Savagery is the escalation of aggression where violent acts continue though the other party is or retreating.
Aggression or savagery has four types of motivation:
Sexually motivated
Dominance motivated
Fear dominated Pain motivated
Stallions are predisposed to aggression or savagery as well as horses that have not received appropriate handling or training or been mistreated by people. Any negative experience or fearful situation can lead to future episodes of aggression. In mares, aggression can be associated with high levels of androgens or ovarian tumors. The clinical presentation includes pinning ears, wringing or clamping of tail, bearing teeth, kicking, striking, lunging, rearing, stamping, biting, trampling and mounting. Squealing, snorting or grunting may accompany. There are many possible treatments for aggressive behaviour. Any underlying casuses need to be identified such as pain. Rewarding non-aggressive behaviour may reduce the frequency of aggression, a change in management, discouragement or prevention of undesirable behaviour through the use of hobbles or sedatives may allow desensitization and training, castration or ovarectomy may reduce sexually motivated aggression and systematic desensitization may reduce fear motivated aggression. In some cases aggressive or savage horses may be too dangerous to work with even if restraints and sedatives are used. In such cases euthanasia may be necessary.
Wood Chewing
Wood chewing is defined as the destruction of wooden structures in the horse’s environment using the teeth. Wood chewing is thought to be related to the prevention of normal grazing behaviour. In the wild horses graze for 18-20 hours per day, while domesticated horses may only ingest forage for a few hours a day. Wood chewing tends to increase during the winter months due to increase in confinement and is seen in horses on high grain and low forage diets. Signs and symptoms include noticeable damage to wooden structures, weight loss, dull coat, sharp incisors and potential of splinters within the oral cavity/GIT.
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