Horses go crazy if seperated help!!!

[oldie48]

It makes me quite cross when I hear people say their pony/horse if fine on their own, some tolerate it but I doubt any would choose it. I am in the same situation as you in that I have two at home, fortunately the companion pony is very food focused but I always bring him in with Rose and he's stabled whilst Rose is taken to training etc and I always give him a net just before I take Rose away. TBH he's not the easiest pony to handle but I put up with his quirks because he does the job. I think you are doing exactly the right thing by building up slowly and having them separate but adjacent to each other. Keep going with it and hopefully things will settle down. Fatty was on his own whilst Rose was away for three weeks recently and he coped fine, got a lot more individual attention from me. I expected him to be very clingy with Rose when she came home but he took it in his stride, she's pretty vile to him anyway! I hope you get there. Good luck.

 

[HashRouge]

My mare used to go absolutely apeshit if she was separated from her fieldmate. It's really weird, she has never been overly keen on other horses but has occasionally had the horse equivalent of a "best friend". There was a grey Arab mare, Ellie, who used to stand and wait at the gate whenever I took my mare out of the field, and a 3/4 Arab gelding who absolutely loved her. But she has never been quite as clingy with them as they were with her. But as soon as she met her current companion, when they were both on a livery yard so with lots of other horses, she seemed to absolutely adore him. It's like she knew he was also part of the family, which is odd, but there you go! She's been retired for most of the time they've been kept together, so usually it was him going away from her. The first time it happened, when they'd started going in the field together, she was utterly frantic for the entire time he was away. I thought she was going to go over her stable door and she was making the most godawful noise! It's the most upset I've ever seen her. We kept separating them and I usually stayed with her when my sister rode the other one and she never really got any better for about six years tbh. Now they are both retired she is actually better about being separated, though they generally aren't separated for very long. Usually only if I bring them in one at a time (the gelding can be tricky to catch). But she's okay in the stable without him (she always gets brought in first). He goes batshit though, he *hates* her being taken away from him! I'd say he's much worse than her now, I think he's become more attached to her than he used to be. It doesn't really matter with two retired horses though, they don't need to be separated. If one of them had to go to the vet I'd have to take the other one to my YM's second yard, down the road, for company.