*kvetch, whinge, moan* That time of year -- SAD horse

Caol Ila

Caol Ila

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For the last few years, well, ever since we moved to the rainy west coast of Scotland, my horse has acquired the habit of neurotic fencewalking. She is fine all summer but as soon as the weather and daylight changes, off she goes. I've worked out some of the causes and eliminated them, which include being on DIY yards and not having a set, predictable turn-out routine. We are no longer on such a yard, and the one she is on has a very fixed routine. She also does it when it's wet and windy, thus I have bought her rugs with neck covers. This helps, but she still kicks off when the rain and wind comes AND someone brings their horse in during the middle of the day when everyone is turned out. I can't control the weather or when other liveries ride. When I win the lottery, I will buy a house with stables and fields and build her the world's nicest field shelter and buy her a companion of a suitable temperament (happy to run away from her) so she can have her very own pony.

I'm sure she is writing letters to universities in Colorado, California, or at the very least, east coast of Scotland, in the hope that they will give me a job.

As things stand, I feel there is nothing more I can do or change.
 
Don't worry I have the same problem..... And I don't live anywhere near Scotland!

Horse will stay out till gone 7pm in summer....first spot of autumn rain and leaves off trees, horse will not ever stay out later than 4pm and that is on a perfect windless, rainless, warm, sunny undisturbed day.

We have 2 rugs on, grass coming out of our ears, huge field shelter and our best'est friend in the world! However our stable is more attractive, even though we only have hay (not lush green grass) and won't get our tea till gone 5pm!

He fence walks (and trots) for England and is currently tearing up all the grass that has for once grown back where he walked last year......All I can say is 'bring on the liquid mud' as this is what he creates!!!!!!
 
My Welshie is terrible at this time of year...very grumpy and generally not happy no matter what. I have managed to stop his pacing by ensuring he has plenty to eat and is rugged...yes rugged! He is a Welshie but gets intolerable to manage at all if not rugged in winter. But I have accepted that around Oct time each year when the seasons change...so does his mood.
 
i had a horse like this and although we tried everything ,a hint of wind rain or darkness and she was bouncing hysterically to come in. We eventually resigned ourselves to this and brought her in early but she would have been happier to spend the winter inside.
 
I guess I am feeling guilty. In 2006, I moved her from Colorado to the UK. Colorado has much better weather (lack of rain has other hazards, like wildfires, but nevermind). If I had been psychic and known how much she would hate British winters, I don't know if I would have made the decision I made. The year before I left the States, I had two horses, my mare who had I owned for years and was deeply "my" horse, and a young gelding I bought that year as an unbroke project to start and sell on as a useful equine citizen of the world. When I left the country, the gelding had been backed for about six months. If I'd been psychic, perhaps I would have sold the mare and taken the gelding, although I loved her. She was in fact more sellable than he was, as she was 12 or 13 at the time and broke, broke, broke, and he was a grade 4-year old draft cross who had been under saddle for six months. But he was a dude -- he never bothered about anything, from trailering, to being broke to bridle and saddle, to me sitting on him, to trail riding on his own. I can't imagine him being neurotic about the weather. He just wasn't that sort of guy.

But that boat has long sailed and it is completely irrational to even be thinking about it.
 
Just wanted to say, don't be daft. We can't predict the future and can only do what we think is the right thing at any given point in time. Don't feel guilty.
 
I live in the beautiful south and my horses are waiting by the gate to come in by 3:30, trouble is very often I can't get to them until gone 6, I do feel guilty about it, but nothing I can do, not if they want me to pay my livery bills and keep them in the manner to which they've become accustomed.
 
Well, mine didn't move more than 10 yards from the gate this morning as she could sense the impending gales and she managed to stay out a whole 2 hours before I had to get her! More than happy to be in the safety of her stable. No idea how she coped with the first 6 years of her life living out 24/7 all year round!! She hates bad weather and gets really stroppy about it!
 
Coming in early really isn't an option because she doesn't like being in on her own and as I said in the OP, a changeable routine also makes her fencewalk. At a previous yard, myself and YO tried out a policy of bringing her in every time she started pacing and that made it all worse. She doesn't mind being in by herself when I am there, pottering about, tacking up, riding, etc. (although she starts whinnying if I spend too long out of sight, hiding in the tack room), but it's not as if I can move into the barn all day from now until May.

When I was doing my undergraduate degree in Massachusetts, we were at the university's barn, which had limited space and horses were only turned out for two hours per day. I thought this was horrible horsekeeping and indeed, a lot of the boarders (liveries in British) got pretty stressy. My horse, on the other hand, thought she had finally fallen into the lap of luxury.
 
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Mine have no choice as they live out 24/7 but they just dont bother at all with the weather at all. They dont even use the field shelter :rolleyes3:
I do feel for you but you cant beat yourself up over it, you are not phsychic xx
 
Mine starts pacing if she sees people. They don't have to be bringing horses in, the mere sight of them sets her off.
She is in a field where it is difficult for her to see the yard and she is fine with that.
It's a pain that she dictates which field she goes in but thankfully the YO is happy to accommodate her only foible.
On the plus side, she's happy to be in her stable regardless of being in company or not.
Daft mare!
 
And I have no doubt that if my horse had opposable thumbs and a credit card, she'd be booking herself on the next flight out to some place warm and sunny.
 
Caol Ila said:
Maybe I should get her one of those SAD full spectrum lamps. Would the YOs think I had gone completely mad?
Click to expand...

I actually thought of phototherapy while I read this thread, but thought it sounded a little unpractical (and weird) to suggest that you painted the inside of her stable 100% bright, bright white as a part of phototherapy.

Arken_ljusterapi.jpg
 
LOL... If it was my own stable, I would probably try it. I tried an animal communicator a couple years ago and they didn't say anything about the weather, but that her neighbour, who is a grey connie X, reminded her of her mum, who was a bay TB (the horse, not the communicator). This equine psychoanalytic theory didn't get me anywhere, surprisingly enough.

The joys of livery -- you can't really do things like paint the stables white.
 
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