1 tantrum short of my girl becoming dog food!!

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Abz88

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Right, a rant but also,....pleeeease can anyone help!!

My girly will point blank NOT stable! When I say this, she will stable without a worry in the world if I am there! Today, went to see her and she was shivvering through cold (she had a l/w rug on, but it has been snowing here today). So i bought her to the yard to try and warm her up. I took her sopping wet rug off, and chucked her in her stable with a hot dinner. All her bed was nice and fresh and cosy warm, he had lots of hay and fresh water. She stopped shivvering and seemed happy. I decided to leave her stabled for a couple hours (for me and OH to get some dinner) and rug her when she was dry and turn her out.

When we left she hadn't a care in the world....about 45mins later (just ordered dinner out) and I get a phone call from the YO 'Hi there,....can you come and sort your horse out please? I think she's going to go through a stable wall! I have closed the stable up.' Oh bugger,....had to get hawl the OH away from ordering (He was NOT impressed!) and go and get her out (about a 20min drive back). Got back,...she was as if nothing had every happened....was eating,...not weaving, nothing. I opened the stable and there were marks down the door which suggests she was pawing/kicking it. So, I opened the door to the stable,...didn;t want to get out,..just stood in the stable munching her hay,....!!!! Soooooo frustrating! She doesnt care about being in her stable when I am there,....but it seems as soon as I am gone she throws a wobbly! I have been trying to get her used to just being in the stable, put her in ever time I ride, before and after while sorting out other stuff. She has never made a fuss.

What can I do to get her to realise the stable is fine if I'm there or not?!

Any help very much appriciated!

Cheers.
 
TBH I'd just put her in a stable with stronger walls and let her have a tantrum until she gets used to it. There will probably be a point in her life where she'll have to be on box rest and deal with it so you might as well tackle the issue now. Have some company within sight at all times too if at all possible.
 
I would start leaving her in more. But not for long periods. Were there any other Horses in? If she could have a neighbour it may help to settle her. Start by leaving her for around 5 minutes then slowly increase the time. Try hanging some swede on a string to give her something to do. Good luck
 
I have been trying to bring her in as much as I can and have her in the stable when I am doing her feed/sorting tack/rugs, making hay net and she makes no fuss.

She is in a large stable, old fashioned yard block really. She could see about 4 other horses opposite her, but the girl next door doesnt bring hers in much.

She is very very fussy with food and I have tried salt licks, swede, broccoli, sprout stick,...she ignore it, can't be bribed with food sadly. So I am pretty much stuck with a hay net which I hide cut carrots, or an apple in.

I think the YO closed the top to see if it stopped her kicking the door and as she was rearing,...(very very high ceelings!) I guess he didn't want her getting her front feet stuck, as she was kicking out at the door. So, instead, she just paced laps of the stable (better than hurting herself).

She seems fine if I go to the poo pile to dump poo or collect hay (at neither point can she see me), it seems to be when I leave in the car (her stable looks out onto the car park). But even leaving in different cars doesnt seem to help. I guess leaving by car, and doing a 5min drive about then coming back?

But I want her to be able to stay in without trashing the place as if she is ill or gets lami and needs to be in, she wont have a choice, but I wont be able to trust that she wont kick the door down! I have already had to put a clasp type lock on the stable door as she has worked out how to open the top bolt and would easily get passed the bottom flip bolt if she wanted to!
 
Echo Bravo said:
A mirror?But why did YO shut the top door surely that would make the mare panic more?
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I left mine in and had exactly the same problem. I had to stable mine for a week, absolutely fine when I was up there or any of my friends as we would ignore her when we left the stable so she didn't bother doing anything to get attention as wouldn't work.

My problem was that every do-gooder would pass the stable made a fuss and then leave her after 2mins. This just wound her up and up and then they'd pay her more attention when she started kicking off. I left a note on the door requesting that people ignored her and she settled straight off.

In regards to the top door shut, I did this for one night as 2 horses at our yard have got stuck on the door attempting to jump out (and mine has jumped over the gate out the field from standstill, so I know she would try it!) Following day I put up a grill so no chance of attempting to launch through the door but wasn't blocked in, this made her a lot calmer. I wouldn't shut top door unless absolutely necessary.

Pan
 
I had a horse that was a nightmare to stable , in the end I put him in, shut the top door and walked away. I requested that everyone ignored him. I left him with plenty of hay and water and came back 8 hours later. He had totally settled down and I never had a problem with him again. He had a small window he could see out of but I shut the top door incase he attempted to jump out.
 
I had to board up new horse's stable door after she went crazy and nearly killed YO who'd had to leap over the stable door to get out quickly. She then tried to jump out and got her legs caught on the door.

She was much more settled once she couldn't see out and after a couple of nights the board was removed and she was absolutely fine.

While it seems unkind ,it was only tempory and she was so much calmer. Probably kinder than leaving a distressed horse to injure itself.

BTW, your OH is a saint. Poor man having to leave his dinner, my OH wouldn't have been chuffed either.:D
 
put a full grill up so she can see out but not jump over - do not shut top door.
put padding on door/walls to deaden noise when she kicks out and to prevent her hurting herslef.
Ignor bad behaviour, keep bucket of carrots next to door, you hide round corner. when she stops making a din give her a carrot, lots of fuss - then turn out. bring back in after 30 minutes and start process all over agin. carrots and fuss ONLY when quiet and calm. By turning out afterwards you are letting her relieve stress thats been built up.
 
I would never shut the top door personally, personally find that very harsh! Hammer a plank of wood across so they can't jump out but can still see out and leave them to it. Won't take long to get over themselves
 
MagicMelon said:
Try not to stable her? If she hates it that much and you can avoid it, why bother stressing her out?
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Only reason I want her to be good to stable is if she gets ill or needs to be in, I want to know she will be in and not trash the place!! lol
 
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I like the idea of treating whe calm. I have tried to do this when around, but think i need to leave it longer, but longer could be a couple hours!! A weekend job methinks! Do mirrors really work? She will not be bribed by food,...so I'm limited.

Just annoys me that as soon as we came back, she was acting as if nothing had happened!! Opened stable door, didnt run to get out, in fact, turned around and started muching hay! I don't think its the stable,...maybe seperation anxiety?! How do you cure that?! She used to go mad when i left her in her old yard (she was only horse there),...but here, there are loads. Either side of her in field and about 4 she can see from stable. Not sure whats going on!
 
BTW, your OH is a saint. Poor man having to leave his dinner, my OH wouldn't have been chuffed either.:D[/QUOTE]

Yes, he was NOT impressed to say the least, getting dragged from his dinner out,....but he understands animals can be animals...and even his precious little girl (meaning the girly not me!) can go 'horse' sometimes! Even though he is not horsey!
 
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