# Horse tries to kill other horses. Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 20, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306 "2004-06-20T14:41:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/1 "2004-06-20T14:41:30Z")
[This CNN story](http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Southwest/06/17/horseslashings.ap/) tells of a series of attacks on horses. They had suspected a person was doing until they caught a horse in the act. What would cause one horse to attack other horses? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/2 "2004-06-20T15:19:08Z")
Just speculating, I’d say just like a person can go nuts, a horse can too. ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/3 "2004-06-20T15:42:19Z")
If you have more than one horse in a pen, they will always establish a pecking order. Sometimes you don’t even see it happening; it’s more one horse driving another one off of some food. Sometimes they fight, and now and then you get some that you just can’t keep together. I’ve never seen it go to this extreme, but their fighting can look really violent, with a lot of biting and kicking and squealing and pinned ears. This seems like an extreme version of that, although it strikes me as a little odd that someone didn’t notice some strife before it got to a throat-slashing point. Psycho horse, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/4 "2004-06-20T15:45:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Investigators had suspected a person was trying to kill the horses because the jagged wounds were always near the vital jugular vein and happened late at night. Well, the answer’s obvious. Horsie Vampirism. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/5 "2004-06-20T16:02:31Z")
[Hate crime?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=261478)What color were the other horses? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/6 "2004-06-20T18:04:35Z")
To paraphrase the Simpsons, horses are a lot like people. Sometimes a horse is just a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/7 "2004-06-20T18:49:04Z")
> [@Cowgirl Jules](#): > > If you have more than one horse in a pen, they will always establish a pecking order. Sometimes you don’t even see it happening; it’s more one horse driving another one off of some food. Sometimes they fight, and now and then you get some that you just can’t keep together. > > I’ve never seen it go to this extreme, but their fighting can look really violent, with a lot of biting and kicking and squealing and pinned ears. This seems like an extreme version of that, although it strikes me as a little odd that someone didn’t notice some strife before it got to a throat-slashing point. Psycho horse, indeed. Yes, it is surprising, unless the horses were pastured out of general view when they weren’t working. In that case, it could be pure chance that revealed the culprit. Still, why such violence? As **CJ** says, this is extreme. Some hypotheses: The horse has a brain tumor or other neurological disturbance. One would expect to see other signs develop if it were progressive. The horse has rabies. But that would become apparent in a matter of days or weeks, not months, if only because the attacks wouldn’t be confined to other horses. The horse grew up isolated from other horses, and was never socialized to herd behavior. If it were a naturally dominant type, and had never learned as a youngster the limits of acceptable aggression, it could carry its attacks beyond the point where normal herd dynamics would induce it to back off. The herd is frequently having to adjust to new members, which creates high levels of anxiety and aggression. This horse is part of a guest ranch’s remuda, and there might be a fair amount of turnover in it. Not much detail in the CNN story to go on, in tryng to pick among these theories. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/8 "2004-06-20T18:59:00Z")
The horse might be a cryptorchid gelding. That is, it had been castrated but had one undescended testicle still pumping out stallion hormones. If it was in a mixed (mares and geldings) herd, it could be fighting other geldings for control of the mares. Stallions tend to take this sort of thing seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/9 "2004-06-20T21:16:07Z")
Oh, good thought, **ETF**. We have one that we suspect of being like that, and we do have to keep him separated from the other horses. He lives with the cattle. And he’s for sale… ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/10 "2004-06-21T02:08:34Z")
Maybe no one ever told the culprit to quit horsing around. ---
**Author:** ![Esky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f04885/32.png) [@Esky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esky)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/11 "2004-06-21T02:22:05Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > The horse might be a cryptorchid gelding. That is, it had been castrated but had one undescended testicle still pumping out stallion hormones. My friend had a ‘rig’ as we call them, lovely and sweet when it was just the rider but we thought it was nutso around horses until the vet came to check it out and said, hang on a sec, this eunich is halfway to enjoying the harem. It was strange. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/12 "2004-06-21T18:24:45Z")
An old friend of mine is a horse trainer. Sometimes, he says, a horse isn’t taught how to behave with other horses. If you put such a rogue in with other horses, he’ll dominate by biting and kicking the others. His simple solution? He chains the bully to a big log. The brute can get to food and water, slowly, but he can’t move quickly. After a day or two, the bully is covered with bite marks. When he’s released, he behaves in a civilized manner. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-tries-to-kill-other-horses-why/251306/13 "2004-06-21T21:26:35Z")
> [@Dignan](#): > > Maybe no one ever told the culprit to quit horsing around. “You could chew a neck out!”