Aggressive youngster

[EmilyF]

Help! My 2 year old filly is slowly become super aggressive to her pasture buddies - including her mom. She has decided that she is the top dog in the field and will run the others up and down the fenceline like a cattle horse. She will also charge, ears pinned from one side of their 1 acre paddock to chase horses the other side. She’s the sweetest horse around people though.

Today when she was double barrelling at her mom she was spraying pee at the same time. I’ve pulled her into a stall for fear of safety but that isn’t ideal long term. Could it just be hormones? Its been going on for several months, including the cold weather so I don’t think its just because of spring. Anyone had similar with their babies? All my other foals have been angels at this age.

[cnigh]

Separate them permanently. Put the filly out with a good older mare (not her mother). And ground work. I bet she isn’t so great in hand either. Don’t let her get away with any of it.

[EmilyF]

My only other paddock is fenced with electric and I don’t think she’ll respect it, so she’ll be stuck in a stall for the time being. None of my other horses are remotely dominant, they are all in one big herd and she bullies them all. She’ll herd them into the corners then spin and double barrel them.

Actually she’s pretty good on the ground. She will lead, load into a trailer, stand for bathing and I’ve introduced lunging. I’m very strict on ground manners so the bossiness hasn’t transferred over to people… yet…

[Kyzteke]

[QUOTE=EmilyF;8581888]
My only other paddock is fenced with electric and I don’t think she’ll respect it, [/QUOTE]

If your fence is truly hot she WILL respect it; IME horses respect electric more than anything else. Even my stallion would stay behind one strand of electric if it’s really hot.

Keeping her in a stall will just make her more crazy. I agree she needs to be taken down a peg or two.

How big is your current pasture? Because normally if they have enough space, the less dominant horses will get away from a bossy horse like this.

[MysticOakRanch]

Ugh, I had one of these at my place for a while (not one I bred) - super aggressive with the other youngsters (most were way bigger then her), and thought nothing of standing up to the adults too. She also went around kicking the fence - caused a lot of damage at my place. I finally had to kick her out.

She’s starting her training now (this was a few years ago), and she is fine when she likes the routine (so good with grooming, etc), but the minute she decides it is something she doesn’t want to do - she is a major fighter - strikes, kicks, rears, etc. It is the first time I had ever seen this kind of personality in a FOAL, but in her case, it carried over to training.

If you have to, send her off to board with some alpha mares! I am no expert, but she probably needs to have her clock cleaned regularly :no:

[MysticOakRanch]

[QUOTE=Kyzteke;8581900]
If your fence is truly hot she WILL respect it; IME horses respect electric more than anything else. Even my stallion would stay behind one strand of electric if it’s really hot.

.[/QUOTE]

I disagree - the horse I mentioned above went through 4 strands of HOT electric. My other horses run at just the sound of the “pop”. Some horses don’t have respect for electric - and they learn if you hit it hard and fast, a moment of shock, then you are good to go. Most respect it, but I"ve had a few over the years that were just not impressed.

[SuzieQNutter]

A good electric fence will stop 2 bulls from fighting. Get a tester and make sure your fence is working well and not grounding out somewhere that you can not see. Where they learn to run quickly through it. You need more than one wire, so as they can not run through it. Run other wire above and below so if they hit the fence they are knocked back on their side and can not plough through it.

Cattle will tell you if you fence is not 100% Believe me when I tell you that. SIGH!

I too think putting her in with an alpha mare would be the easiest thing for you. It may not be the safest and could be bad as well.

[Manni01]

I agree with everybody. Young horses are IMO like kids. In that age they start to test everything. I had some issues with my now 3 year old filly when she was close to two. She started to push her pasture buddies around and really tortured them. My solution was to put her in the pasture with my 2 broodmares and the foal. And it took them about 10 min to civilize her. Yes she did get some scratches, but she turned into a very obedient youngster which was a perfect nanny for the foal. In fact she was pushed around by the foal because now she was the lowest in the pecking order.
And this is really the most natural way to do it, because in the nature thats the way it works. The young mares are used by the old mares with foals to play with the foals. That way the moms get a break
I love this easy way because there are no humans involved. Its easy and very understandable for the youngster.

Maybe try to get an old and grumpy gelding as a boarder

[Kyzteke]

[QUOTE=MysticOakRanch;8581906]
I disagree - the horse I mentioned above went through 4 strands of HOT electric. My other horses run at just the sound of the “pop”. Some horses don’t have respect for electric - and they learn if you hit it hard and fast, a moment of shock, then you are good to go. Most respect it, but I"ve had a few over the years that were just not impressed.[/QUOTE]

I suppose there are afew exceptions to every rule…but I would estimate that 95% of horses will respect a truly hot fence.

