Help with seperation anxiety

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Abracadabjar

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anyone have any ideas on the best way to cope with this??

I have two ponies living together, grazing together etc etc, Unfortunatly because they have become so attached to each other it is making it impossible to ride them seperatly.

they are on a yard together where it is just the two of them...we have tried today riding one and tieing the other to the other side of the gate, where she broke free...moose bag and sent my youngster on a down ward spiral of not concentrating and basically dicking about.

I thought about seperating them field wise one in one and the other in the next field, but dont really want to stress them all both out.

Ideas on ways to sort this out would be great.

One is 6 and very green and the other is 19 and should know blumming better.
 
Have you not got a stable? You just have to be tough, shut the one in you dont want to ride, and close the top door if she tries to get out, they do learn that their mate is coming back.
 
Two of mine were like this i found that its a long process but if you keep bringing them in seperatly for enjoyable things eg grooming and a handfull of chaff or a carrot even if its just for a few minutes to start with then build it up gradualy they eventually click on that they are going back to there buddy it takes time and patients but its the only way i came across that actually works with out one of them dismantling there stables! hope that helps you.
 
Well, in fairness to them, if they are brought in together, turned out together, fed together etc. then you laid the foundations for this exact sort of scenario and the only long-term, lower-stress solution, as someone else has said, is another horse. You could try removing them by degrees, i.e. bring one in for half an hour one day, then thirty-five minutes the next, and so on building up to a couple of hours, getting them used to the idea that it isn't the end of the world, but there will still be an element of stress until they work out that they aren't going to drop dead. It will take a number of weeks and patience and you'll have to put up with the dinging racket until they learn to get on with their lives, but depending on how long they've been in this routine, they might not be willing to snap out of it so easily, especially if they are still within eye or earshot of each other.
 
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