My horse's stablemate is terrified and aggressive towards me and my horse while I'm riding…?
Sometimes I ride my horse in her paddock, especially because I’m practicing opening and closing gates from horseback. However, my horse’s stable/field mate doesn’t seem to understand that me on my horse is still my horse. They are very attached and he gets nervous while I ride her. Today, I entered the paddock on my horse and her stablemate came over to say hi. They touched noses and he started grooming her. Then, he reach up to touch me. I had been talking to him the whole time from her back, so he knew I was there. He smelled my hand, I gave him a quick pat and said hello to him. About 20 second after I pet him, he turned around and kicked my horse! Then he kept chasing her (with me still on) and was threatening her with his hooves again. Does anyone know why he is behaving like this? Or has anyone seen this before? What do you suggest I do about it? Is there a way for me to work on it with him? Thanks for your help!
3 Comments on “My horse's stablemate is terrified and aggressive towards me and my horse while I'm riding…?”
Don’t ride in a pasture where there are horses loose at, that is dangerous. You need to either remove the pasture mates (put them in the stall or a round pen) or not ride there.
Tie him or put him in his stall while you ride in that field. There is no reason to deal with someone else’s aggressive horse if you don’t have to.
Just establishing dominance. It’s what horse’s do. Try to keep your horse away from him. Don’t carry a whip or anything to scare the other horse off…it won’t work. The horse will just kick back.
A few weeks ago I was turning this horse out in the paddock and this other horse beats up on him (I’ve suggested we move the horse but no one listens – ugh) and so the horse tried to bite him, he kicked back then the other horse kicked back and missed him and so I swished the lead rope at him trying to get him to stop but he kicked back and almost hit me in the face so I learned my lesson real quick! LOL