Can horses suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder?

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Mynstrel

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Because we’re sure ours does! He can cope with new things round the yard & go to shows without any problems, but god forbid if something that’s usually around the yard is in the wrong place! OH rode him last night & hadn’t noticed somebody had been using the jump blocks but hadn’t put them back in a line but had left one of them by the big jump wings (shock horror!).

As a result the horse wouldn’t go anywhere near the jump wings or blocks under any circumstances, the toys came out of his cot big time. OH got off & moved the block to the “right” place, got back on & the silly sod worked perfectly from that point on.

Does anybody else get this or is it just our lad that’s odd? I’m just waiting for the morning he’s lined his feed & water buckets up with all the handles facing in the same direction :)
 
Does he check his stable door is shut 5 times?

Does get upset when his routine is changed?

Does he avoid treading on the cracks on pavements?

Does he write lists?

IF so then yes he is OCD!

Otherwise I would just say he is taking the micheal!
 
Our youngster is like that, if you go up to our top field and say the roller has been moved he has a hissy fit, or you go through the village and someone has some new gravel on their drive, he won't go past. Yesterday we went on a hack happily, came back and someone had put some rubbish out, but put it ina different place than usual and it upset it, they know if somethings been moved etc and can get spooky
 
I know someone with OCD, and I am sure her horse has it too - he tiptoes round his stable so he doesnt disturb his shavings, only ever does his poos in one corner of his stable, he never ever rolls either in the stable or out in the field, absolutely WILL NOT go through mud or puddles ......... :D
 
My youngster is like OP's! New things are fine, different home things are not fine! She is getting really good at dealing with it but you can feel her tense up and eyball things when they are not put away properly.

When you do something to B that she doesn't like she stands and licks the wall with a vacant look on her face which is wierd too.
 
this thread made me chuckle :-D if there is anything different or moved and not in its correct place on our yard, my horse notices and has a hissy fit! even on hacks where the trenches have been slightly re-dug out at the side of the road.. he notices. makes me wonder how good a horses memory is and that they do notice small details.
 
My mare always stands in exactly the same spot to have her food (in the far field).
If the gate is open and she has run of the near and far fields she will see the bowl coming, neigh excitedly and trot off into far field and wait for her food.
 
I think my friends horse does - in my horsebox the horses travel facing backwards - it has a side ramp which means you have to turn the horse to the right when you go up the ramp. He will absolutely not turn right. So he has to be loaded first and turn to the left - we then have to put the bar accross the ramp and turn him around he then is more than happy to stand facing the back.
 
Sorry for replying to such an old thread, but I was doing some research into OCD in horses as I have a feeling my mare may have some form of it.. There are little things that always have to be just right, for instance she has to do just one circle around me before she will stand for me to get on her.. And when I'm mounted, she has to be taken out of the field and onto the yard for her girth to be tightened otherwise she makes a fuss. Could it just be that she likes routine or could it be obsessive-compulsive? Does anyone else have any other experience of OCD in horses other than jump wings not being in the right place etc?
 
I'd say you would be unlikely to be able to diagnose OCD in horses and most of the behaviours being pathologized by the above posters in this thread are in fact normal horse behaviours. Most horses notice and react to changes in their environment. Many do not like going through puddles when they can go around them. They also learn by association and by conditioning, and if you always feed in one place in the field, they will go to that place. I could probably train a horse to do one circle around me before I got on her (I wouldn't) and you may have inadvertently done so with yours. All of these things may be viewed as pathological should they occur in humans, but they are pretty normal in prey animals who have survived for millions of years by being attuned to the smallest changes in their environment and easily learn things by Skinnerian conditioning.

Behaviours like weaving and cribbing, because they are obsessional and maladaptive, are probably the closest you get to "OCD," although I still wouldn't call it that because using human psychiatric diagnoses for animals is more than problematic. I'd "diagnose" a cribber as being a cribber.
 
Sorry I can't quote as I'm on my phone.

Sprout - my mare used to do that!! The more OCD I got about mucking her out and doing her bed perfect (I must admit my beds are beautiful!) The more OCD she got about standing on it and pooing in certain places!

I read in a paper that other day that many dogs have OCD, apparently chasing their tails is a sign of it! So horses probably do too!
 
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