After many years of waiting I finally acquired an Appaloosa. He arrived just over 3 weeks ago and all seemed well. At 3 years old he is completely unschooled but well handled, so I started him out lunging. Within a week he was lunging great. I put a light bit in his mouth and he accepted that without fuss. Then he stopped lunging! He just kept walking into me. I would shake the rope out, wave the whip in front of his nose. Nothing. This boy is solid as a rock, nothing scares him. He just kept walking up to me and dropping his head. I would drive him out again and he would do half a circle and stop. So my husband said he´d have a try.

The horse started great, for 2 minutes, then he stopped. But then he charged into my husband, rearing up and knocking him to the ground then passed over on top of him. I, naturally, screamed and as quickly as this happened the horse stopped by my husband and dropped his head. I attended to my husband, fortunately not seriously hurt, and all the while the horse just stood by. Dare I say he looked ashamed of his actions! I took him to the shower and then back to his stall.

Later that day my part-time help came and he took the horse out to lunge him (having done so quite a few times already). He went well for about 5 minutes then stopped dead at a distance. He seemed quite calm but then, as before, he took off at a charge and reared up. The groom was quick with the lunge whip and got in a good few cracks across his head, causing the horse to fall away short of attacking him to the ground as well.

The following morning I took him out and quietly started him out at a walk. He did 4 circuits and turned in to me. I was well prepared for any aggressive behaviour with a short whip in my rope hand that I had tied a plastic bag to the end of and the lunge whip in the other hand. I only slightly agitated the bag to deter him as he didn´t appear challenging and he turned out again and continued for half a circuit before turning in again. This time I agitated the bag more strongly. He couldn´t give a hooty tooty! I turned him to try the other leg. Same story. But at least no charging. So I decided to put a saddle on him figuring something new might get his attention. He didn´t mind a bit, not even turning as I tightened the girth. He did a couple of circuits in walk and again came into me. This time I was very aggressive with the bag. Again nothing.

My groom wont even go into his stable to give him his feed now and my husband is also rather wary of him. I have heard of ´one man dogs´, but a ´one woman horse´!
If he sees me as his mare and felt the ´machos´ were threatening his territory, we need help to get past this.
If it is something else, we need help to get past this!

His living accommadation -
I have one other stallion (Pura Raza Española) who is 4 and a typical stallion handful, but controllable and very well schooled after a year of training. He will probably be castrated, but it will have to be in autumn as there is too much heat and too many flies now. It is NOT an option to castrate the Appaloosa. I have bought him to compete in Endurance and to breed all the way from America to Spain. I have two mares (PRE) and my retired gelding (though castrated at 18 years to save his life, so though very calm and relaxed still has many stallion tendencies). They all live in a loose boxes in an ´American Barn´ set up. The PRE stallion is next to the gelding, the Appaloosa opposite the PRE stallion. The two mares are further down the aisle on the other side of the gelding. He lived out with his brothers until a few months before I purchased him, when he spent the time alone in a field. He then spent his 4 weeks of quarentine in a stall, with a couple of hours turn out each day on his own.

Bless and hug my wonderful husband - He immediately has started to build me a round pen. But it will be some weeks in completion as we both work full-time. We currently ´only´ have a 18 x 50 m sand school which is fenced but has openings at both ends. So until then I can´t leave the poor horse shut in his stall. I have to do something. Please help, anyone and everyone!!

Just a suggestion, Is there any thing you can do with him other than lounging him.

I had a filly once that was well behaved never did anything aggressive, Was just like your guy as far as no matter what I introduced she excepted and then we would move onto the next thing. I always worked her in the round pen or on a lounge line. At times she would do what your guy does and just stop and come in and stand. Anyways to make a long story shorter. We put her under saddle she did great, at this point when it came to teaching her from the saddle I had some else ride her. She was fine the first few times but after that when you would enter the round pen she would be fine for about the first five minutes and then start acting up. After about a week of this she reared with the rider on her back and walked back and broke through the round pen. (no one hurt) So the next day back we went to do more work and after about 5 minutes she started up again. So we decided to take her out of the pen and just work her in the paddock area. She settled right down and went back to her usual pleasing self. We ended up figuring out that she didn't like the round pen or even lounging (we must have over done it, so to speak). We kept here out of the round pen and off the line for a couple of weeks, and never had another problem with her. I did use the round pen and lounge line with her after that but never day after day and only for short periods of time. If I introduced something new and she was fine with it, then we would move out the the paddock area or the arena. Sorry to be so long winded.

