Horse being a right idiot about being out in the field.... Any one else have this??

Vickijay

Vickijay

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Hi.

I know this should maybe be in NL but figured that people with sharper competition horses may have this problem more....

I am fed up about my daft horse who is being a plum about being outside. She is just brill in every way apart from going outside in the field. She just hates it.

She will walk around, not up and down (thank god as that would really annoy me!) but around and around. Not really stressy, just walking around almost constantly! She occasionally will jump in (and has come over some big 5' plus fences!) She does like to go out but wants to come straight in after a roll and a run around. The worse things she does is makes my other horses walk around too, she will almost round them up, like shes loose schooling them and they conform to her hearding them up and walk around where shes telling them too.

She did spend alot of the winter in and I was ok with that as we dont have much land and it gets wet but now the days are sunny I think she should be out (the others are now out 24/7) but she really isnt ok about it. I could try her out by herself (but next to the others) but think she will be worse. I also dont want her walking tons of weight off and shes barefoot and the ground is pretty hard now which wont do her much good.

I just want to shout YOUR A HORSE YOU ARE MEANT TO BE OUTSIDE AND HAPPY ABOUT IT!!!!

But she is happy inside, isnt naughty or sharp to be ridden and would rather be inside by herself than outside with her friends (well I say friends but they are rapidly starting to hate her!!)

Is anyone elses horse like this??

Im going to persevere but Im not sure Im going to win on this one :mad:

Vicki
 
well my pony has never done that to me its rather unheard of as ive always been with greedy little pigs of horses, but first is how much grass is on your paddock for her to eat maybe putting a feed in the field with it if its alone or some hay in a pile.
maybe even seperate her for a while with alot of food in the field so she doesnt disturb the others and can watch them eating.
im sorry to hear your having such a problem its a strange one but its a process of elimination really to find the problem theres no harm in trying different things :)
 
One of ours is like this.:o
He is better when put in a very small paddock, which is made sandwiched between other paddocks with horses in them.
He seems to feel more secure. No idea why. But it does work with him.
He does get better in the warm summer months, but as soon as it gets chilly, well he just wants to come in again.:rolleyes:
 
sorry just reread your original post and the part about her being alone you could feed her a good weight keeping mix or healthy hoof mix, my ponies are on that and they do work quite well, if you just put alot of food out hopefully she will be distracted by it
 
naid pollyanna said:
well my pony has never done that to me its rather unheard of as ive always been with greedy little pigs of horses, but first is how much grass is on your paddock for her to eat maybe putting a feed in the field with it if its alone or some hay in a pile.
maybe even seperate her for a while with alot of food in the field so she doesnt disturb the others and can watch them eating.
im sorry to hear your having such a problem its a strange one but its a process of elimination really to find the problem theres no harm in trying different things :)
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Well I have a VERY grassy field and a not so grassy one, no difference :( She isnt overly fussed about food, she wont eat a bucket of food in the field. There is normally hay in the less grassy field but again she isnt fussed and she wont let my others eat it either.

When she came she was very anorexic and she ate very little, now she eats alot and looks great but she only eats on her terms!! Food just doesnt interest her, Im having to train her about having treats and even that is hit and miss <rolls eyes>

I wish the others would tell her to bu**er off but they wont. I was telling one of them to kick her today!!! They wont though :(
 
naid pollyanna said:
sorry just reread your original post and the part about her being alone you could feed her a good weight keeping mix or healthy hoof mix, my ponies are on that and they do work quite well, if you just put alot of food out hopefully she will be distracted by it
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Shes only alone when she comes in in the day, her friends now stay out 24/7 but there are other horses in at night on the yard keeping her company
 
Bubblegum said:
One of ours is like this.:o
He is better when put in a very small paddock, which is made sandwiched between other paddocks with horses in them.
He seems to feel more secure. No idea why. But it does work with him.
He does get better in the warm summer months, but as soon as it gets chilly, well he just wants to come in again.:rolleyes:
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Did he round the others up when he was with them?
 
