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Major separation anxiety help please

1K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Smilie 
#1 ·
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.
 
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#2 ·
The important thing to consider when working a buddy sour horse is where you work them, and where you offer a rest. If you have just been trying to work through it without really thinking about where you are in relation to his buddies, I can see how it would make it worse.

When I get a buddy sour horse in, the work starts before I ever throw a saddle on. I will use a rope halter and 14 foot lead and a flag. Right where I caught my horse by his friends i'll put him to work lunging him. When he is on the side of the circle by his friends, I wave my flag and put a lot of pressure on him. When he is on the far side of the circle, I leave him be. A horse will start to drift away from that area of pressure, seeking out that release. I will let my horse take me all the way to the gate of the pasture in this manner, so by the time I am ready to saddle up, my horse is already thinking that his pasture mates are no fun to pay attention to.

When I do mount up, I do so close to where my horse wants to be, so in your case it would be close to that fence line. Then my first thought is "Show me what we need to work on." I'll throw my horse a loose rein and first see if they get stuck anywhere. He is going to go up against that fence. What you do here is a large matter of personal preference. I like to bend my horse into the fence and disengage with a lot of energy ( I want my horse to walk a small circle in front, not pivot on the inside front). With no release of pressure, horses start trying things and a horse will try to drift away from the fence. When that happens, I will turn loose of my horse as their nose is pointed to towards the rest of the arena and leave them alone on a loose rein while giving a rub on the neck.

You are going to go back and forth from the fence a lot the first couple days. Keep it up and you will see that he will start to drift farther and farther out into the arena as he discovers that is the place he is left alone.

As he progresses, it will take less and less to remind him that over there is more work.
 
#3 ·
he is not just buddy sour, but a gelding that is possessive of his 'mare',when she is in heat
The first thing to work on, is his acceptance of being separated. I would thus tie him up regularly away from the herd , until he stands there quietly
When you work with him, either just leading and grooming, not just riding, you have to have zero tolerance for him having his attention leave you,and focusing on his buddies
That means no calling, trying to stare at them, ect
you can use the ;work harder near buddies', also,rest away from them,making the tight thing easy and the wrong thing hard,but basically you have to demand his attention, which in turn builds trust and respect
 
#4 · (Edited)
There is hope! You just have to be firm and consistent.

One of my geldings was a working stud for the first 7 years of his life. He still thinks he has a job to do. This can make riding in group situations or taking him away from “his” mare (a boarder’s horse) difficult. He can still bring a mare into season in less than a ½ hour. He’s a magic man! :wink:

At first he was very much like you describe your guy, unfocused, distracted, quite a PITA and at times scary. Forget trying to trail ride behind a mare in heat!

Anyway, as Smilie has already advised, I kept at it and insisted that he pay attention to me and to the task at hand whether that was on lead, tacking up, in a round pen or riding. (If you have a roundpen, it is a great place to work on movement and focus together without actually being on their backs; easier to read them, see the next part)

Timing is important, catch his mind before it drifts into action, calling or looking and redirect it back to you and what you are asking him to do. Catch him consistently at that point before he acts.

We just rode a trail ride about a month ago behind a mare who had the tail flagging and was winking at him for forty-five minutes, a mare he knows and likes...a lot. She wasn't acting in heat until we got out on the trails. He actually behaved himself and was listening to me. A big difference over a year ago when he threatened to buck because I asked him to move away from two mares he was flirting with!
 
#6 · (Edited)
You can try to separate him by putting him in a paddock separated by a fence, but horses are, after all social animals.

As long as he will focus for you when it is work time, then that is really all you need. Want (such as a horse wanting to be with you) is a separate issue.

One of mine is a performance bred working ranch horse, who was used on one of the largest working ranches in the US. He loves his herd and gains confidence from them. If he sees you with a halter, he will attempt to make himself invisible in the crowd, something I think he learned from his ranch days. The second though that you catch him, you can almost see the mental shift happen; it’s work time and he is all business.

When he is with the horses he is on “horse time”, he can decompress, be with his buds and be a horse. When he is with a human, he is punching the clock and it is time to shift mental gears. I can’t ask more of him than that.
 
#7 ·
Agree, that if the horse is handled or ridden, that is when you expect him to ignor his buddies, and as long as he does that, how he interacts with them while in the pasture is irrelevant
I showed several of our stallions, thus trained them in my outdoor arena, where they could see the mares in the field. That made the principle of having a horse focus on you 100% crystal clear!Once you start hauling them, and show them in mixed riding classes, it becomes even more clear!
We gelded several of our stalllions, after using them for several years, keeping some of the daughters and getting a new stud. All of those ex stallions were integrated into the main herd, after a year or so. Yes, they would run off the other geldings from the mares at first, even still mount mares, BUT when they were handled or ridden, they were just 'geldings'
I would tie your horse up for awhile, after working him, and only turn him back in with the herd when he is standing quietly. This is such great tool, and is so often forgotten by many!None of my horses call, when tied in the barn alone, nor when ridden off by themselves
When you return him to his buddies, okay if he races back to them, as long as he stands patiently while you remove the halter, instead on trying to take off.
 
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