He may be getting tired of doing the same thing. Maybe you could try working him on obstacles, or try long lining him. I don't know if you are able but could you pony him with your gelding. He may just be getting bored.

The aggression does need to be got under control, but firguring out what is causing may fix the problem.

Just some food for thought, if I think of any thing else I'll post it.

It is hard sometimes with stallions that have been gelded late due to the fact of habit not as much a dominant factor but habit.

Stand firm and carry a big stick. Oh and wear sunglasses so he can't see your eyes get really big! Just kidding but I truly feel they can tell when they have the upper hand.

P8nt is right on track. Find the source and I am sure you will.

Let us know what the answer turns out to be.

you are right that he sees you as the heard mare, but you need to establish this with everyone else at your barn who works him too. as you know, there are a lot of groundwork exercises that you can do with him that will make that next step in the saddle so much easier. when you lounge him, how do you go about it, do you drive him frim his haunches or shoulder. we drive them from the shoulder area. I have done work with Chris Lombard at several clincs and my stallion has done great with them. i have faith that you will find out what makes him tick an eventually he will work for others. my stallion will get bored, but he is old enough to change the work up with riding..

Your PRE stallion was trained for a year, by who ? All of the behaviors are dominate/aggressive I first have to question the NEVER geld as these are his natural behaviors they WILL be passed onto any get he sires. Not a trait to be passing along. Next he doesn't need to be desensitized he needs to be put in his place. I may try the bag thing with a lethargic good meaning gelding. You have a stallion-you need to try to "kill " him. The one that got a couple good hits in is right HIT him. If your fast enough to stay out from under him attach a lunge line with stud chain. When he challenges you in anyway stay slightly to the side use the chain and send him backwards fast, always have your whip as well and wear gloves[ If he strikes a helmet wouldn't be a bad idea either] While loungeing don't let him come in that shows him he is above you, teach him whoa you go to him to change direction or pet or for any reason. Yes, its easier to stand still and have him enter YOUR space, problem is he should NEVER enter YOUR space. Him stopping, again he is in charge and just letting you know that NO he is not going to work today, press the issue he turns and makes a stronger statement that he really isn't working today. Try to treat him as a stallion not just a horse and certainly not your friend. Not trying to be abrupt, just don't want anyone getting hurt.

Oh boy! I know what you are going through as I have a 'one woman horse'. I own a 16.3hh, 700kg appaloosa gelding. I have had him since he was four and he is now seven rising eight in November. He is dominant in the extreme and was EXTREMELY aggressive when I first got him. When he charged he would not stop or break off his attack. He really meant it and would bite, charge, strike, body slam. He would come at you with his head low and snaking and try to get your legs. When I first saw him (he was advertised as casual, laid back and very quiet), however he was actually totally introverted almost to the point of being catatonic.

He has a very high play drive and energy level and the only way the previous owners could keep him in hand was to tie his head down and do endless boring lunging laps. To a horse like this it is torture. They never did anything with him other than arena work and he was always tied down hard. I never tie down my horses so when I asked to ride him without all that rubbish on they all went white as sheets (LOL). He was actually nice to ride, but beligerant.

He is also naturally very dominant and confident in his surroundings. Like your horse, strange things don't bother him - he just attacks them or destroys them. When he first came to me he didn't handle the change of home well at all (he was bred by the previous owners). He was really introverted and grumpy. I tried a lot of things to get him out of his shell.... well, after he was settled in he EXPOLODED out of his shell. He would constantly bite and nip. This was to satisfy his play drive, but the previous owners had allowed it to escalate to biting by smacking him. If you went to smack him he would attack violently. If I put too much pressure on him under saddle he would stop, turn around and latch on to my leg and he would not let go unless I went totally still and did not react.

