iknowmyvalue
Well-Known Member
I think I’ve posted about this before, but after another hysterical episode today I feel we really need to try and solve it. This might be long so bear with…
Went XC schooling with some friends today, he’s happily tied to my lorry. Their horses are tied to their lorry next to mine, he knows and likes one of these horses, one he doesn’t know. Previous group finish their session and 3 ponies appear from behind a hedge at the top of the hill and walk back towards the car park where we are. Pepsi loses his mind the moment he sees them appear. Even though he’s still standing with other horses.
Its not just a bit of calling/tension, it’s full on head in the air, spinning round the car park, shaking like a leaf and dripping in sweat sort of hysterics. One pony comes into the car park and ties up to a trailer further down, the other two disappear off somewhere else. Pepsi continues to lose his mind, manage to get him tacked up and get on but takes him a good 20mins to get anywhere near settled, and tbh he’s a bit nappy and unsettled all session (this isn’t necessarily abnormal, he can be like that in a group sometimes)
He is a horse that can sometimes be nappy, but this is another level of stress entirely. The only thing I know that consistently sets him off like that was when he was tied up in a previous yard and another horse walked past and behind the stables where he saw them then they’d disappear. He gets a little stressed if you leave him in at home and turn all the others out, but nothing like this. This is pure panic.
He can go to a show with horses coming and going everywhere, he doesn’t care. He can work in an arena with a horse and then they can leave. He can pass other horses out hacking. We see Dartmoor ponies a lot out and about and he basically ignores them. He is “aware” of horses passing along the road you can see from our arena but it’s a momentary distraction then back to working as normal.
We go to lessons every other week where it tends to work that we arrive, one horse is just getting ready to leave, they leave and he’s by himself, then another horse will finish and “appear” through the trees back at the car park. Again, no reaction to anything, happy munching a haynet. He’s been xc schooling/to arena hire before and seen horses arrive/leave whilst getting ready, and only once or twice has he had a reaction like this.
He also had one competition about 3mo ago where he was like it, again, no obvious reason. Venue he’s been to multiple times, same parking situation but that time he just lost his mind. We’ve been back since and he was completely chilled.
I think the biggest frustration is that I can’t work out WHY certain things set him off at certain times. Also because he can’t learn in the panic state but he goes from completely relaxed to complete meltdown in <30secs. Any ideas?!
Went XC schooling with some friends today, he’s happily tied to my lorry. Their horses are tied to their lorry next to mine, he knows and likes one of these horses, one he doesn’t know. Previous group finish their session and 3 ponies appear from behind a hedge at the top of the hill and walk back towards the car park where we are. Pepsi loses his mind the moment he sees them appear. Even though he’s still standing with other horses.
Its not just a bit of calling/tension, it’s full on head in the air, spinning round the car park, shaking like a leaf and dripping in sweat sort of hysterics. One pony comes into the car park and ties up to a trailer further down, the other two disappear off somewhere else. Pepsi continues to lose his mind, manage to get him tacked up and get on but takes him a good 20mins to get anywhere near settled, and tbh he’s a bit nappy and unsettled all session (this isn’t necessarily abnormal, he can be like that in a group sometimes)
He is a horse that can sometimes be nappy, but this is another level of stress entirely. The only thing I know that consistently sets him off like that was when he was tied up in a previous yard and another horse walked past and behind the stables where he saw them then they’d disappear. He gets a little stressed if you leave him in at home and turn all the others out, but nothing like this. This is pure panic.
He can go to a show with horses coming and going everywhere, he doesn’t care. He can work in an arena with a horse and then they can leave. He can pass other horses out hacking. We see Dartmoor ponies a lot out and about and he basically ignores them. He is “aware” of horses passing along the road you can see from our arena but it’s a momentary distraction then back to working as normal.
We go to lessons every other week where it tends to work that we arrive, one horse is just getting ready to leave, they leave and he’s by himself, then another horse will finish and “appear” through the trees back at the car park. Again, no reaction to anything, happy munching a haynet. He’s been xc schooling/to arena hire before and seen horses arrive/leave whilst getting ready, and only once or twice has he had a reaction like this.
He also had one competition about 3mo ago where he was like it, again, no obvious reason. Venue he’s been to multiple times, same parking situation but that time he just lost his mind. We’ve been back since and he was completely chilled.
I think the biggest frustration is that I can’t work out WHY certain things set him off at certain times. Also because he can’t learn in the panic state but he goes from completely relaxed to complete meltdown in <30secs. Any ideas?!
once I’m on all he does is sweat up and jog rather than walk. Its the part where I have to try and tack up and get on a spinning sweaty mess that’s less fun…
(and tbh I can mostly avoid situations that are likely to cause drama, it’s just random things like today where I don’t expect it)
