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 Veteran
Posts: 158
 
| I purchased a colt and was told that he is an "aggressive eater". Fed him outside for the last week or so and he never once showed signs of being aggressive. A few days ago I grained him in his stall and Bam ears pinned, tail whipping, stomping, picking up hind leg threatening to kick etc, there was not another horse by him so it was clear it was directed at me, I got the heck out of there and was quite taken back. This colt is the first one to run up to you in the pasture, very sweet and gentle. I read up on insecure horses displaying signs of false aggression etc but was curious if anyone had any advice? I don't want to make excuses for him and I won't have a dangerous horse but as of now he seems to be just bluffing. I have walked in with his feed bucket and stood there the whole time he eats, he will let me take it away from him, touch him, move him around his stall etc but he continues to act ****y for lack of a better term. I am thinking it has more to do with feeling cornered in a stall because I can feed him literally anywhere other than his stall and he is perfectly normal. Just don't know where to go from here... |
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With God all things are possible
Posts: 3917
  
| Look online for aggressive horses when feeding Parelli has good suggestions as some others may help u.
Be safe! |
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 Brains Behind the Operation...
Posts: 4543
Location: Arizona | I bought a gelding at auction several years back who is very stall aggressive. First day at my house I walked in the stall to feed him & he pinned his ears & cocked a leg at me. I took his feed back out & got my buggy whip. Went back in, he tried the same stuff & I spanked his butt when he turned it towards me. Ran him to the farthest point in his pen from the manger & made him stay there until he would stand there calmly facing me without trying to push his way to the feeder or making ugly faces at me. Then I left the pen & let him eat. It took a few days of repetition, but basically I had to drill into his head that the hay is MINE until I say he can have it. It's been years now, & I still make him back off before I will put hay in his manger & he isn't allowed to have it unless he's respecting my space & looking at me pleasantly, lol. He's just the type that will take a mile if you give him an inch, & you have to always keep clear consistent boundaries.If they try to push you around at feeding time run them off, don't reward their nasty behavior by backing down & giving them their feed. Bluffers can turn into monsters with very little encouragement! |
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Brains Behind the Operation...
Posts: 4543
Location: Arizona | I felt I should add, I had rather large stalls... 16'x32', which makes it easier because you have somewhere to actually run them off to & can stay out of kicking range. If your stalls are closer quarters you will need to use more caution. You can still push him away from you/the manger, but you will probably have to use slower movements & very deliberate body language. |
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | Whinny19 - 2016-04-11 9:32 PM I bought a gelding at auction several years back who is very stall aggressive. First day at my house I walked in the stall to feed him & he pinned his ears & cocked a leg at me. I took his feed back out & got my buggy whip. Went back in, he tried the same stuff & I spanked his butt when he turned it towards me. Ran him to the farthest point in his pen from the manger & made him stay there until he would stand there calmly facing me without trying to push his way to the feeder or making ugly faces at me. Then I left the pen & let him eat. It took a few days of repetition, but basically I had to drill into his head that the hay is MINE until I say he can have it. It's been years now, & I still make him back off before I will put hay in his manger & he isn't allowed to have it unless he's respecting my space & looking at me pleasantly, lol. He's just the type that will take a mile if you give him an inch, & you have to always keep clear consistent boundaries.If they try to push you around at feeding time run them off, don't reward their nasty behavior by backing down & giving them their feed. Bluffers can turn into monsters with very little encouragement!
This ^^, we had a colt that was aggressive in stall and we had to let him know unacceptable... we didnt beat him but he was disciplined quickly once and backed away.. and promptly and we took control back til he learned respect.. it took maybe 2 weeks for him to realize it .. |
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Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | One more thing.. take care of it now and straight forward.. my guess is if hes sweet he will understand quickly .. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 634
| My mare wouldn't offer to kick or anything but she would pin her ears and bare her teeth at me when I walked into her stall to feed her. I did as described above in a 12X16 stall. Walk in with feed and whip, if she acted nasty I would pop her and send her away to let her know that she wasn't eating until she was nice. Took a couple of weeks but she got it. Every now and then she gets a little bratty and I will just shoo her away and make her stand there for a minute or two. Usually gets her attention. |
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Veteran
Posts: 158
| I have him in a 12x12 stall right now, My problem in the pasture is he shows no signs of aggression and is very respectful during feeding, I want to address it in the stall but don't feel like getting my head kicked in or stuck in a 12x12 if this colt loses his marbles, sounds like my best bet is to move him into the 12x24 foaling stall to give us a bit of room to get away from eachother? Thanks for the input and I agree bluffing can turn dangerous quickly, don't want to let it get to that point.. |
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Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | I would if possible and do you have a lunge whip or dressage whip that works best..this particular colt we put a halter on him with a chain and had the rope.. when we fed him and he went at us we yanked it and backed him way to corner and had whip in between us so he couldnt spin around and nail us. he came from another barn and was studdish and big boy at 2.. then we wouldnt halter him and just carried the whip in and if he acted like he was going to come at us we moved to him . yes it does get rather iffy...we were never abusive..maybe popped him just once at first and be prompt and confident. he learned to respect our space rather quickly.I think the backing fast and whip in your hand and making him respect your space works better then the actual popping them.. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1526
Location: Texas | Just feed him and don't worry about it, if he comes at you whack him with the feed bucket it will teach him you are the boss, if he starts kicking add kick chains, I don't worry with it unless it becomes a problem |
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Brains Behind the Operation...
Posts: 4543
Location: Arizona | I think moving him to the foaling stall is a good plan while you're working on this issue. The horse I spoke about in my post is not aggressive towards people in the pasture either, but put him in a stall & he gets very territorial. I had a mare motel style "barn" that I kept this horse in & he would also charge as fast & hard as he could at the fence towards any horse in the stall next to him. Finally had to put a hot wire up because he was ruining my panels by crashing into them. He got over the being aggressive towards people in the stall behavior pretty quickly, but never have been able to cure him of the aggression towards neighboring horses. He was 9YO when I got him though, so he'd probably been been doing it a good long while. Like Biblia said, if your colt is smart & kind he'll get what you're asking of him pretty fast, but it is best to nip this in the bud asap. One straight to the point swat if he is actually coming at you with teeth or feet, then the rest of the lesson is just body language, they same way you would push them away from you in a round pen. Stop pushing when he reaches farthest point from the feeder/bucket. Then just wait for him to stop & face you with a relaxed & soft expression. I look for a cocked/resting back leg & pricked ears focused on me. Then I leave them alone & let them eat in peace. |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| I've had 2.
Mare 1 : She was beat on by the people we got her from. Witnessed it personally, so not a rumor. She was defensive because she wanted to protect herself. We had OLD stalls with mangers in them. My mom would sit in the manger and pet her and love on her if she wanted to eat. Took a couple of months before you could go in without her pinning her ears and turning her rear towards you.
Gelding 2 : He just had a lousy attitude when we got him. I think he got used to pulling bluff with previous owners and knew they'd leave him alone if he got snarky. (Wife was timid, didn't have horses until married.) One day I went in to catch him in his stall and he spun and humped his butt towards me. For some reason I was prepared and took the end of the leadrope that had a plastic cap on it and gave him one good solid hit across his rump. He looked at me like "Son of gun!" and that was the end of that.
Sometimes they just need to be told NO. Other times, it takes a bit of work. You absolutely could not whack the mare...that's what she was afraid of, but an attitude problem in general might need one! |
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