I had to tie him up to feed him otherwise if I approached he would charge out of his stable and attack. If he got you in the corner he would just turn around and try to kick the &*$# out of you. He put my partner in hospital. I tried everything I knew (I've had horses for 35 years including many, many stallions but they were nothing like him). I couldn't keep him in with other horses because he would fight and chase them through fences. He really was a nightmare.

I decided that I would have to think outside the box and so I used postiive reinforcement training ie. clicker training. I knew that all of his behaviour was dominance and there was absolutely no point fighting with him as this was exactly what he wanted and he was VERY good at it. He is extremely food motivated so giving something he wanted was a great way to redirect his energy and play into something positive. I also filled his yard, stable and paddock with toys and he will play for hours on end. The change in him with the clicker training was totally remarkable. I wouldn't have believed it if someone had told me the results I would get! I had to establish rules around the treats, but all of a sudden (it was really quick) his expression changed as if I was interesting and different to other humans. He is rocket scientist smart and within the first hour I had him targeting and fetching a target. He got a bit too enthusiastic and would then try violence to get a treat, but I would not rise to his bait and back him off me hard or I would leave and the game was over.

I used (and still do) lots of things to challenge him mentally and not just lunge him round and round. It is a challenge to think of enough imaginative things to do with him, but you get better at it. I use natural horsemanship techniques with great success. This was very difficult to start with, but good now. It sounds to me like your horse is totally bored by lunging and is creating his own entertainment. If you don't use variety with these smart ones they just channel their energy negatively. If he stays in the stall a lot he needs toys. I'm not saying the clicker training changed my horse instantly, he is still very dominant and he challenges me daily, but what it did do is open up the line of communication and take him out of his usual cycle of using aggression to amuse himself and dominate people. I also used a long rope on him (22ft and heavy marine poly rope with a rope halter). Even a 12 ft rope was too short with him. The other thing I did was spend a LOT of undemanding time with him so that he realised that I wasn't always there just to catch him and do things to him.

The big problem I encountered with him which I did not count on was that once we got some respect and trust going (he started to run to me in the paddock and show some signs of affection; he neighs during the day for me to come and play) then he bonded to me and would attack anyone else who came near me. I would back him off with a lot of energy and make him keep his distance and I have done heaps of things to get him to accept other people. We have got to the stage now where usually he puts his ears back but nothing else UNLESS it is a man that he doesn't know. Then I have to really watch him.

People who saw him when I fist got him and then see him now can't believe he is the same horse. He is a fabulous liberty horse and his dressage is coming along really well. There are still days when I have to 'put him in his box', but they aren't too often now. I hope he will get over the protective thing - he is mostly a big sooky sap with me and likes nothing better than just the two of us to be together with noone else. Its almost like he feels he can be himself and relax. We go out on trails and do interesting things and he loves this.

Anyway, I don't know if any of this helps but I thought I'd share my story. This horse has taught me more about horses than all of the others I'd worked with. He has taught me the value of calmness and assertiveness, but to also consider the horse's feelings and to be polite and soft, but firm when necessary.

I wish you well with your horse.

Unfortunately... gelding him may be the only option. sucks, since you have spent a lot of time and money getting him to your place. But this is a major issue that he could pass on to offspring that is unwanted. While it may be a man-made issue, it may not be. Not exactly a breeding prospect with that in mind.

Just curious to know what type of set up is he kept in? Is he stalled or pastured?
A young stallion just like any young horse needs freedom from work. Does he pin his ears when he's charging? I've known several horses that resort to this type of behavior b/c of lack of open space to run & play and lacking horse companionship to teach them that they are still a horse. Its hard with a stallion b/c obviously he may show aggression to geldings and you may not want him breeding I've owned and had the pleasure to work with many stallions and when they are young they are very good at testing the waters, especialy when they've been raised by others that may have been less firm. Be confindent, truley stallions are so fun once they are trained, I personally prefer a Stallion over anything, but I love a good challenge
Good Luck and Stay Safe