My horse won't wee unless at competition

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athenrye

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Hi, my mare will not wee unless she is in her field or at a show and I have no idea how to help her. Yesterday we had to leave for trailblazer 2nd rounds at 8am. I made sure she had 30mins stabled before we left and I knew she had been. By the time we got home it was 4.30 and an hour from home she started rearing in the lorry and getting really agitated. She never has a problem traveling. The second we got home she dragged me to her stable and the second she hit the bed she did the longest wee. We had done our worst ever tests even needing to retire from the 2nd test, having just won the dressage championships at cricklands 3 weeks before so completely out of character for her.

Anyone have any suggestions? I feel really bad taking her away knowing she is going to struggle with needing to go!

Thank you
 
With the Police Horses they had to learn to "go" away from home, as they were off the yard daily, for 8 hours or more for a special event. They were trained to pee on a whistle. It would be a fine old sight when they were out, for instance at football, in a troop, and would be taken to some grass, all stop, all whistle, and a whole troop peeing. Members of the public liked it so much they would take photos!

We would start at the times we would know they would pee, like at the end of the day when the horse went to bed. It is important to whistle before they start to pee, and keep whistling until they do. With repetition they would know to pee on the whistle.

With my own horse we trained him like this, he would be bursting when he got home, so first of all we whistled once he was loose in the stable, then we whistled (on a separate occasion of course) in the stable before letting him off the headcollar, and if it took a long time then we waited a long time! Then he had to pee on the gravel yard before being allowed to go to bed, and if it took a long time, then bed time was later that day. We did the same with the Police horses, firstly loose in bed, then while held in bed, then off the lorry and onto grass.

I have had Police Horses who would push a bit out to be obliging 3 times in one ride. In fact Jay Man was using a lot of bedding this winter as he was resting for a suspensory injury, only 4 hours on restricted turnout, so he was made to pee in a pooper scooper morning and night, which saved a lot on bedding.

It does take time.

I had to laugh though, as he has not been travelled for months, having had a year off. This week he came back from the vet for his final scan, and as soon as he was off the box he remembered the routine and peed on the gravel, even though he would have preferred to wait until he was in bed.

Alternatively, before Jay Man was trained I would bed the box down well, so he was comfortable to pee in there. Better that than have him lack performance. I am talking a non slip bedding, I would usually take OK but not totally fresh shavings bed from his stable, so it was not dusty or slippery, but was not rank either.
 
I trained my gelding to wee into a bucket with a bit of bedding in it when he was on box rest. I'd tie him up outside to muck out, put him back in on lovely fresh bedding and the first thing he'd do was p*ss all over it. Didn't take long to train.

The other thing you may want to think about it checking for infection as that may make her uncomfortable too.
 
Mine would never wee away from home and we had a few long days when he wasn't great in his second test. I always had a sprinkle of shavings down but I started putting loads of bedding down (literally half a shavings bale in one side of a 3.5t box) and we found he would happily wee on that if he was left on the box for a while.
 
Peregrine Falcon said:
I trained my gelding to wee into a bucket with a bit of bedding in it when he was on box rest. I'd tie him up outside to muck out, put him back in on lovely fresh bedding and the first thing he'd do was p*ss all over it. Didn't take long to train.

The other thing you may want to think about it checking for infection as that may make her uncomfortable too.
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I'd get her checked for infection as well or has she always done this? Otherwise, can you put shavings down in the lorry so she can hopefully pee iin there? Most of mine would never pee in the trailer due to the splashes - although one does religeously, she wont pee at a show but will the second we put her in so my mother is now trained to have a bucket ready to catch it... delightful job for her!! If she pees in the field, can you try to find a patch of grass somewhere at the showground - most will have some somewhere (even if you have to ask to just walk into a nearby empty paddock).
 
Thanks guys. I am really confused as this wasn't what I posted originally, I have just re set my password as something really odd happened and I hope it was only me not checking predictive text!

What the post did say was she won't wee at competitions and will only wee at home in the stable or her field. I will try the bedding in the lorry and also some pre show training. I did consider calling ahead and seeing if I can pop her in a stable for 5 mins and would pay and clean up afterwards.
 
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