advice to settle in new horse

[suzanneand bayley]

ok so i got a new horse on trial for a month last thursday, the background to this horse is that it has lived alone with no other interaction with any other horses for 11 years at its previous home, it is a 19 year old tb, when i went to view was very quiet and settled.....and i soooo want him to feel that calm and relaxed in his new home as his fizz/exciteability is doing my confidence damage

so i need advice to help him settle, so far ive been walking him up and down the yard, have introduced him to one other horse slowly firstly separated them after a settling time we let them in together and all went well but when we took the other horse out of the arena he had what can only be described as separation anxiety....
so far he has charged out of his stable, and when bringing him out of the arena one of the other liverys was standing with her horse and he charged straight at this horse to meet him, i dont think he wants to do any harm he just wants to meet them and make friends,but is going the wrong way about it i guess....
my next thought was to let him out for a day with the horses in the field to let him meet them, and hopefully make it not such a big deal for him that there are other horses in the world...
any advice would be much appreciated....
thanks for reading this long, badly punctuated, ramble

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I'm not surprised he is suffering from separation anxiety, if he's been kept on his own for 11 years!
What we always do, is put the new one into an adjoining field to the herd so that they can get to know each other over the wall, watch them carefully until we think they have settled enough to go in together (the length of time can vary from a few hours to several days). We have also learned to have back shoes taken off, after a lucky escape not very long ago.
Then we make sure that they are all hungry and have got plenty available to eat and then put them in together. If you put hay/lage into the field, you need to have several more piles than there are horses to avoid fighting.
I think you do have to take precautions but then leave them to get on with it.

 

[Pinkvboots]

He must be terrified he is going to be on his own again, that is a long time to be kept alone, I would get him into a routine same everyday if possible if he is used to being out put him out see if he will go alone in a adjoining field, if not try him with one other horse to start with, I have a mare with separation issues it takes good management and you need to think ahead to avoid him being upset, example my mare would rear and thrash around if she saw my gelding leave his stable, so I removed her first and would put her on the walker, that way her mind is focused on something else and she cant see him leave, when she returned she never saw him leave so she was happy.
She had lived in a large herd as a brood mare before I had her so she just attached herself to him as he was the only horse around, she would jump out of the field to be with him, after 4 weeks of separating them I could turn her out without him in a field on her own as long as horses where in the next field, it will get better it just takes time good luck.

 

[MrsHutt]

I totally sympathise! We think Hugo was kept on his own previously, so now he has attached himself well and truly to other members of the large herd he's now in! He was thrown in at the deep end as he arrived just as the snow did, so he was stranded in the field for a fortnight with 8 strange horses! It has made him very excitable, too and strong and nappy in the school.

He arrived at the beginning of December and he's just now starting to have 'good days' (not every day) when he obviously feels a little more secure. Today was a good day. We had a shared lesson with my very sensible, calm knowledgeable friend and her very sensible, calm horse (Lovely Bob), and he was great. Then he led back to the field like a star! Nose to my shoulder all the way - unlike yesterday when he pulled, napped and called for his friends the whole way down! I don't know what was different about the two days??

I think the only thing to do with yours and mine is to give them time to settle in - I do see light at the end of the tunnel and I'm going to start doing some groundwork exercises (I was emailed the article by Rith Mazet by your horse mag) which are designed to calm the horse. They seem to make sense to me. Have a look on the website.