My young mare is like this, she goes out in what looks like a perfect paddock, and she will literally stay in it for 15 minutes before she starts screaming to come in, ive tried ignoring her which works for a minute or so, but the minute she catches sight of you, she starts galloping around to come in. With my girl its irrelevant who's out, she seems really bothered and fretfull that she is out and desperate to come back in, once in she's as cool as a cucumber. I think a lot of my mares problem boils down to her hormones, she's always worse when in season. Ive managed to cure my mare by popping her in one of my starvation paddocks opposite the stables, she is the closest one to the stables with barely any grass on it, yet she happily nibbles away at minute amounts of grass and is happy. I just make sure mine get lots and lots of hay. Hope you find a solution with your mare, its so frustating when they won't behave as they should!!
 
Benjis_girl said:
My young mare is like this, she goes out in what looks like a perfect paddock, and she will literally stay in it for 15 minutes before she starts screaming to come in, ive tried ignoring her which works for a minute or so, but the minute she catches sight of you, she starts galloping around to come in. With my girl its irrelevant who's out, she seems really bothered and fretfull that she is out and desperate to come back in, once in she's as cool as a cucumber. I think a lot of my mares problem boils down to her hormones, she's always worse when in season. Ive managed to cure my mare by popping her in one of my starvation paddocks opposite the stables, she is the closest one to the stables with barely any grass on it, yet she happily nibbles away at minute amounts of grass and is happy. I just make sure mine get lots and lots of hay. Hope you find a solution with your mare, its so frustating when they won't behave as they should!!
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See that sounds like her! She likes her friends so I stupidly thought she would rather be out with them rather than in by herself, but no! I dont think its her hormones as I cant even tell where she is in her cycle (and couldnt last summer either) Shes just odd and annoying! I moan about her to people but they just say shes super and lovely!! I want her to live out but I dont think that will ever happen. She is so lovely though that I forgive her this but it is annoying!!
 
Mine won't go out in winter, so he's in 24/7 in winter and loves it, but thankfully he is fine with being out 24/7 as soon as it dries up.

My advice is to listen to your horse. If she is happy in, leave her in. They're all different just like people, and just because she's 'meant to be out and happy' it doesn't always work like that.

As a YO, it really annoys me when liveries put horses out (in summer aswell as winter) and the horse clearly HATES it...........normally shown by pacing or running/walking around. But they just leave them out as they doen't want to muck out twice per day, grrrrr. I never interfere though..........unless they are recking my fields that is ;) ha ha.
 
My old mare used to be like this in the winter. Eventually she was losing weight because she would stand miserably instead of grazing, so I conceeded to her wishes. She used to go out for an hour or two then come in and stand with a fat haylege net, and was the happiest pony in the world when kept like this.

Sunny summer days were different, but even during horrendous summer showers she'd prefer to be in.

If you can bring her in, it might be better not to fight her. Some horses hate being in, some horses hate being out.

What might work is to keep her in and then slowly (say by 15 minutes a day) increase the amount of time she's out to see if you can retrain her mind to the concept.
 
My mare was institutionalised(spelt right?). She was rarely turned out in her prev competition life and I was also advised never to do this to her, as she would just pace which did proove to be true.

I guess when they work hard it's a lot more practical to keep them in and this is probably why they get to be that way?

She was terrified of the great outdoors and felt very insecure. Given time though, and good company, plus being the closest to the yard where she can watch the comings and goings, she has grown to enjoy it........a bit;). She still likes to come in, eat pony nuts, roll in the straw, be groomed and faffed about with and be the centre of attention for a couple of hours or so. This must be done at her convenience of course and when she's had enough, she will ask to go out again.:D

As other posters have said, listen to your horse and manage accordingly. Believe me I feel your pain, but hey! Who said owning horses was easy?:D:D
 
I guess we all expect horses to love being out but, like people, they're all different and if your mare is really happier in her stable let her do that, I'm sure her friends wo'nt mind! I have a TB gelding who hates getting wet so, because I'm lucky enough to have my own yard, I can divide it up with electric tape and he can go from his stable to paddock when ever he likes. This works for him as he can get out of the rain and away from the flies when hot. As other have said, in end it's better to got with her than try to change her to what we all see as the norm.
 
