Equine Behaviour - REALLY Need Some Advice (Long Though)

She did it again this morning!

When i arrived, the old owners hadnt mucked out the donks for what must have been months. They now have a really deep straw bed down and are actually laying down at night which is lovely to see.

However, i opened their door this morning to let them out and the female dropped down on the ground and rolled. Then jumped up and ran off bucking because the male had vanished round the corner
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This is only a suggestion, but you have had a lot of changes yourself recently, even the good changes can be stressful. Is it possible that you are projecting all of your stress on to the situation with your horse, hope this doesn't sound patronising or rude.
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Yes its completly possible. Im an absolute nervous wreck. Ive always been precious about my horses and jack has been my best by far. However, all the others have been on livery and having to drive backwards and forwards tends to control my over protective side.

Now hes right outside, im wandering up and down all day to check on him :/

Jack and i have been together 4 years now so he knows me as well. It would be stupid to think he wont pick up on changes with me.

And no, its not patronising
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Ive only checked on him once this afternoon... im trying really hard to leave him alone... i baked brownies instead :|
 
I have only just seen this, and read it all - and frankly I would be just like you, Tierra, and just as worried, if it were my horse in the same situation.
I think the advice you have been given is excellent, and I do hope it is helping to set your mind at rest. Just give Jack a bit more time to get used to what is an enormous change, and I am certain that in a couple of weeks you will look back and wonder why you were stressing.
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The bit about the barn doors is intriguing me, however, and I would love to know what exactly is going through Jack's mind with regards to them . ...
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Please keep us updated as I for one would love to know how it's all going.
 
Id love to know what he thinks about the barn doors too. I dont know if there are some funky reflections going on that freak him out.. i dont know if its purely that his fields are behind them.. i dont know if the creaking they make at night is upsetting him or whether hes just trying to avoid looking at the donkeys.

Ive dragged him in tonight and fed him straight away. I let the donkeys wander round the barn while i sorted their hay and he snorted as usual. Ive changed his rugs, picked out his feet and left him with his haylage... the lights are off and im not checking on him til late tonight!
 
Good!
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I think a routine, the same every day, will be excellent for both of you. And not too much checking!
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I think a good part of his problem is not quite knowing what is going to happen, and when. A pretty strict routine for a while will really help him settle, I believe.
 
I'd leave him in the stable he is in at present, right next to the donkeys. He will get used to them; they always do, although I always get the feeling that horses do have a habit of viewing donkeys as inferior beings.

Windows and mirrors are funny things - sometimes we would let our little pony come down to the garden and she used to stand on our patio looking through our full length windows which went the length of our house. She loved looking at herself in these windows, but one day, she fell out with "herself" and after a bit of ears back and snarly noses, she turned to kick "herself". Luckily I was there and moved her away from her reflection and didn't let her come back down to the garden after that. I agree with you that he is having a similar thought process to her and he thinks there is another horse at the doors.

He'll settle; don't worry about it. It may take a couple of weeks but he will in the end I'm sure.
 
Oh believe me, I have had to go through a lot of trial and errors here aswell during my time settling in here. Nowadays is okay as I know all of the horses here so well and most of them know each other, so there is generally no error in judgement of bringing in new horses ..... however if you read the aggressive horse saga then you'll know that it doesn't always go swimmingly - and often not for anything you've done. By the way she is great now! Really sucky little filly.

These weird and unexpected situations do generally all come good in the end but there is sometimes a fair bit of stress on the journey there.

Have faith and go get yourself a nice glass of wine.
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As the owner of an exceeding neurotic mare who takes weeks to settle anywhere different, I would certainly give him more time before making any rash decisons. Our 3 have all got used to the resident donkey (who incidentally also rolls on concrete
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), and in fact Murph who doesn't get on well with other horses absolutely adores the donk. Just a thought regarding the doors, there aren't any rats about perhaps running over it or something are there? We had a pony who used to stare like this at one point in the stable and we discovered it was a rat run
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. Sorry, hope that hasn't freaked you out but is just a suggestion.
 
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! rats!!!! :O :O

What is it with donkeys and concrete? :/ Shes done it again tonight. They have a massive bed, they roll in the mud when out and then she comes in and rolls on concrete...
 
Yeah MM has a good point about the rats. Another I wondered, would this barn have ever been used as a "killing barn" as was often the case in earlier years in Denmark? My horses are really funny about going to one of my neighbours place. We eventually found out there used to be a slaughter barn there and it's the only explanation we can come up with why everyone's horses are nervous over there.
 
You think doing a full disinfect would help with that tia?

Tbh, i dont know a whole lot about the place. It was a working farm at some point without doubt. Two of the sheds (and the one im wanting to convert to stables eventually) are very clearly cow sheds. I dont know if the stables were part of the original farm or added after. They're not new-new, but it doesnt mean they were here originally.

The barn doors arent great as they're not high and i wondered if its the change in light contributing also?

I'll happily disinfect the whole damn place if that would help. Although if its something to do with their supposed sixth sense, i dont spose i can do much :|
 
I don't think that would make much difference, at least not in my neighbours case - as her killing-shop isn't even there anymore. It's now a garden area, but even her horses are total freaks when they get to the area where it's been. We aren't superstitiousy people, but there definitely is something there that no-one's horses like.

The light could well have something to do with it - or the noise of the wind? How about putting a radio in the barn and leaving it on all the time and see if that helps him?
 
Radio i think would be a great idea as hes tense atm so i suspect hes listening for things.

Just done my last check of the night and turned the lights out. Hes poo'd and eaten and while he was resting one hind leg, he still looks like hes on alert. Perhaps its purely an issue of him not yet feeling secure in his new home? He must be so tired though if he spends all night on high status alert awaiting attacks
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Its a quiet area down a private lane also so hes not being disturbed by anything other than passing wildlife.
 
He did eat his hard feed from his trough tonight though, which is the first time. Usually he wont move from his guarding spot by his door, even for carrots. I fed him at around 5:30 and when i checked at 8pm it had gone. So hes moved a bit
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Put him out again first thing and rather than running off to the other horses, hes lingering around the lane-side of the fence closest to the donkeys grazing.

I think im going to mix them this week. Although going to find out what my OHs schedule is as id like some backup should it go wrong
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Dont want him hurting the donks
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Sounds promising.
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Most donkeys are smart little critters. They have this habit of managing to get themselves out of the way pretty sharpish when trouble looms.

Blooming stressful though eh?
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Yep very!

Jack has never been agressive with other horses but he did look like he was showing some agression to them the other day.

Im very proud of mr donk. Him and mrs donk have been together for a couple of years and are pretty attached and i was warned he could be naughty. Hes been very good with jack and not reacted to him at all. Even when mrs donk and jack are sniffing each other over the wall.
 
Tierra please don't worry about the donks, they can really shift when they want to! Whenever my horse has a loopy moment in the field, my donkey always gets out of the way pronto. When I got my donkey companion I just turned the 2 of them out together with some tape separating them just in case. After 24 hours I took the tape down and they have been fine ever since.

I know it's easy for me to say but I'm sure Jack will be fine before too long. I also would love to see some pictures of all of them.
 
We've decided to seperate the winter field in two with some electric fence and throw them out like that this week.

Lemme see if i can find the dongle for my phone to allow me to transfer piccies. If i can, i'll go on a crazy piccy taking spree in a few mins
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