Does anyone have any ideas for breaking a horse from dominating feeding time? We have a 4 year old mare that is extremely aggressive when it is time to feed. If she is not fed in a seperate corral she runs all of the other horses off their feed by kicking and biting.

I would say no. It just natural for them and she sure is the dominate one. I guess you could always tie her up next to her feed and only release her when everyone is done eating.

I run a therapeutic horsemanship program at a residential treatment facility in Saco, Maine for children with behavioral and emotional problems. I have three mares. In the last two months, our 18 year old Standardbred/Morgan cross "Marissa" has become extremely aggressive toward my students. She has always been very aggressive toward our 21 year old quarter horse "Zoe" and is protective of our 15 year old grade "Macy" (who is the alpha mare) but Marissa had never in the thee years since she's been at the farm kicked out at people until recently.

Two times students were visiting horses in the field and were kicked. Once, a student approached Marissa and Marissa gave appropriate "please back away" signals that went unrespected. After three times, she turned and kicked out at the student, making contact but not knocking the student over though she did get a mild bruise. We no longer allow anyone to be in the pasture with the horses. However, other situations occurred which have troubled me even more. Unprovoked, Marissa entered our three sided shelter where we were cleaning. She had her head snaked and ears pinned flat back and looked very, very ugly. We simply backed away, but when a volunteer made an attempted to work around her, she turned tail and kicked him, making hard contact. Another time one of my youngest students (6) and I were talking about being with the horses in the pole barn shelter and how to safely observe their behavior, but not be too close or in their space. As we were talking, Marissa again turned quickly and went after my student (never me) with ears flat back and looking as if she wanted to bite him. She has also been difficult to catch in the pasture and will kick out if approached.

Of course at this point I don't trust her at all. She does not behave this way with me and I assume she still respects our relationship, although she does give me more "ears" than she ever used to. This behavior has seemed worse with the addition a year ago of Zoe (lowest on the pecking order). If this were my own farm I would certainly be concerned, but not as much as I am since I have students whom I must keep safe. Some friends have said "once they have kicked, you have to get rid of them" but I would love to know what you might suggest. Thank you very much for your time.

Has anything changed for your mare alma? Feed, pasture, new/lost pasturemates? The sudden change in behavior would concern me, is it possible she is in pain? Someone has messed with her in the field?

Two times students were visiting horses in the field and were kicked. Once, a student approached Marissa and Marissa gave appropriate "please back away" signals that went unrespected.

I think like a previous poster stated you may have to tie her and untie after feeding, or seperate her into a stall altogether. That can be such a pain. I'm lucky I have all geldings and they eat in order of dominance. In other words, least dominant eats the fastest etc so there is no fighting! very lucky!