Gelding attached to "his" mare?
I don't really know what I'm looking for in this post, or if it's even too early to be worried like I am, but it would be nice to get any opinions from you guys.
I just moved Gali to a new facility on Sunday. A mare that he's known for four years also moved with us. They've been at four different farms together, but it wasn't until recently (at farm #3) that they could be near each other without bite-swipes, kicks, or squeals from either him or the mare. Prior to a few weeks ago, they HATED each other.
Now, however, they're turned out together, and they are best friends. I've *never* seen Gali like this. He lets her lick his feed bucket as he eats - and this is the same horse that would aggressively chase away the other geldings in his old fields if my boyfriend ("his" person) was petting them too much, let alone bringing food into the equation!
That'd be great, if he weren't so damn herd bound too. They scream for each other when they're apart, and he refuses to stand still or listen while tacking up or while working in the round pen. He gets very upset, in general, if he thinks he's going to be away from her. When I rode him in the same arena as her, though, he was very well behaved.
He also gets super pissed off if she interacts with other geldings in the barn. He'll go from finally beginning to relax, to trying to charge through me when the mare and the other geldings make noises at each other, or nose each other.
I can discipline him all I want - I've whapped him solidly for the charging with both a rope and the chain on his face, backed him up thirty feet in about two seconds, and even tried running him in the round pen thinking he'd give it a few laps and then focus on me, but I'm getting nothing (the best thing ABOUT him is how well he lunges/free lunges/works in the pen!). When his focus is on Katie, he completely forgets everything else and all of his training goes right out the window.
We're switching their fields as soon as we can, but I'm not sure if that will help, because the fields share a fence.
Is this common with geldings being turned out with mares, or is my horse just an idiot/hopeless romantic? It doesn't strike me as studly behavior, because there's no dropping and no mounting, but I'm kind of at a loss. Oh, and he's still just as much of a dick to other horses has he's always been. It's only Katie that he doesn't threaten.
Sorry if I'm not really making any sense - I just want some input, advice, stories about how another sixteen year old horse was a holy terror the first week at a new place but then reverted back to as normal as he ever was, etc.
I just moved Gali to a new facility on Sunday. A mare that he's known for four years also moved with us. They've been at four different farms together, but it wasn't until recently (at farm #3) that they could be near each other without bite-swipes, kicks, or squeals from either him or the mare. Prior to a few weeks ago, they HATED each other.
Now, however, they're turned out together, and they are best friends. I've *never* seen Gali like this. He lets her lick his feed bucket as he eats - and this is the same horse that would aggressively chase away the other geldings in his old fields if my boyfriend ("his" person) was petting them too much, let alone bringing food into the equation!
That'd be great, if he weren't so damn herd bound too. They scream for each other when they're apart, and he refuses to stand still or listen while tacking up or while working in the round pen. He gets very upset, in general, if he thinks he's going to be away from her. When I rode him in the same arena as her, though, he was very well behaved.
He also gets super pissed off if she interacts with other geldings in the barn. He'll go from finally beginning to relax, to trying to charge through me when the mare and the other geldings make noises at each other, or nose each other.
I can discipline him all I want - I've whapped him solidly for the charging with both a rope and the chain on his face, backed him up thirty feet in about two seconds, and even tried running him in the round pen thinking he'd give it a few laps and then focus on me, but I'm getting nothing (the best thing ABOUT him is how well he lunges/free lunges/works in the pen!). When his focus is on Katie, he completely forgets everything else and all of his training goes right out the window.
We're switching their fields as soon as we can, but I'm not sure if that will help, because the fields share a fence.
Is this common with geldings being turned out with mares, or is my horse just an idiot/hopeless romantic? It doesn't strike me as studly behavior, because there's no dropping and no mounting, but I'm kind of at a loss. Oh, and he's still just as much of a dick to other horses has he's always been. It's only Katie that he doesn't threaten.
Sorry if I'm not really making any sense - I just want some input, advice, stories about how another sixteen year old horse was a holy terror the first week at a new place but then reverted back to as normal as he ever was, etc.