Behavior change under saddle
My 18 yo appy gelding is super laid back and the middle of the three horse "herd" I have. We just added the third horse about 3 months ago, and she seems to fit in just fine. She is the lowest member of the bunch, and seems fine with that position... She doesn't seem to test the others to move up. She gets along great with the appy, they often graze side by side, perform mutual grooming on each other, and will even share a pile of hay in the paddock.
When under saddle, however, the appy becomes a kicker. We cannot ride him anywhere near our new girl, or he kicks out at her. He can ride relatively close to our leader of the pack pony gelding (but we don't get too close) and seems OK with him except if we let them sniff noses... Then he will nip at the little guy. Both of these ornery behaviors towards the other horses is ONLY under saddle. He is not disrespectful to his rider, and has no issues under saddle in any other way, so I don't feel like there is any medical or discomfort issue to be addressed.
Any insight as to why he is such a pill to the others (especially the new mare) when ridden vs. When just turned out in the pasture?
Submitted September 12, 2018 at 11:04AM by mewithadd
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/9f9lk8/behavior_change_under_saddle/?utm_source=ifttt
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