Even when a horse is led, it reacts to its environment, especially to his own kind. Therefore, a safety distance must always be maintained when guiding:
- from other horses,
- by humans
- and of possible sources of danger.
Particularly in the spatial narrowness of the stable alley, the necessary safety distance for each horse can hardly be respected satisfactorily. Under certain circumstances, high-ranking horses may try to demonstrate their supremacy by making small attacks on the competitor. Horses of lower rank cannot evade.
Therefore, special caution is advisable when two horses meet in the stable alley.
In any case, horses should meet from the front with the greatest possible lateral distance. An unprepared overtaking of a horse from behind is to be avoided.
If a horse is tied up in the stable alley, the tethering device should be released and the horse should be allowed to step as far to the side as possible before another horse is led past.
One should never let his horse sniff a conspecific or look for nose contact when passing by. In such cases the horse often reacts with instinctive defensive reactions to a point where they can kick out.
