I have two horses. My older mare is 20 this year and I have owned her since she was a yearling. I bought a younger horse last year in November. I swear my older mare is jealous of the youngster. I rode the young mare out on a trail ride around the farm with my barn buddy and our dogs yesterday. When I was leading my two mares out to the pasture, the older mare threatened to kick the young mare. She never does this. This morning my barn buddy got to the barn a few minutes before me. We were loading up and going to an area park to ride with friends. She was trying to get her mare out of the pasture. My older mare was herding my young mare and friend’s mare away from my friend. Then she ran towards my friend and was snaking her head and acting like she was going to kick. My friend waited until I got to the barn. I went out and haltered my young mare and my older mare was blocking friend’s horse from coming to the gate. So my friend held young horse and I got the older horse haltered. I put the young horse in her stall and as soon as my older mare realized she was getting on the trailer her demeanor instantly changed. She was perfect the rest of the day. Has any one else noticed this type of behavior with their horses?
Absolutely. My old horse kept very close track of how much attention/ petting he got vs. how much my new guy got.
[QUOTE=Highflyer;7907000]
Absolutely. My old horse kept very close track of how much attention/ petting he got vs. how much my new guy got.[/QUOTE]
I will say that my old gelding, who I have not ridden in years (5? 6? 8??) and who was passed onto my younger sister when I outgrew him, is still very snide with me. He gets downright offended if I approach another horse in the paddock before him… And I can’t pet him anymore without huffiness!
Oh heck yes!! I only own one, but heaven forbid any other horse says hi to me (or even worse, I say hello to some other horse!) She’ll pin her ears, and even sometimes chase them off!! I never reward this action, and it’s slowly lessening…but omg yes do they ever get jealous! :lol:
whether it’s referred to as competing for or protecting resources or jealousy I think it’s the same thang, mustang…
The first time I rode my new horse (I was 11), my pony (previously my only horse from age 1) escaped out of his pasture behind the barn, trotted through adjoining cow pasture to abutting riding arena. He then turned around & pushed his rear against the rail of the riding ring and backed up until the fence started to lean.
after that, every time he (pony) saw me leading said horse past his pasture, he would walk to gate & show us his butt. This went on for years. He only did it to that horse and when I was leading. If my mom or dad walked by with horse, pony didn’t care.
Yes, I think they can get jealous. My TB will sometimes herd the cowpony away from me. One of the old guys will headbutt me when I’m grooming one of the others, and when I move to the other side this tends to happen.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154829567790038&l=9df7189402
I know he’s going to be even worse for the next few days because I trimmed his feet and groomed him tonight. At least he’s pretty polite about it!
If I walk into the pasture my Mare will immediately come up to me (if other horses are present) & goes into guardian mode. She refuses to let any other horse near me. She will make threats of pinned ears. If other horses get to close she bares her teeth & charges them or may decide to whip around with back legs kicking.
My old OTTB was pretty good about being caught in his paddock. But on some days he just wanted to be left alone (especially sunny warm days). If I tried to go for him he’d just walk/trot away keeping out of reach – could go on forever. Until I learned that all I had to do was approach another horse and he would come RUNNING over chasing the horse away. Never had to worry about him being difficult to catch again
I didn’t think the mare I had now was attached to me. I’ve only had her a few months and she has always seemed quite indifferent to me. Until last week a friend asked me to hand walk her horse who was on stall rest. My mare was turned out and was hanging with friends in the far corner of the paddock, she saw me come out of the barn with this horse and immediately trotted over to the fenceline as close as she could get to us and just stood head-up like a statue staring at us walking around the outdoor ring until we went back into the barn. She continued standing there until I went and gave her some scratches and affection. Once I left the paddock she returned to her friends. She did the same thing yesterday when I walked the horse again – even after the horse is back in his stall and I’m just tootling around the barn she’ll stand at the gate until I come give her attention and then she’ll return to her friends. Almost as if she’s double checking that she is still #1 on my priority list :rolleyes:
I too have a couple of horses who bite, lunge, kick at other horses I ride and only if I’m riding them when my daughter or another is riding ‘my’ horse…or should I say, when ‘their’ human (ie, me) is riding someone other than them. I have a gelding who chases off other horses if I come out to catch ‘someone’. My stallion bites or at least tries to bite my gelding if I’m riding the gelding and my daughter rides my stallion. I sold a gelding almost two years ago to a friend and that gelding still calls to me (I haul into take lessons at a barn where he’s boarded) and if I walk my horse past him when I’m done tacking up or done riding and heading out to load, he’ll lunge at them and try to bite…when anyone else can go by and he totally ignores them. I had acquired that horse when he was two, trained him to PSG and sold him to my friend after I earned my silver. He was coming 15 at the time. She too has just recently earned her silver on him and they have a very solid bond/partnership. I guess he considers us both ‘his’. So I don’t know whatever you choose to call it, I definitely have witnessed it.
