Pain or frustration?
QMy mare has started scowling when I fasten her rug up. She bites her door and snakes at the nearby geldings, one of whom is quite new. It’s always right before she gets her tea — is she just getting worked up for her evening meal?
Billie Harrison, East Anglia
Jenni says... Any sudden change is usually medical in origin and so I’d get this checked by a vet. The timing of the issue might be related to gut fill or other gastrointestinal issues due to her being more grumpy prior to feed time. In the interim, I’d feed before rugging to prevent your mare practising this new behaviour and it becoming a habit. You could perhaps give her a lick when you fasten her rug, as this kind of distraction may support you in not allowing this behaviour to become entrenched.
Some questions to ask
Has her feed changed? Is she turned out by day? If so, how much forage is available there? Is she coming in hungry? How much tension is there between other horses at fetching in time? These are all things to consider as they could all be the cause of stress at feeding time.
See what a vet check brings, but a return to normal behaviour after an intervention like rugging is over is usually an indication that the stressor is now over too and it’s business as usual. I would suspect it has become associated with something more significant, like some kind of discomfort, as she’s using aggressive behaviours (grumpy faces, snaking at the geldings, biting the door), which are usually used to stop or distance a threat.
Because that aggressive behaviour is redirected to individuals and stable fittings not directly causing the discomfort, it’s most likely the source of discomfort is not something that can be ‘told off’, yet she can’t ignore the fact that she still wants to tell it to get lost! This means pain can’t be ruled out here, as we can’t see anything else external that is an obvious trigger. It is right before feed time, but rugging completion stops the behaviour, not arrival of food. Certainly begin with a health check, then consider a video consultation with a qualified behaviourist.