My horse keeps jumping out the field - help!

[saskia295]

I wonder if anyone has any ideas... I recently bought a 15.1hh, 4 year old Irish Sports Horse. He is wonderful. However, on his first day at the new yard we put him in a field on his own but adjacent to 2 other fields with small herds (of 4/5) in. He seemed quite calm after wondering around a bit and started grazing and walking up to the fence. He then jumped over the fence, which is reasonably high and trotted back to the yard. He was put back in the field and the same thing happened again.

We then thought that he may be wanting company so tried him in a field with 2 very sedate horses. There was the usual checking each other out and some galloping and my horse would come galloping to the gate and stop. Then, when it seemed he was settling, he trotted up to the 5 bar gate and popped over it, trotting back to the yard.

I then thought that maybe he felt intimidated by the larger horses so tried him in with one quiet pony. Things seemed to be going well and they started grooming each other so I felt quite hopeful. After about 10 - 15 minutes (a new record!) he had jumped out again.

Has anyone got any ideas as to how I can improve the situation? He is not in a blind panic when he jumps over the gate/fence. He just casually trots up to it and pops it like it's a small log! Although it is wonderful to see his jumping ability, I would like to see him settled in the field. Has anyone come across this problem before?

I have spoken to the previous owner and she had told me that when the horse was turned out on his own, he would jump into a field where another horse was, but would then settle and graze quite happily all day. He was also out completely over the winter with a number of others. I'm just quite baffled as to why he's doing this, as it doens't seem that anything is frightening him. He was not bullied or chased by any of the horses/pony he was put out with.

I have also tried lunging him for a while in the school before turning him out in the hope that he would just want to graze and have a roll but then he is still jumping out. Can anyone help, please? I'd really appreciate ANY ideas anyone can help me with.

 

[_daisy_]

I know someone who has 2 horses in for training. They wouldnt stay in the field so she had to hand graze them till they slowly settled. She still cant leave them out when shes not around as 1 will jump out and the other crashes through whatever is infront of it. Both of these horses are also very young (4 I think)

I think its going to be time to let him settle. Maybe try hand grazing him on say a lunge line, then next time unclip him but stay close, then slowly edge further away till your out of the field. Also maybe try and find him a friend - maybe a horse who lives nearby his stable?

 

[mickey]

I had exactly this situation with my 15.3hh IrishxTB when I first owned him as a 4 yr old. The first yard I had him at had 3.5ft electric fencing. He just jumped it and went into every single field he liked. I had to move yards because he was jumping into a large field outside the yard's ownership that had a railway track running through the middle....very dangerous. Upon moving him he would jump a 5 bar gate into another field if he felt like it, but this happened only occasionally.
He never was cured of this habit until 1 day he had an accident jumping out. Since that day he has never done it again. It was a shame it had to happen.
I would suggest electrifying the fence and showing him the new fence tape. I would have thought he would be less likely to approach it if it has current running through it. Apart from that, people suggested tying plastic bags on the fence to flap in the wind and scare him, but that never bothered my horse TBH.
If all else fails I guess you will simply have to build the fence high enough (and wide enough) to stop him jumping out. How about having a seperate strip of electric fencing a metre or so in front of the external fence?