I wish men were more like this
I think men ARE like this–I swear, they have only wanted me when I was committed to someone else!
Rebecca
My old Appaloosa was mightily displeased when I got a new horse (I really had to, as my wonderful old guy was too unsound to ride consistently, but no way to explain that to him.) He’d bang on his stall door when I had the other horse on the cross-ties, then pointedly turn his butt when I got to his stall. (Never did that before.) New Horse had a water phobia, so when he was supposed to follow Old Horse over a bridge, he’d stop, turn his head around, flatten his ears & glare at him.
For various reasons, they had to share a pasture. One night I saw Old Horse walking up to the farm pond to get a drink, with New Horse following. I thought, “Oh, good–that should help get him over his fear of water.” Then Old Horse skipped neatly out of the way so the goose who nested at the pond attacked New Horse instead–I swear he set that up! “Go in there, Mikey, & see what happens. Hah!”
They more or less got along, but Old Horse never really got over his jealousy.
my stallion (who is my current competition and general riding horse) absolutely hates when I pay attention to any other horse. He is turned out in a mixed herd with an extremely old retired broodie and other geldings and he will actually insert himself between me and any other horse that I may or may not be paying attention to. It isn’t about him thinking that they are his heard but all about I am his person. He came to me from a place where he didn’t really get much interaction with people, he wasn’t neglected, he looked like a million bucks when I got him but he was out in a field with him mare and only got handled at farrier/vet time. He really bonded strongly with me because I think he was just starved for attention. Now he doesn’t want to share me with anyone else and always pouts when I pull another horse in from the field and leave him.
I had a friend where I board whose gelding got very annoyed if anyone approached his person. She was HIS.
Old link.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-244225.html
I tend to see most of the situations described above about being about herd dynamics, boss mare/gelding. “stay away from my [human], as treats, feed and cookies are sure to follow”.
That’s just my opinion. I’m a skeptical scientist 
who feels like jealousy is a secondary emotion that requires a component of cognition that horses just don’t possess. But My Person = Cookie is pretty easy.
JMO
Having watched my gelding threaten to attack-fence got on the way- another gelding I stopped an spoke to, I could only agree. I was really quite surprised, as he’d never done anything like it before. And, never got a chance again.
Does the motivation behind the rude behavior really matter? It needs to be corrected regardless whether you feel flattered by it or not. They should not ever get a free pass when it comes to threatening to kick, crowding your space, etc.
My little grey mare exhibits the behavior. My gelding is always at the gate waiting for me and my mare right behind him. If I go in to clean the pasture gelding will follow me around begging for love. As soon as I start petting him here comes mare wanting in on the action (surely there are cookies he is getting and she is not!)
HH, I am with you. My mare got reprimanded for threatening to kick young mare. My mare is usually not like this so it totally scared my friend when she was acting up in the field. As soon as I went and got her, she was fine. My mare is normally very well behaved and is the steady eddy everyone wants to ride their green horses with. My mare is a TB and loves to work. She is totally disappointed if she doesn’t get to go when the trailer leaves. Makes it a little harder to get the young one worked with. Wish I had a 3 horse trailer. I would let someone ride either of my horses and ride the other one myself and friend could come with her horse too.
