Any advice welcome please....

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Claire2010

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Hi, im a new member on here and thought id ask some advice from everyone....

I have a lovely sweet natured mare, that I bought 18 months ago, she has always been a little clumsy but I always put that down to her being a bit green and her size! she's 16.3hh. Over the last few months she has started to get quite spooky whilst out on her own, in company she will quite happily follow and fall asleep sometimes! When she's on her own she's a nerbous wreck.
I recently had her saddle and back checked and they are both fine, as are her teeth, so no pain there. The back lady did do some basic tests, ie crossing her front feet over in the hope that she would realise this was unnatural for her and move them and she didnt she just stood there with them crossed, this I didnt think was normal! She struggles with judging widths, and either wont walk through them or just runs through them, making a funny grunting noise at the same time. If a bucket so much as moves in the yard she will spook and pull back so hard that she breaks free.
She now has developed a new trick, whilst out hacking if she doesnt want to walk down the road on her own, she'll spin round and go the other way, if i try and kick her forward she just rears up, she has never ever done this before, ever! I really didnt even think she would know how to!
I understand that mares can be slightly unpredicatable sometimes, and have temper tantrums every now and then but sometimes the way she acts you'd think she had been beaten, I cannot see that this has happened to her as she had been in the same home for 4 years previously and was settled when i tried her out.
So my question is this, could she just be a typical 'mare' or could she maybe have an underlying problem ie, eye problem. Im open to suggestions as I dont want to give up on her, she's such a sweetie, if no improvement though maybe I should just get the vet to come and check her out.
Sorry for going on so much by the way, just wondered if anyone had any thoughts?!!!
 
First port of call would be the vet and tell them what you have told us. They will do eye checks, coordination, etc They can help you monitor the problem if it is season related and have many ways of dealing with it.
She might just be doing the herd, separation anxiety thing, but it sounds a bit more complex than that!
A lot of large baby horse have problems with width judgements etc, has she banged herself? got stuck etc, have a good think what might have caused this.
The napping on the roads, where does she do it, what prompts it etc... analyse what might be causing it, ie: same distance from her friends, spooky place, you have to think had about this.
Good luck, get on the phone to the vet asap.
 
Thanks for your reply, at least if I have the vet take a look at her I can rule some things out. She is in season at the moment, and it really does play havoc with her concentration. The one road she does it down is a quiet road, she first has to cross a very busy main road, with that she doesnt even flinch!
Although the road is quite enclosed, high trees that hang above so maybe is she isnt all that great at judging things she panics if she feels she is enclosed somewhere, its difficult because she will quite happily follow another horse down their and not even look at anything, she will even follow someone on foot but when she's on her own she's a nightmare, I worried we're going to end up getting hurt. She even spooks at her own poo on the way back, she wont go anywhere near it! very odd.
I can appreciate that some horses are just naturally spooky but its like riding a completely different horse when out hacking on our own.
Yes, she has gone through a gate and caught my leg a couple of times, so maybe she is thinking its going to happen every time.
 
I would definately get the vet to see her and as mik suggests, tell him/her what you have said here. Eyesight is definately worth checking.

If it is just a case of her learning where to put her feet then some horses do need extra help with this! That could be helped by working in hand, over poles, mazes, through man made obstacles, etc. This improves the brain-feet connection, which can be slow in some horses.
 
I was told by the back lady to try lots of in hand stuff with her to get her brain motivated, have been trying it loads but I obviously still need to do some more! Im hoping she might just be a little slow, id hate to think there was anything wrong with her.
 
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