What on earth is this sucking thing!!?

Gosh where to start..ive recently saved a 9-10 month old colt. hes untouched. was in a bad way- bad lice,thrush,mud fever,worms,over grown hooves,malnurished and underweight! ive had him for about a week now. and so far already ive got rid of tha lice completely,de-wormed him so he is nw free of that,had his hooves done[peroxide and trimmed] %26amp; he is currwntly on 3 small feeds a day of stud %26amp; conditioning,chaff,garlic powder %26amp; plenty of fruit %26amp; veg[i feed this 2 all my youngsters]! so sooo...hes nw on the way to recovery!





sorry about the long windedness but i thought his past might help you to figure it out in some way lol.





So as i was saying...i put him out in the arena for turn out as all our fields r flooded thanks to the snow and rain[good old uk weather!]. when i turned him out i put him out with another colt[rising 2]. they were both fine although....my friends colt grabbed hold of mine by the neck [as though they were grooming] and just held it in his mouth by his teeth! he wast hurtin him or anything and he didnt struggle really to get away so thought they were fine and didnt break it up. but the more i watched the more strange it got as my friends colt looked as though he was going to sleep!!! anyway we broke it up and brought them both back in.





my question is...what on earth is this behaviour??? ive never seen it before espesh not in youngsters and ive already got 2!


my friend says it migh b because he thinks hes a mare :S


my other friend said it might be the lavander lice powder hes covered in :S


someone else told me its because mine was submittin and my friends 1 was like pinning him into 1 place as submission.





sooo...can anyone help and clear this up???





thank you all in advance!!!!|||Babies do weird things first of all. Remember they are learning. I had a TB foal who was orphaned at 2mos. He used to nurse off my then 12 yr old gelding's sheath. What was really weird was my old gelding used to let him. Then when the colt, now a 6 yr old gelding was turned out with weanlings, they approached him from both sides and went for his sheath. He never bared a tooth or raised a hoof, just looked over at me as if to say, "The old man put up with me doing this, so I guess I have to put up with them doing it, huh?"|||He was probably just trying to dominate the other horse. He also might have just been playing around, just dont let him do that to you!|||Colts can do the weirdest things. If it wasn't hurting him or anything, I wouldn't worry about it.|||They do this to each other because it's what their mothers used to do to them. I squeeze my horse's mane as a reward when he has done something good and they love it! They basically go into their happy place when I squeeze their mane, like your friend's colt was doing to your colt, and they absoultely adore it! lol





Hope this helps!|||I have seen many young colts playing in a similar way to this. It is just youthfullness coming out! Just like teenage boys! I have seen them chewing each others feet now beat that!


You could have a look at his group in a horse website and ask someone there as well!


http://www.trotontv.com/community/grouphome/9/horse-training-.html|||There are a number of things it could be. Sorting out the pecking order for example (a display of dominance as he is 'over' the other horse).





It could also be a display of friendship - have you ever squeezed the crest of your horses neck firmly and had him drop his head? Think about when the back of your neck is squeezed gently/massaged - it feels nice! And when a horse drops his head below his withers, endorphines are released (nice feeling hormones).





Keep watching their behaviour - they may be able to tell you in time when its all sorted out between them! Watch them around food, with the other horses etc, you'll be able to decide whether its a dominance/kinship thing.|||Young horses are VERY mouthy with people, objects, and especially each other. It sounds like your two may be beginning to "groom" each other but haven't quite figured out how it works. As long as they aren't hurting each other, let them be and enjoy.|||Young horses grab hold of anything they can because when they get to be around 2 or 3, they teeth. Most horses grab hold of anything they see. But if he was not chewing on anything before then that may not be the problem. Anyways, if he has been doing this, then he is teething and it should stop soon enough. We have a 2 year old gypsy vanner standard bred cross and he gets his teeth on anything he sees, but never hurts anyone/ anything. Otherwise, I don't think he was submitting.