>> Has anyone had any luck making horses stop
kicking pasture mates? I have a 5 year old, very dominant mare, pastured with a
very submissive gelding. They have plenty of room to roam and are the only
company that each has. My mare kicks the crap out of this gelding, he never
fights back, or even pins his ears. Her bad pasture behavior is spilling over
into riding in spite of discipline her for it. Any suggestions aside from
permanent separation? <<
No, to my knowledge there is no solution to this if
they cannot come to an arrangement themselves. I am assuming that it isn't
because you are only putting out one pile of food (or anything else that both of
them want/need) and you mare is unwilling to share.
Nor do you mention whether there are other horses
in the group (and if so, what their behaviour with each other is), so I am
assuming that there are no others. If there are other horses, it is
POSSIBLE, that one thing you might try is to take all of the other horses out so
there is just the two of them, and your mare may decide that your gelding is
better than nothing.
And I am assuming that this has been going on for
more than about a month. If it has been less than that, you have to decide
for yourself if you are willing to take the chances (they are substantial, not
only do you risk serious injury to your gelding, you are also allowing your mare
to establish a VERY unsavoury habbit that, by your own admission, is spilling
over to her under saddle work) associated with hoping that they will eventually
"work it out."
The problem is not that your gelding doesn't fight
back (if he fought back that would probably cause bigger problems), the problem
is that your gelding is not learning to stay away....and if there is just the
two of them, it may be because he figures that getting the crap kicked out of
his better than having no friends. Unless, of course, he is trying to stay
away from her, and she is actively pursuing him in order to kick the crap out of
him and he just isn't quick enough to escape before she gets her licks
in.
If this is the case, however, that is even more
reason for separating them.
You could try stabling them next to each other for
AT LEAST months, to see if they can come to an arrangement with a fence between
them.
However, it is likely that even if they do "come to
an arrangement" that neither of them will be particulary happy with the
situation. And if they do come to an arrangement together it will be
because both of them have learned a lesson that _I_ wouldn't want to teach any
of my horses. Your mare would have learned that the way to deal with an
irritant and/or to get her own way is to kick the crap out of it (not a lesson
that I want any of MY horses to learn); and your gelding would have learned to
give up because he can't succeed no matter how hard he tries (not a lesson that
I want any of MY horses to learn).
