Horse Behaviour Info

Horse Behaviour Information

Hendra Pony Club is a shared paddock between horse Agisters. Agisters are reminded that horses are unpredictable.

The committee will not tolerate or weigh in on personal grievances or petty squabbles between Agisters who try to use horse behaviours as an excuse to have a dig or pick on someone. This will be considered more like bullying, which is also not tolerated.

Dominant Horse:

Horses have a pecking order of dominance in a herd. The lead horse can be called an alpha horse (boss horse). An alpha horse can boss other horses around, especially at feed time. To avoid a confrontation at feed time, put your horse in the yard first then prepare your feed.

As people may feed other people’s horses in times of holidays etc, the horses think any feed going into yards is theirs and this creates confusion for the horse. This is why multiple horses will come at feed time expecting they will be fed by whomever. Horses like routine and when other horses get feed and they don’t get feed they get upset and can get aggressive. At feed time, keep to a routine ensuring your horse is in the yard first to help keep the horse disciplined. Even a fat horse requires placing in a yard and given a token, light feed. (A horse is mostly fat from little or no exercise and too much feed).

You can also put the alpha horse in a feed yard prior to feeding or riding to eliminate any confrontation around feed time or when riding on the grounds.

Geldings:

To geld a male horse means to surgically remove its testicles, making it unable to have babies. A vet performs this procedure surgically when the horse is young - between 6 12 months is most common. These horses are called geldings. Some male horse are not gelded until they are a few years older, and once they reach the age of 4 years they are called a stallion. Sometimes stallions are bred with mares to make foals. Stallions can be very territorial and in the wild they fight to win mares with which to breed. They may also steal mares from other stallions through fierce battles and then herd the mare away. When the gelding jumps on a mare it is called “Mounting”.

When stallions get gelded after they have made foals with mares they lose the urge to mate anymore but they don’t forget. When mares come into season they still remember and if they are cut late (after 12 months) they may think they are a stallion again and try to jump on top of a mare when she is in season. You can call these geldings “proud cut “as they look stallion like eg: thick joules solid build.

If a gelding is gelded properly and early as preferred they should not get any urges to mount.

Mares in Season:

It is natural for mares to come into season a few times a year. They can also come on when introduced to a new gelding. Some mares can get a higher level of oestrogen in which can make them Bully (Bossy). There are needles to give them to stop them coming into season but this can also make them sterile and unable to have foals in the future so many do not take up this option. The mare in season often hangs around a proud cut horse and urinates a lot as this stimulates the boy. It can last from 4 days to weeks depending on the mare and this can occur mostly around Mar/Apr or Oct/Nov. Every situation is different.

Proposal for Issues:

Aggression at feed time:

Lock the aggressive horse up prior to feeding your horse.
Put your horse in feed yard before you bring your horse feed out of shed.

Aggression on grounds when riding:

Lock the aggressive horse up prior to riding or ride in an arena.

Mare in season and gelding is mounting:

Mare is to be separated from the herd until she is no longer in season

These are the only times touching another person's horse/s is allowed - to lock a horse up if it is creating an issue. The horse must be released upon completion of your task/activity.