My horse is a twit

[little_critter]

The yard my horse is on is a lovely set up. Very relaxed, do what’s best for each horse etc.
He has a stable with a hardcore turnout area that it opens out on.
He has a bed in his stable and at night the stable door is left open so he can mooch in and out as he pleases.
I’ve been finding him occasionally with scrapes on his hocks. Evidence suggested to me that he was playing silly gelding games with the boy next door, reared up and lost balance so sat down.
He managed some really nasty scrapes in early January and his hock swelled up. Luckily simple first aid and cleaning / covering sorted them out.
The grazes are nearly healed and this morning I find he’s scraped them again (very mild this time).
This time evidence suggests he’s actually lying down on the hardcore turnout area rather than in his lovely bed.

So now, because he can’t make sensible choices I will be restricting his liberty and closing him in his stable at night.
You can’t do right for doing wrong with some horses!

 

[PurBee]

How weird he’s laying/rolling? on hardcore when there’s a soft bed.
I’d be inclined to set-up a camera so could monitor what’s he’s actually up to cause the scrapes.

My shelter is like a double stable, left open-fronted for 2 to wander around and sleep in there on the big bed. When i first arranged it i had rubber matting (thick rubber granule 1 inch mats) and bed. My gelding would lay on the mats sometimes and shave hair off his hocks. I then rearranged the bed to use the whole space with just one row of rubber mats at the front, before he got hock sores.
I think he liked the cool floor of the mats, and the rubbing was incidentally happening when he got up/down. But i knew if he continued laying on the mats he’d end up with hock sores, so intervened and made a humongous bed instead.
They have hardcore outside but have never laid on it, favouring the bed.

Maybe your boy favours laying outside in view of other horses? Like herd behaviour 1 keeps watch standing while others lay?

 

[little_critter]

Yes, I think he likes proximity to his friend on the other side of the gate (away from the stable)
I could move his friend into the stable next to him, although that would then curtail any mooching his friend could do because there is not attached turnout pen with that stable.
I’ll see what I can arrange, see if the YO will allow his friend in the adjacent turnout in the day and in the stable at night. My only hesitation is that YO may see this as additional mucking out work / faff.

 

[PurBee]

Has he been on this yard for long?
Mine at first needed sight of each other to lay down fully to feel safe, then as time passed they learnt the environment day and night is safe, they now do sometimes sleep alone in the barn, while the other is wandering about outside.

 

[little_critter]

Has he been on this yard for long?
Mine at first needed sight of each other to lay down fully to feel safe, then as time passed they learnt the environment day and night is safe, they now do sometimes sleep alone in the barn, while the other is wandering about outside.

Approx 2 years, maybe more. I think he’s pretty chilled out about the yard. It’s just he likes being near his aunty (she’s not so keen )

 

[Skib]

Maybe your boy favours laying outside in view of other horses? Like herd behaviour 1 keeps watch standing while others lay?

Or safe to lie down to sleep in the box only if the box door is shut?

 

[poiuytrewq]

My Shetland will do this. I used to give him run of the yard and leave his stable door open because he couldn’t see over the door so it felt like putting him in prison!
I regularly found him lying in the sun on the concrete, or in bad weather he would just sleep outside but under the stables over hang!
He will also gladly roll on any surface.
He’s lucky enough not to cut himself but probably has 10x the fat and hair coverage of the average horse!
It sounds like a lovely set up to me and would seem a shame to have to restrict it. Would rubber mats be an option over the yard area or is it too big?

 

[little_critter]

Right. Aunty pony has been moved back to her stable next to Mr Twit for the night. She was not happy! I’m hoping she will settle after a couple of nights.
It’s like spinning plates trying to keep 2 horses happy in what should be an idyllic set up.

 

[little_critter]

My Shetland will do this. I used to give him run of the yard and leave his stable door open because he couldn’t see over the door so it felt like putting him in prison!
I regularly found him lying in the sun on the concrete, or in bad weather he would just sleep outside but under the stables over hang!
He will also gladly roll on any surface.
He’s lucky enough not to cut himself but probably has 10x the fat and hair coverage of the average horse!
It sounds like a lovely set up to me and would seem a shame to have to restrict it. Would rubber mats be an option over the yard area or is it too big?

The yard area is too big and too uneven to take mats.

 

[rabatsa]

My late mule would prefer to lie down outside on some rubber mats rather than being inside a barn with open bedded stables, which the rest of the equines used. You could look on the camera and see three laid down on nice bedding and she was outside in the rain. She had to come inside to eat anything as the forage was inside the barn. There was even a large straw bedded area inside the barn that she did not use.