oh jeez my friend vickie that I ride with... she has a QH mare and four year old that was gelded at age 1, son of the mare. he has been raised with nothing but loving kindness and pampering. She is a very firm and experienced backyard trainer tho... and can ride anything. He has been under saddle a year and is perfectly behaved. All of a sudden lately, had started exhibiting aggressive behavior at feeding time, which vickie thought was normal, you know how horses are. but then she noticed him more and more aggressive when she would be between him and the mare, he would lunge to keep her away from the mare. So today I got a call... Vicki is out of the hospital and had to have emergency reconstructive surgery because he bit the front of her face almost off! She was going to kiss him on the muzzle as always she said, and he just went for her she said, said he pinned his ears and lunged and took her by the lower face so fast and hard he broke her jaw, cracked her lower teeth away from the jaw bone, cut all the way into her sinuses... my god, this has me terrified cause I kiss ALL my horses ALL the time!! I told her tho, my geldings fight like this with each other over me, over us, not over a particular horse, but when I go out among them I have to be real stern and watchful cause they will lunge at one another and even kick out when I am among them, vying for my attention. But what I do is chase them all off when I walk thru so I wont accidentally get hurt. Vickie is so upset and blue, i tried to cheer her, but told her I dont think this is something you can get them out of, its something you have to always protect yourself from, like take a whip out there and if he even comes in your space holler and slap the whip on the ground. I do that with mine when they start into crowding me! They will even whirl and lunge at the fence at a horse getting close to me on the other side they are so jealous. I think her horse was jealous of her getting near his mare, his dam.... someone already told her to put a sharp nail in her hand and when he goes to bite jab him, i told her that would just make him head shy and not stop it... any ideas? She is looking at an 18 THOUSAND dollar hospital bill , her copay, she said... which is like, only 20 percent. now i am afraid to kiss my horses on the lips... Janice
-- even good horses have bad days sometimes.
