Barn sour?

[niagaraduval]

My horse has been living out with 24/7 with a mare for over a month now.
They were always close but are even closer now, they are never more than 2 foot apart.
When i bring the mare in she's fine but Niagara gets all stupid and tries to jump the electric fence .. When i bring him in he bites me all the time, is 100% spooky whilst leading him back to the yard and he goes mental in his stable. You would think he was wild..
He's never liked being on his own but he's never ''fought'' with me, ever. When I'm taking him. He happily goes for hacks on his own.

But now, if they aren't together Niagara is completely different. He bites ALL the time, He spooks at nothing although he was never that spooky before.. His nostrils are always flared, eyes wide. It's really stressing me out.
I can't separate the horses as i only have 1 field. What do i do?

 

[NoCollection]

What a difficult situation. You would appear to have two choices - to separate them permanently or to teach them to be less stressed about being apart.

When I had a mare who became very difficult about being taken away from her friend, I worked in short and very regular sessions. Each session basically involved taking her away, getting her focus off her friend and onto me, then giving her a reward (handful of feed) and putting her back. At first it would take half an hour and a couple of miles (i.e. out of hearing range) to get her to settle, but remarkably quickly she settled down. It is really is just basic teaching, as we teach them any number of other behaviours.

So keep calm, be firm, and remember to reward the good behaviour.

 

[Booboos]

There is one more option but it does depend on circumstances: a third horse could resolve all the problems by breaking up the pair bonding. I have a small pony for that purpose and he is brilliant, but if you don't want to be responsible for another horse you could offer someone livery?

 

[niagaraduval]

I can't put a third horse in there. Gah... This is so annoying!