Question: My miniature stallion will not accept new mare introduced to the herd of 12 mares. How long should I allow abuse to continue. The stallion will run this little mare away from his herd of mares. He not only chases her, he bites her face, and her tail. I realize that they he may be letting her know that he is the guy in charge, but there is injury to her face, butt, and tail to a pointof bleeding and infection.After this went on for 2 weeks, I separated the new mare from the herd, let herrun with the mares for three days, then let the stallion back into the herd. Itstarted all over again. Next, I separated her again but let two of the maresbond with her thinking that would help. Again, when she and her two mares shewas with entered back into the herd, the stallion started all over again. Hehas had other new mares introduced to him in the past (usually 2-3 at a time)and the adjustment did not take more than a few days, never with suchaggressive behavior as being displayed now. Help! It is possible that he seesthis little mare (very passive) as a threat to his herd? Should I justpermanently keep her away from this stallion?

Question: Hello, my five year old mustang mare shares a paddock with my sisters gelding quarter horse who is six. Earlier today i went outside to water the them, andthe gelding drank first and then the mare did and after she finished drinkingthe gelding stuck out his man part. The mare put her mouth in the water andstarted splashing around. I thought she was just playing around. But then shecurled up her lip. and splashed around some more. When the gelding sucked backin, she stopped. What was she doing?

Answer: The mare was most likely just playing in the water. It is common for a gelding to drop his penis partially while resting, so the behaviors are very unlikely to be related in any way.

Question: I have 4 horses in one pen and I have a problem with the 2 older ones my white Arab is mean to the other 3. She chases them and kicks them and when they are close enough, she bites.  I really don’t want her to live alone but I don’t want the others to get hurt. I wonder if it is because she was in a small pen with 11 other horses when I got her. I know she gets spooked easily on her right side because she has cataracts but she can be so mean to the point she runs them through a fence. The other one is a black Arab that was abused before I got her. She is aggressive toward people. She bites, kicks, and tries to run you down. I love her and don’t want to sell her but I have kids. Can you please help me?

Question: I have owned an Irish Draught x Thoroughbred for about 4 months.  He is 6 years old and apart from being broken had done nothing except hack out.  I am bringing him on slowly and he is doing well on the flat and over fences.  He sees to have developed an unusual habit in that when I lead in him from the field he walks alongside you with his neck twisted with his left eye facing skywards and his right eye facing the ground.  At first I thought he was frisking my pockets for treats but this is not the case!  He seems very happy in his work and that he is doing something - but what is this behaviour?

Question: Why does my young gelding sniff hay and then pee on it?

Answer: Your gelding is performing natural elimination marking behavior. While most commonly seen in stallions, geldings and some mares will exhibit a series of behaviors including sniffing and otherwise examining something, such as a pile of hay, a particular patch of grass, a pile of manure, or a patch where another horse urinated, assume a position over top the area of interest, and then urinate or defecate over top. Stallions are notorious for creating “stud piles” along fencelines or other areas demarcating their “territory”. 

Question: I read your article about “Introducing horses”.  I would just like to ask your advice.  I have a mare (12) and a gelding (24) who have been together for a year and a half now.  The gelding is used for lessons but being as old as he is, I needed to buy another school pony to take the workload off him.  I had leased another gelding a while ago but my gelding just would not accept the new
gelding.  He constantly went for the new horse.  I introduced them all slowly and in their own paddocks but when it came to putting them together, it was an absolute mess.  I had to give the new gelding back.  I have now bought a young mare for the school and already he is going for her over the fence!!  Please could you give me some advice.  I really don’t know what else to try.  I’m desperate to get them together as my 12 year old mare is leaving soon and I don’t want any horses to have to stand in separate paddocks.  I only have limited grazing so I need them to be in one paddock while the other two paddocks rest.
Thank you so much for your time.

Question:  My horse will not poop on the trail — yesterday we started tacking up at 10:00 a.m., road for 2 and 1/2 hours, stopped for lunch,where he did drink out of a river, road home and 2 and 1/2 hours — probably total 6 to 7 hours — absolutely no poop.  On the way home he seemed very anxious and wouldn’t listen well, and I can’t help but wonder if he was very uncomfortable.  As soon as we
got back and I tied him up to untack him, he went —

I have owned him for 9 years and I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve seen him let go on a trail ride.  But most of his rides are only 2 1/2 hours long…

Is there anything that you would recommend that when going on long rides that I can give him or do to help him defecate on the trail so he’s more comfortable.

Question: My friend’s horse went through some trauma entering a horse trailer. Now she bobs her head up and down when longeing her, when before, she would hold her head up high. Can you tell me what this means?

 Answer: Several things could have caused the change in this mare’s behavior. Two initial thoughts crossed my mind when you said the horse was bobbing its head. A horse that is lame in a front leg will bob its head when it walk or trots. Since your friend’s horse “went through some trauma”, I assume it may have sustained some sort of injuries. It is possible that the horse is lame and may need veterinary attention. Longeing a horse will often make a lameness issue more obvious than when the horse is walked in a straight line. More force is placed on the horse’s joints and limbs when moving in a fairly small circle versus a straight line, and therefore lameness is sometimes easier to diagnose. Another possibility is that the horse injured its eye or scratched its cornea during the event. Again, I would suggest seeking veterinary treatment.

Question: Hi, I just wanted to know how do you “cure” a spooky horse? I have a great thoroughbred with an amazing jump, but she doesn’t do the jumps as she stops directly in front of it, and well… I usually go flying!!! She can jump 1 meter jumps if it is just a pair of uprights with a pole, but if you add anything else to the jump she won’t do it. It’s the same with our rides. She will see a dead branch 500 times and still walk past it and spook at it! So do you have any idea, of curing this spooky behaviour or hers?

Question: I have a 2 year old Rocky Mountain filly. This might seem kind of gross but I was cleaning up the paddock that she was in, nature called and I had to have a pee. She sniffed the spot afterwards and then rolled in that area. What was she doing??? I have had this filly for a little over 8 weeks.