MillionDollar said:
My advice is to listen to your horse. If she is happy in, leave her in. They're all different just like people, and just because she's 'meant to be out and happy' it doesn't always work like that.
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This completely.

My horses are not so extreme (although Rauti wants to come in after 4-6 hours, I could never have him out 24/7 as he would hate to be out for so long, he loves being in his stable). However I have known several horses exactly as you describe, two dressage geldings in particular were precisely like that, both were clearly so much happier inside than out, they really hated being out. Both were kept in and just grazed in hand, which they loved.
 
I have a couple like this, one mare that we imported will not stay out longer than a couple of hours. she enjoys a quick roll and nibble then demands to be brought in.
We have another one that is only 5 and very hot to ride so we are trying to encourage her to stay out a bit but you have to be so careful they don't get upset and hurt themselves.
For me the worst is the guilt seeing them inside on a sunny day. And also everyone else judging you
 
I've meet 2 horse like yours.

One was in a riding school.Poor boy had spent so much of his young life inside (due to illness as a baby apparently) that he only felt secure surrounded by 4 walls. He'd spent so little time with horses that he didn't speak 'horse' well enough for other horses to be a comfort. They spent a lot of time fixing him: he first was given a huge barn/stable and a small kind (but not easily cowed) pony to be friends with, who taught him how to be friends. He then went out with his special friend for short periods whilst he learnt to graze properly then finally into a massive wooded field where it was impossible to fence walk. He initially was glued to his friend but slowly gained confidence. When I meet him they were finding him difficult to bring in ;)

Other one was a continental warmblood who again had never been out since he was ikkle. They just let him stay stabled and tried to ignore his grumpiness.
 
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My old mare was exactly like this, she hated being out. Like you I used to get a bit cross about it thinking its wrong for a horse not to want to be out! I did manage to wean her gradually into a 2 hour turnout time. She would refuse to go out with the others at turnout time so the YO would put her out at about 11 and I would fetch her back in when I arrived at 1, she could cope with this (just) although if the weather was bad the YO would take her up to the field at 11 and she wouldnt let her leave without bringing her back too! :o She too was completely alone in an american barn when in during the day, thats where she was happy and content though. I got to the 2 hour turnout point by literally extending the time she was left by 5 minutes each day, before she was upset and pacing to come in so she always knew I was going to return before the point she was unhappy. It worked (yep I basically trained her like a dog with seperation anxiety! :eek: :o) but as I say whilst she was in her ridden career and on that yard I never got it longer than 2hours.
However when I retired her I brought her home with my old pony and they could come and go in and out of the stables as they wished, she was happy with this and spent most of her time out.
 
Countrychic said:
For me the worst is the guilt seeing them inside on a sunny day
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See this is my main problem. The days are nice and I feel bad if I leave her inside, but then I turn her out and shes a eeediot about it. I wish one of the horses would stand up to her and say "NO I WILL NOT BE MADE TO WALK AROUND NOW $OD OFF" but they wont. I wonder if she would be better in a big group but we dont have that and I dont think Im brave enough to move yards as either it wont work or she may well get hysterical or injured in the process when someone says they wont conform to her walking around schedule! At least its not up and down its just random patterns around the field.

Fortunately the people on my yard know what shes like so dont judge me, but I almost judge myself, even though I know she is happier in. Interestingly enough she is also alot quieter to ride when she has been in. When shes been out its almost like shes sharper and more on edge.

As Measles said, I have been turning her out whilst I poo pick and top up troughs (so about 10-15mins) and then bringing her back in again. I just think it must suck but its what she wants so I guess it cant be that bad for her. I just cant help but feel a bit bad, best just to get over that though as I doubt she will change!!
 
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