Equine Aggression

Horses are Not Born Aggressive!

They can become aggressive due to any of the factors listed below.

Physical injury, ill-fitting tack or a dental issue which is causing them discomfort or pain

Usually these are obvious and the appropriate professional should be engaged to attend and eliminate

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Mineral Imbalances causing Aggression

The horse’s entire skin is densely populated with sensory nerves enabling him to respond to the sensations of touch, pain, itch, heat, and cold. Mineral imbalances in the grass can affect these peripheral nerve endings in a way that causes aversion to touch, grooming, covering, saddling and girthing up.

When the sub-cutaneous muscles are affected you may observe quivering or twitching when you touch them.

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Phyto-estrogens causing Aggression

Phyto-estrogens in Legumes –lucerne and/or clover

Aggressive behaviour is often associated with pastures which contain clover, especially red clover. Legumes such as clover and Lucerne contain ‘hormonally active compounds’ which can adversely affect normal hormone production.

These can cause geldings to exhibit stallion-like behaviour which can be mistaken as the horse being ‘a rig’. Or that the horse ‘has not being gelded properly’.  The vet is called, bloods are drawn but results turn out to be clear. The solution can be as simple as removing all legumes from the horse’s diet.

This same forage can cause mares to be ‘hormonal’ or ‘moody’, have ‘raging’ seasons and fail to cycle properly.

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Dairy Grass and Aggression

Dairy grass or any grass fertilised with high octane chemicals

Such pasture is completely unsuitable for horses and can cause any horse to exhibit ‘aggressive’ behaviours.

Miscommunication

The communication between you and you horse is not good enough, he isn’t sure what you mean and you are making him feel wrong when you weren’t clear in the first place.

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