My Poor Lad

Rockchick_uk

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 July 2005
Messages
542
Location
Walsall, West Midlands
s11.invisionfree.com
Well if some of you can remember i posted last week about "pair bonds" with horses.

My horse had a pair bond with one of the mares on our yard but due to unforseen circumstances her owner chose to move her off on Saturday.

My Indi has been in a right state ever since, hes tense and on edge, acting aggressive towards other horses and just wont settle.

Tonight i got a phone call from my mom saying to get down the yard quick as Indi was in a bit ofa state.

I got down there to find him in his stable having his legs washed down by my mother.

He has managed to rip 2 shoes off (one front and one back) taking quite a bit of hoof with them and took a chunk of flesh off his fetlock which was bleeding. He was lame in trot and slightly in walk too.

I feel so sorry for him because this is not him, he is so on edge hes not acting normally.

Anyway we have bathed and treated the cut and put on his mac boots to protect his hooves until the blacksmith can sort him out tomorrow.

Tonight i have also noticed that on his hooved he has developed a ridge (its worse on one hoof), he has been moved from a bare field to a rested one so do you think this could be because of the grass or something more sinister?
 
The ridge will be because of a change in diet I would say, so nothing to worry about there...

Sorry no ideas about the separation thing..... its a shame to be so upset about their pair bond...
 
I am sorry to hear that their separation has been as traumatic for him as you anticipated in your earlier post
frown.gif
I can only assume that he will calm down in time, but I think the time taken varies from one horse to another. When my friends horse went through the same thing, they tranquilised him until the new horse arrived as he was in such a state. Fortunately, there was only an hour or two to wait in between other horse leaving & new horse arriving. The new boy took his mind off things somewhat.

Out of interest, do you know how the mare that left is coping?
 
Well i have actually spoken to her owner via text tonight and Meg seems to be very withdrawn.

Her owner has said that if she doesnt settle at the new yard she will be coming back but i cant really rely on that for Indi.

When i put him back in the field tonight he went tanking off and literally ran around all the other liveries looking for her, its heartbreaking really lol.

Im going to give him a week and increase his work load slightly to try and take his mind off it.
 
It is so distressing to watch them isn't it? You can only do your best for him, which you clearly are - he will probably start to settle in a couple of days. I think increasing his work slightly is a good idea - try to keep him occupied. Good luck & keep me posted as to his progress as I would be most interested to hear how he gets on x.
 
Thanks for your support hun, its horrible cause im sitting here thinking is he running the fence or stressing out on his own (hes actually in with a large herd of liveries!) but other than my mothers horse he doesnt appear to be interested in any of them.

I just dont want him hurting himself like he has today.
 
If he is in such a state as he is likely to hurt himself again I would get some acp from the vet asap!

Poor lad hope he settles soon
 
Well i went down first thing to check on him this morning and he has managed to throw off one of his mac boots from his shoeless hoof.

He seems alot more chilled out today but that could be because he feels sorry for himself lol.

The blacksmith has put 4 new shoes on and we have re-treated his cut and its clean and looks okay.

I only want to go down the acp route if hes really bad as i dont like the thought of sedating him without trying other things.

I will just keep my eye on him until the weekend.
 
Top