So not really bad odds…

[EmilyF]

Given her lack of respect for real fencing and gates I really don’t think she will care about getting zapped - and my electric runs off the mains. I pulled her out of the herd a few weeks ago for a while and when I put her back she seemed a little more meek but she’s back with a vengeance again… sigh. I had hoped having her out with mom would keep her in check but suddenly my alpha momma has turned into the biggest wimp.

I think you’re right that its a testing the boundaries, age related problem. It does concern me how much she is in heat though, constantly. I guess its puberty for her!

[SuzieQNutter]

Yes our fence runs off the mains. That doesn’t mean it is working at its highest. That is what the tester is for.

An electric fence is a wonderful thing. It can also be working one second and not the next.

[JB]

[QUOTE=EmilyF;8582127]
Given her lack of respect for real fencing and gates I really don’t think she will care about getting zapped[/QUOTE]

Non-electric fences and gates don’t bite back. Really hot electric fences do ,and that might be just what she needs.

Make sure you test it first and that it really is HOT HOT, before putting her in it. I’m not normally an advocate for this, but in this case it might be worth “forcing” a situation where she’ll touch it when she’s in a quieter mood, rather than allowing adrenaline of a fight or flight situation to dull the perceived zap.

[octoberhill]

Look at hormones

http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/equine-ovarian-tumors

[vineyridge]

You can run a hot wire or wires about six inches in front of your regular fence to protect it.

[EmilyF]

Octoberhill, I think I’ll chat with my vet next week just to rule that out since she does herd and puff up like a stallion. Plus the peeing when kicking out is concerning. There was no mention in that article of age, is 2 young to develop ovarian problems?

[HyperionStudLLC]

My question is why the filly is still in the same field as her mother? Ideally you would wean baby and put her in a field with her counterparts. At our farm we typically like to have an older mare with the young fillies, or old gelding with the young colts to help with manners. This is not always possible with everyone as we understand. However, we never leave a foal to grow up in the same field with their mother.

Whatever your situation, it would be better to remove her from this situation. Place her with a group her own age and let her duke it out with them. Herd mentality and pecking order is essential for growth. She handles well with people, but her attitude in her current situation could potentially make more lifelong problems.

[HSS]

I have a mare that would cool this fillys jets in less than 30 seconds. She is the Borg Queen, I tell you. In with my incredibly aggressive gelding. Together they are just mellow yellow, looking at them you would never guess, BUT- he will ATTACK any other horse that comes near him, with no exceptions, and she is the absolute iron fisted ruler. He’s a loving doll with people, she’s a witch. Has been since she was born, but was tremendous under saddle. After 5 years of bronc riding that is…

PITA to have horses like this, unless they are needed. And this is what your filly needs. Does absolutely no good at all to have her separated, she needs a horse instructor to let her know absolutely she’s not top dog. You can’t be there 24/7, and you don’t carry the impact another mare does. She’ll just turn on you, and you are already 1/10 her size.

It’s nice to have horses out in age groups, but another way to have horses is by level of aggression- in older horses this is absolutely necessary. She’s a little young for this, but there are always exceptions.

I use electric fencing, and believe you me- I test it EVERY SINGLE MORNING, NO EXCEPTIONS. Mine powers at 4000V, and every horse eventually respects it, even my “testing” colt who occasionally still goes through it. A fence tester is a cheap easy deal, I leave it on the fence by the charger and test all the perimeter legs.

Find a bitch mare like mine, and solve your problem. She likely won’t get hurt, believe me, but she will learn or bleed. They learn.

Oh- I see you are in the bay area- I’m not that far away, and I have an open paddock. You can contact me if you want to “borrow” her services for your filly.

[gumtree]

[QUOTE=EmilyF;8583116]
Octoberhill, I think I’ll chat with my vet next week just to rule that out since she does herd and puff up like a stallion. Plus the peeing when kicking out is concerning. There was no mention in that article of age, is 2 young to develop ovarian problems?[/QUOTE]

In a lot of ways it sounds like she has been going in and out of season. I usually don’t comment on these things based on description. A “visual” is everything to me.

Do you know what to look for when a filly is in season? Do you have a gelding to try teasing her with?. Fillies can come into season and get pregnant as yearlings. There’s no reason to think they couldn’t develop ovarian issues at 2.

It maybe as simple as putting her on Regumate. Or as least trying it. The draw back is I find Regumate to be a bit of a PITA in my opinion.

[DownYonder]

A friend of mine put her filly bully in with a group of tough donkey and mule mares. They put her in her place pretty quick, but my friend left her with them all through spring, summer, and fall. When she brought her back in early winter, the filly was more docile, although still wanted to rule the roost. She ended up getting turned out with a chestnut mare who taught her a thing or two about respect. :lol:

[HSS]

[QUOTE=DownYonder;8585065]
She ended up getting turned out with a chestnut mare who taught her a thing or two about respect. :lol:[/QUOTE]

Ha ha ha! From Sea of Chestnuts Farm