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  Discussion on Mouth clapping
Author Message
Member:
clauee

Posted on Monday, Jun 8, 2015 - 7:58 pm:

Hello!
There's a 4 year old mare just arrived at our barn and we introduced her gradually to her two new pasture buddies: one is her 5 year old sister and the other one is 5 year old half-sister... They all come from the same breeder but never lived together before. Interestingly, the 4 year old has taken the "dominant" position but she does also mouth clapping to the other ones... ?She sometimes shows this submissive "don't hurt me, I'm a baby" behaviour, but then she immediately turns around to kick and keep the other ones out of her space, also she is #1 for food... I thought the mouth clapping was a submissive sign, maybe I'm misinformed?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 9, 2015 - 7:41 pm:

Hello Claudelle,
Lets assume you are submissive but will not tolerate encroachment of your space. And at the same time very food aggressive. These are complicated creatures and the interpretation that because they slap their lips they will not protect themselves when threatened ignores this complexity. Though I have seen these interpretations also the two biggest reasons that horse do this in my presence appears to be boredom or maybe impatience. I have also seen some horses that just seem to enjoy the experience.
DrO
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 10, 2015 - 1:07 am:

I have three mares. When I introduced the 3rd mare as a yearling, all hell broke loose. The two horses that had been stable-mated for 10 years, who shared a pen and food when camping, didn't know each other any more. One became dominant and the other older, smaller mare became low man on the totem pole. The behavior also changed when they were coming in/out of heat every 3 weeks.

Originally, the small, older mare had been dominant when there were just two. But around feeding time, the 16.1 hand Friesian thought that she just couldn't roll with this. So she became dominant when it came time for feed, but at other times she'd let the older 14.2 horse boss her around.

They will treat the old mare like crap now, but then if she is left behind, they will call to her like she is some lost, critical relative. They will use her for sage advice when covering new terrain. She can be a security blanket when something scary goes by.

So in the end, it all depends......
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