Bully Horse

Question
QUESTION: Hi I am a 13 year old female, I have approximately been riding for 9 years. I don't have the experience of you i'm sure, but I do have more experience than most 13 year olds. So here goes, I have three horses (one pony). My pony is an elder, around his 20's. He is actually my first horse, when I outgrew him we bought another horse and they got along perfectly. However the other horse wasn't working out so I sold him and bought 2 new horses. They had been together since birth and they both gang up on my pony. I am afraid that he will get hurt. There is no option of putting them in seperate fields. Nakita (the bully) also pushes Comanche (gelding horse) around aswell, keeping him from his hay, and I think just for her amusement she makes Bullet (the pony) walk around the field. The only thing I have done to resolve the problem is feed them seperate. Comanche (the gelding horse) is very jittery around her, and I think he would calm down alot if she would quit bullying. We have stalls for them, but they are run in stalls so they have open access to the pasture.

ANSWER: Horses are not bullies or mean, those are human terms.  Your horses are being perfectly normal horses.  They have a herd and in the herd there is a pecking order.  All horses do this.  In the wild, the strongest horse must be in charge to keep the herd safe.  You lead horse is keeping the herd in order and safe.  She has to chase or move the other horses to make sure she keeps her lead position.  The other horses like this since they do not have to be in charge and they know that there is a leader to keep them safe and protect them.

People cause horse problems not horses.  We feed them in one pile and that is bad.  You should always feed three horse with 4 or 5 piles of food.  That way the lead horse can move the lower horses and the lower horses always have a pile of food to go to.  When people do dumb things like feed in one place, we cause horses to fight and get hurt.

In the wild, this never happen since in the wild, no humans interfere and horses graze where the want without having to wait on a lazy human throw out some hay in one spot.

If you are going to be around horses and own horses you need to educate yourself about horse so you understand how they think and how they act.

The fact that you want to blame this one horse and call her a bully tells me that you don't understand horses at all.  Too many people think that because they ride horse for years they know and understand a horse, most don't.  

A good horse person never blames the horse, because they know the horse is only trying to survive in our human world so any problems are causes by us not the horse.

You should look at all horse problems from the point of what you did to cause the problem, never blaming the horse.

Hope this helps, read my web site to help you understand horses and how they think.

Rick

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes I understand that completely, we do feed them in seperate piles (all three have their own pile), but Nakita (lead) swallows her hay very quickly and then runs to Comanche's and eats his. We stall keep her while he eats, but then he won't eat because she is out of sight. He is losing weight, also Nakita's behavior is causing my pony, who is normally very docile, to become paranoid at everything.

Answer
Your pony is not becoming scared because of Nakita.  Instead of three piles make five piles, then when she moves to another pile there will still be food.  Also feed them more so they have food all the time and once they learn they have free access to food they will not feel competitive and think they only get fed twice a day.  They are doing what they do because of what you do.  You feed twice a day, so they think we have eat fast in order to get food, if you fed more all the time they would not feel this way and would fight each other for food.  You still want to blame the horse for what you do.  Your pony may have been docile but now with this herd she is more alert and wants to be part of the herd so she is being more alert and aware.  Normal horse behavior.