take an out-of-control vicious dog out for a walk in a public park.

When he is turned out, separate him from the other horses for their safety.

Do not ride this horse in groups...he is out of control, and you have been unable to handle it on your own.  You need to work with a trainer experienced in dealing with this level of dominance before you expose anyone or their horses to him again.  You've been lucky so far that he hasn't broken any bones or worse with this vicious behavior.

Please take this seriously.

Answer 9

Your horse may be over territorial, or may see other animals as a threat to you and is trying to protect you.