Aggression Within the Herd

Aggression amongst herd mates in domestic environments is not uncommon. From chasing each other off of hay nets, to bullying when stressed, to dam's even biting and kick their foals. Kicks and bites are just all too common.

It might be normal to look at this common behavior and think this is normal, but we need to consider something before coming to that conclusion.

When looking at aggression within the herd there is a vast differences between wild herds of horses and domestic herds. Domestic horse aggression rates are exponentially higher than their feral counterparts. Studies show that aggression amongst feral herd bands is actually pretty infrequent, and usually reserved for mares telling a stallion off (for trying to prematurely mount her), for correcting overly rambunctious youngsters, and for band stallions fighting.

Other than that, we do not see a lot of aggression.

Especially over resources, like grass, water, and shade. Which is where we see the majority of aggression in domestic herds.

This leads us to the conclusion that typical management choices for domestic herds may exacerbate agonistic behaviors between horses.

Here are the four main sources of aggression amongst domestic herds:

1. Horses in domestic situations rarely get to choose their own band members, nor do they get to stay with those same band members throughout their life. They also cannot choose to leave that band to go join another. It is very artificial, and it is put together depending on the human's needs. Sometimes these bands are extremely small (1 or 2 horses) and other times they are extremely large (30 + horses in a single pasture.) An individual band is never that large in the wild.

2. Artificial feeding and restricted forage access can dramatically impact the behavior of the horses in the band. If there is not constant access to forage that they can move to as a collective group, this can change the behavior of the horses and their interactions with one another. In the case of a couple of flakes of hay being thrown out once or twice a day, the horses in the band will have to "duke it out." This can create an artificial dominance hierarchy that is not seen in feral herds. It's important to note that when we see this in domestic horses, it is not normal for the species. It is man-made and artificial.

3. Another thing to mention is the size of the space that the band is living in. The smaller the space, the more on top of each other the horses will be. Naturally, fence lines block horses from being able to escape from other horses if there are antagonistic behaviors. Cornering another horse into a pasture fence is not seen in the wild.

4. Horses that are weaned really early from their dams do not have an opportunity to learn enough about equine social behaviors. They have limited exposure to normal social behavior, and this is exaggerated when they are continuously kept isolated from other horses. This is especially seen when the foal is only kept with its dam, and there are no foals or other herd mates for them to interact and play with. From the very beginning of their lives, many foals are isolated from other horses almost immediately after being weaned. Horses that do not grow up in a herd environment will naturally have limited social skills.

All these factors play a role in aggressive behaviors between herd mates. Finding ways to help reduce or eliminate these triggers/influences can dramatically improve the social health of your herds.

Sometimes that change can happen overnight, and other times it can take much longer for the herd to heal and find balance.

If you feel like you've tried just about everything but you're still seeing a lot of aggressive behaviors in your herd, it might be time to schedule a personalized behavior consultation, schedule yours today!

-Adele

---

Another great resource I highly recommend is Lucy Rees' book, 'Horses in Company,' which dives even further into the differences between feral and domestic herds.