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Re: Stallion Behavior



Jim wrote:

>When would you get a "nose to nose" encounter other than in a water trough
or creek?  Hopefully everyone is going the same way! :)<

My understanding of a nose-to-nose encounter is when two horses are doing
exactly that : standing nose-to-nose.  Unlike Sandy, my experience is that
this is exactly what strange horses do when they meet for the first time,
stand nose-to-nose, necks arched, blowing softly.  You'll get the odd squeal
and foot stamped, but that's it, provided the horse isn't aggressive.

It may be that this is not usual for horses kept in more natural
surroundings, but the horses I have dealt with are mainly OTT TBs who are
stabled at night and kept in paddocks, usually singly, during the day.
Maybe they just don't know better.....

>What I meant was I expect my horse to stand or slow down and let another
horse trot by without kicking, biting, or any other form of aggression.<

God, wouldn't that be great.  I have one who will do that.  I have another
who would rather kill than have a horse go past him.  So far, all I've
managed to convince him to do is to keep his protests to a simple ears back
/ tail swishing / neck twisting  kinda swearing thing.  He *really* wants to
kick and bite, but knows it's unacceptable.  Any ideas how I can get him to
accept that this is a normal part of riding routine?  Warm-up arenas are a
nightmare, and I'm dreading our first trail ride, for this reason.  I've
tried boxing him in, having horses overtake him.  He even played PC for a
bit (which usually cures them of this) but he's still convinced he's cock of
the hoop on trail.  I took him on a trail ride two weeks ago with a friend's
stallion, and blow me down if he didn't try to bite the stallion when it was
next to him.

>I expect him to allow another horse that he has never seen to trot right on
his butt without kicking. I would prefer a respectable distance, but
somtimes that isn't possible in the excitement of a start on a crowded
trail.

I generally don't have to worry about achieving a respectable distance.
Most people only trot on Toc's butt once <eg>  The red ribbon is there, if
they ignore it, that's there indaba.

>I expect him to stand quietly and drink at a creek or water trough in a
group without biting or annoying other horses.>

Again, how do you *teach* this.  I got home yesterday to find that Toc had
spent the entire afternoon running btw the two hay nets to prevent PG (on
the other side of the paddock fence, to save his hide) from having any.

I'm not being facetious in asking for assistance, but I've started to think
I have a losing battle on my hands here.  When I'm on him, all I have to do
is growl at him and he's okay, but I really worry about when I'm not around.
He's booted a couple of horses whilst he's been standing at the trailer at
shows (okay, so they ignored the red ribbon and came too close, but PG
doesn't behave like that!)

I'm off to a XC show this Saturday.  Mark is apparently taking bets as to
how many ponies Toc "takes out" in the warm-up arena.  This is *not* the
rep. I want this horse to have!  I've also organised a trail ride with eight
friends in August : there will probably be two stallions, a couple of mares,
some geldings and The Monster.  I'm already afraid....very afraid.....maybe
I need to top up my PL insurance.



Tracey




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