Horse not happy in stable alone

liannexsx

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What would you do?
Brought my 3 year old in tonight. Her pals are out in field and one is in a pen outside stable block as injured.
She really wasn't happy in alone. Spinning around the stable, jumping around bouncing off the door etc. not helped by her pal screaming outside. Already had radio on.
Ended up bringing screaming boy in but too be honest didn't help much as already wired by then.
Wondered if being beside her may help as she is quite my girl! However only ended up stressing her as she bounced me off door getting a fright at birds on the tin roof!
So my question.....what would you do? My instinct says bring her in alone, hay on floor and leave her to it. I do have a top door that is wooden slats (not big enough to get a foot through).
Just a bit fed up that everything is so hard with this horse! Lol. I think she maybe also needs a bit of work!
 

emma.is

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I'd be doing everything very slowly, three is young. Bring her in alone, give her a feed and put her back out. Then increase the time she is in before and after the feed by five or ten minutes until she is in for however long you want her in for.

Why does she need to be in alone?
 

liannexsx

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Yes that's my immediate plan to see if it improves.
She needs to be in alone to let her legs dry off to get mud fever prevention on. My field is up a road so I don't want to bring in two at a time, and I really think she needs to learn its ok to be alone too.
I will try in morning too as she may be a little quieter.
Thank you. Need to bounce off others!! I do think gradually building it up to start with.
 

emma.is

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Yes that's my immediate plan to see if it improves.
She needs to be in alone to let her legs dry off to get mud fever prevention on. My field is up a road so I don't want to bring in two at a time, and I really think she needs to learn its ok to be alone too.
I will try in morning too as she may be a little quieter.
Thank you. Need to bounce off others!! I do think gradually building it up to start with.

yeh just build it up very gradually, make the stable a really nice place for her to be :)
 

paddi22

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As the other said, gradual is the best place to go. Is it possible to start by tying her up where she can see the others?

My lad was a nightmare coming in by himself. I had to make it a huge treat to come in for him, feed, hay, lickits, grooming.

Also what really worked for me was doing a lot of groundwork with a natural horseman guy. I did a few sessions and then all his seperation anxiety stopped once i was there. He knew i was the boss, so it took the stress away from him.
 

liannexsx

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Yes the horsemanship horse stuff can be good. We do the whole pressure/release idea. I'm waiting on our arena being enclosed so I can get her in a space and doing things with.
I think when I bring her in next time I'll do a bit of backing up etc outside to get her listening to me.
 

liannexsx

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Update...
Brought her in this afternoon. Whole lot calmer coming when I called in field.
As part of my job I am a psychotherapist and doing an exercise earlier I evaluated my communication with her.
So remembered this afternoon to be very clear in my communication. We did a few bits of backing up outside then into stable. She had Haynet there, had her feed and got some sweeties. Stood in alone for 20 minutes. Didn't have to bring injured boy in beside her, and she was a whole lot calmer. Box walking a little but not flinging herself around.
Going out to the field was a different story, spooking ++ but we again did some back ups and not worrying about it as its really just a response to worrying in the stable.
So we'll go for half an hour tomorrow.

And this all in the middle of torrential downpours :)
 

liannexsx

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Definitely the repetition.
And I'm afraid she will have to learn to come in alone. It's not practical to have to bring in another every time she is in for something.
Hopefully that's the first time paddy done with. I was just expecting too much yesterday. Everything else has to be done in baby steps with her! More so than the rest of my youngsters
 
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