Let me start off by saying that my horse is prone to having separation anxiety. He has gotten much, much better since I got him 5 years ago, but it still comes out sometimes.
Back in April our next door neighbors brought two horses into the pasture right next to ours (we have 5 horses, who stay pastured 24/7.) As expected, for about a week everyone paced the fence line, sniffed each other, squealed, etc, then things settled down. The two of theirs are both geldings, and we have three geldings and two mares. You can definitely tell when one of our mares is in heat, and with the addition of the new horses, during her cycle she’ll pace the fence line and call to them, and sometimes they’ll call back and come running toward the fence, prompting all the others to gather around. I learned pretty quickly that trying to tear my horse away from this is a nightmare. I took him out one day to ride him and he was a wreck—constantly looking for the others, calling, etc, and under saddle I was almost afraid to be on him. It took me a good portion of the ride to get him settled down enough to actually think about what he was doing. Our arena is placed to where he could see the others at the fence line and all he wanted to do was look over there. When our mare goes out of heat, things are fine. There is the occasional running the fence line or whinnying but all in all everyone pretty much minds their own business. But whenever they all get to running together, or when our mare is in heat and stays down there with them, my horse is very difficult to manage if I take him out alone and try to work with him, whether it be riding or just a grooming session. It’s like he turns into a completely different horse, he’s usually so calm and laid-back but with the addition of these two neighbor horses his separation anxiety has come out full force. I’ve gotten through it thus far by either avoiding it (not messing with him while they’re all acting crazy) or suffering through it, and now I want to try to fix it. I realize that I’ll probably never cure it completely, but I want a calmer, more focused/relaxed, and more respectful horse, regardless of what his buddies are doing. I find that it’s not so much that he really cares about those horses, it’s when all seven of them get together he just wants to follow the crowd. It’s very frustrating and annoying. I want to have the tools to be able to work through these times when he’s acting like this.
Does anyone have any advice on ways that I can get him to be less like this? To keep him focused on me and respectful, but also to get him back to the point where he wants to be with me and is okay with being separated from the fence line drama. It seems like the usual 'work them to get their mind on you' doesn't really work with him, it usually makes him more prone to throwing a fit. But at this point I'll try anything.
Back in April our next door neighbors brought two horses into the pasture right next to ours (we have 5 horses, who stay pastured 24/7.) As expected, for about a week everyone paced the fence line, sniffed each other, squealed, etc, then things settled down. The two of theirs are both geldings, and we have three geldings and two mares. You can definitely tell when one of our mares is in heat, and with the addition of the new horses, during her cycle she’ll pace the fence line and call to them, and sometimes they’ll call back and come running toward the fence, prompting all the others to gather around. I learned pretty quickly that trying to tear my horse away from this is a nightmare. I took him out one day to ride him and he was a wreck—constantly looking for the others, calling, etc, and under saddle I was almost afraid to be on him. It took me a good portion of the ride to get him settled down enough to actually think about what he was doing. Our arena is placed to where he could see the others at the fence line and all he wanted to do was look over there. When our mare goes out of heat, things are fine. There is the occasional running the fence line or whinnying but all in all everyone pretty much minds their own business. But whenever they all get to running together, or when our mare is in heat and stays down there with them, my horse is very difficult to manage if I take him out alone and try to work with him, whether it be riding or just a grooming session. It’s like he turns into a completely different horse, he’s usually so calm and laid-back but with the addition of these two neighbor horses his separation anxiety has come out full force. I’ve gotten through it thus far by either avoiding it (not messing with him while they’re all acting crazy) or suffering through it, and now I want to try to fix it. I realize that I’ll probably never cure it completely, but I want a calmer, more focused/relaxed, and more respectful horse, regardless of what his buddies are doing. I find that it’s not so much that he really cares about those horses, it’s when all seven of them get together he just wants to follow the crowd. It’s very frustrating and annoying. I want to have the tools to be able to work through these times when he’s acting like this.
Does anyone have any advice on ways that I can get him to be less like this? To keep him focused on me and respectful, but also to get him back to the point where he wants to be with me and is okay with being separated from the fence line drama. It seems like the usual 'work them to get their mind on you' doesn't really work with him, it usually makes him more prone to throwing a fit. But at this point I'll try anything.