Mare acting protective of other mare

[the_sandiest_shoes]

My horse is on rehab, mostly stall rest. It’s making her grouchy. Most noticeably, she’s been attacking horses in the neighboring stalls (not hurting them, there are bars in between). The stalls have small 12 x 12 paddocks in the back where they can be right next to the horses with electric fence between. The attacks only seem to happen inside the stall part though.

Didn’t notice this before the rehab. Most noticeable part is that she is bonded with her one stall neighbor (another mare) and no matter what horse we put on other side (mare or gelding), she is acting intermittently aggressive at them. The current other neighbor is a very sweet mare who instantly seemed to like my horse - nickers for her when we walk by/when she comes back. Regardless, my little princess has been running up to her with teeth bared, doing small bucks/rears/kicks. Nothing too bad, no actual wall kicks, just small air kicks and lots of posturing. Since my horse is on rehab I don’t like her hopping around angrily on her sore foot!

My trainer says it looks like she’s being “protective” of her friend mare. Has anyone seen this before? I’m going to check her hormones. I don’t want to necessarily move her, because she seems nasty to everyone except her bestie and I don’t want her attacking both neighbors. But maybe she’s too herd-bound? There aren’t unlimited stall moving options either. Any suggestions or insight? I do think she’s extra grouchy because she can’t be turned out or in work right now :(.

[4horses]

One of my mares was like that when I brought a gelding on the property for training. She would herd the others away and place herself between the others and the new horse. She would run up to the gate and double barrel it with both back legs. The new horse was a bit neurotic and she just hated him. She’s never acted like that towards others.

My new gelding is boss over her and they both did kicks in the air when first introduced and then she yielded and left her pile of hay. They never even touched each other. Just a “look how high I can kick” routine and it was sorted.

Stalling tends to mess things up. My old mare makes faces at the boss gelding even though he is clearly boss. She does it at a distance so he can’t reach her. If you turn them out together, she immediately yields to him. She makes all sorts of faces and kicks the air, or sometimes the stall wall. It’s all an act. I always say she is bluffing and seeing who will fall for it. She will kick at other horses from ten feet away, never making contact, just to see if they will yield to her. It works, until someone else kicks her and calls her bluff. She has always been like that. And it has gotten her kicked more than once.

[the_sandiest_shoes]

@4horses yeah it definitely seems like it’s bluffing or something, she doesn’t even make contact with the wall when she kicks (she easily could). And she doesn’t do it on the outside part when the horses are within reach over the fence. She doesn’t physically bite or kick when she easily could, in other words.

I’m hoping maybe she just needs to get it out of her system with the new neighbor and it might get sorted out after a while? She seems better with mares than geldings generally. With this current mare neighbor, she’s at least jumping around LESS. She reared so high with one of the geldings they tried that it lasted only five minutes before my trainer was like “nope, not this one”.

[Simkie]

My old lady mare ABSOLUTELY gets protective of her favorite friend. I don’t know why, but I put her on chaste tree berry last spring and it helped quite a lot. It’s a spring/summer/fall thing for her, so very likely hormonal. I started the chaste tree berry up again about a month ago, and hopefully it does as good a job this year. I use the liquid from Gateway…it’s not expensive and smells like cherry snow cone syrup–no problems getting her to eat it!

[the_sandiest_shoes]

@Simkie

My old lady mare ABSOLUTELY gets protective of her favorite friend. I don’t know why, but I put her on chaste tree berry last spring and it helped quite a lot. It’s a spring/summer/fall thing for her, so very likely hormonal. I started the chaste tree berry up again about a month ago, and hopefully it does as good a job this year. I use the liquid from Gateway…it’s not expensive and smells like cherry snow cone syrup–no problems getting her to eat it!

thank you! That totally makes sense, timing-wise. I noticed she just went back into cycling recently. The mare she’s being protective around is definitely her best bud.