Behaviour problems. Please help!

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scottish_girl

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Sorry for what may be a long post!
I'm currently at my wit's end with my 11 year old cob gelding that I've had for 5 years. He is constantly breaking out of his field at night, going through the electric fence which has been set very high because of him. He is also turned out in another field during the day where his is again ignoring the electric fence and breaking the two spar "sturdy" wooden fence. Nothing seems to stop him at all no matter how many times he is zapped by the fence. Since last winter with it being very long he has also now stopped hacking alone. We have overcome the problem with bolting home thankfully but I cannot get home to walk out of our yard. I have tried walking him on foot down our lane where we then meet a quiet road but at that he fights and leans on fences so I cannot get him to move. He does suffer from sweetich but this year he has been very well managed after finding the right combination of rugs and lotions.
He has had his teeth checked and his back checked a few weeks ago, he was a little stiff across his pelvis but was told nothing that reflects his behaviour.
He is also very head strong and dominant on the ground which we are trying to overcome but it is a slow process.
Is this his dominance, boredom or frustration? Any advice will be appreciated I'm at a loss of what to do!
 
It sounds like there's quite a lot going on with him - I'd get a qualified behaviourist (a proper one, not a horsemanship trainer I mean), as they will help you work out what's triggering the field behaviour, and that is probably linked to the hacking stuff. It's worth every penny!
 
Yes there is so much going on and that's why I think I'm at the point of where to start to resolve this!! Thank you very much I will look into a behaviourist, someone mentioned to have a psychic medium "speak and listen to him" but I'm unsure if I believe in that to be perfectly honest!
 
If this is a change in behaviour, can you pinpoint anything in his management which has changed? Look at his feed, companions, yard, time in/out, even bedding. It is possible that something that has changed has upset/irritated him.
 
He has lived in the same field, with the same horses, same daily routine (pretty much to the minute), same feed for the past 5/6 years. I cannot seem to pin point what's changed to reflect this difference of behaviour. Due to living out 24/7 I originally put his behaviour down to the cold and extended winter we had this year and linked it to boredom but it's getting beyond a joke now and can't keep using that as an excuse!
 
One of the things that I found that was affecting my horse was the food that passersby were feeding her. Do you have public footpaths, or are you accessible to children passing on their way to school, or something similar, which could mean someone is feeding him something unsuitable?

Are you giving him a sweetitch supplement?
 
His field is on a path which leads to houses but from what I know the people/children are past the stage of feeding the horses as they have been there for so long now.
He's not on any supplement's at the moment for his sweetich, he's been managing great with a rug and neem oil this year
 
if he is wearing a rug all of the time the electric fence is probably not hurting him. i read somewhere about putting something on the rug which was touching the skin and then the horse did actually get the full force of the current. i cant remember what they did but it may be worth googling...
 
He has to wear a sweetich rug so I'm not sure how the current passes through to him. I did watch him once literally go onto his knees and crawl under the fence so it only hit his bum and when the fence hit him he shot off. I thought that would stop him but he done it again infront of me. The fences are all double taped now so he can't crawl but he still seems to get through them!!
 
Is he just running through the fence? I've seen that before with a little welsh mare who knew it was going to hurt so just used to get up speed and gallop straight at the wire. Her ultimate aim was to get to grass and nothing was going to get in her way.

If he's got a rug on then cut off a bit of electric tape and fasten it to the front of the rug (tie it onto the clips) and then onto him somehow. That'll pick up the current and give him a decent smack when he touches the fence. Have you got a metal prong going into the ground to earth the energiser? If so, wet the ground around it because that will help with the current too - dry ground is no good.
 
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