Fellow box walkers advice please!!

GLEEK

GLEEK

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I have accquired(sp) a mare that box walks. I only bring my horses in when it has been raining all day. My mare wants to come in and doesnt do it straight away she happily tucks in to her hay and food. I try to give her a decent amount of hay but adlib isnt ideal for this horse as she can get a bit porky! Last night I brought them in at 7.30 and they were out by 8. She looked like she had been at it for a few hours.

I have 2 young children so i cant bring them in any later and i cant really put them out any earlier. I wanted to know how others get around this problem? Or do you just let them get on with it? I like to bring them in so they can dry off and warm up again and there barefoot so at least there feet can dry off too. They seem to appreciate coming in to start off with, obviously the novelty wears off for her. I had thought of changing how i do things to bringing them in when its raining still but in the day at some point for 5 hours or so. anyone else do a similar sort of routine?

Thanks for any help or advice
 
Could you make a double stable and put a friend in with her?
I never have a horse in that box walks - well tell a lie if we have one that gets stressed in the stable we put it with a friend in a double stable = happy horse:D
 
If she is fairly new to you, she may calm down once she has settled in. They're always nervous types. could you put your hay/haylage in a small-holed net, or double net it to slow her eating. It sounds as though she does it when she is bored.

I had a boxwalker. With her it was seperation anxiety, and she did it when the others were out and she wasn't. She wasn't too bad, and was SO easy to get fit - she did all the basic fittening herself! She never had any problems due to it either.

Could you perhaps put a mirror up in the stable, so she thinks she has company. Or stable toys with treats in that take her ages to get out? Hanging a turnip on a string always worked well in the days before treat balls!
 
Mine seems to do it out of habit as she shows no other signs at all of being stressed. We try and limit it by leaving her turned out as much as poss - she is a hardy girl and seems to have no probs in always being out! We do bring in if it is wet though to try and save the fields. Like you, if she is in overnight her bed is always well trampled! Have experimented with every amount of every bedding poss! She is on rubber mats with a good deep bed of big flake shavings and chopped rape straw. This works the best and it is fully mucked out each morning. When she is in each night through the winter we get through two bales of bedding a week - not terrible as she is wet too! Also can't leave her with ad-lib hay as she is a porker. We just leave her to get on with it - over the year I have had her it has lessened as she was in a massive stable first and she was dreadful! She is in a standard 12x12 now and is much better (she is 15.3hh).
 
I have had her for nearly a year about 3 month ago i moved them to a place with stables.. She is happier out but as i said when its raining she wants to come in. Thats why they only bring them in when its been a full days rain. Its not my place so couldnt make a double stable plus my other one kicks. They can get there heads over into eachothers stables though. Ive done the haynet thing so it does slow her eating down. She wont try a turnip. She is scaed of them!!! (she is a bit strange!!) I could maybe get one of the lick things to put on the wall.

She is in a smaller stable as she is much better then other wise she canters around the box!!!! She is a bit more on the nervous side. I would never leave her in the stable block on her own i think she would try to jump out then.

Glosgirl you must have her twin. They sound the exact same!! Mine is 15.3hh too. What breed is yours?
 
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My old girl does it. She was really bad when in a stable where she could see out over the yard. Now she has a higher door (she's only 13.2hh and has stand alomst on tippy toes to see over) and a stable where she can't see as much going on, and she's better. She does it when she's finished her brekkie and I haven't turned her out yet, or if her field mate goes out before her, but she is much better.
 
I have never owned a box walker but a friend of mine's Welsh sec D stallion box walked. He was a VERY stressy (sp) boy. She tried many things over the years and most didn't work the best was hanging balls from the ceiling at head level around the edge of the stable hence meaning that he could not walk around the outside without banging his head on them. Sounds cruel but he soon leant how to move about his stable without banging into them but not box walk.
Make sure the balls are different sizes and at different levels if you try this.
 
If you have the option to leave them out just do it. Horses don't dissolve! Can you bring in to feed/change any rugs and then just put them straight out again?

Unless your turnout is a complete mud bath or *incredibly* exposed with no shelter most healthy animals should be fine outside.

That way she learns coming in = good things. :-)

If she'd canter round a bigger box what you're doing by putting her in a smaller one is bottling up all that 'flight' into stress. If you put her in a cattle press (is that the word?) she wouldn't box walk at all but it wouldn't be better!

Well done you managing family and horses though - I don;t envy you!
 
my big lad box walks so badly that when he was on box rest earlier this year he had to have two visits from the vet each day to be doped... NOT fun!

I just leave him to get on with it now, unless there is a real reason for him to be standing still - my stressing just makes him worse. I've tried every trick in the book, and the only thing that works is to just leave and let him get on with it. By half eleven each night he's asleep!
 
You're treating her like a human- horses dont need to come in, get warm and dry off. They are designed to live outdoors.
For your mare's well being I would let her live out
 
My horses lived out last year through 3 months of constant snow and -25 so i dont feel i treat them like humans and i know they dont disolve or shrink!

Last year they had a option of a field shelter which they used when it rained. So this is why i have been bringing them in when there has been constant rain as now there is no field shelter and no shelter when there is a northern wind. It is not my own field so putting up a shelter is not a option. As we have had a lot of rain recently the field is starting to get a bit trashed this is another reason for bringing in on the 2 occasions i have done this year. I had thought for barefoot horses it was good for them to come in and let there feet dry off and get out of the mud for a while. I might be wrong.
 
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