New pony kicking door and waking YO up at 3am!

Bettyboo1976

Bettyboo1976

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hi

Our new pony has taken to kicking her door every morning about 3am and is waking YO up and driving everyone bonkers.

She just text me to tell me..

I am gonna put a couple of buckets of water in front of her door tonight but its not an ideal solution,

so can anyone advise of a cheap way to stop her banging her door, baring in mind I have no DIY skills!

lol

Thanks in advance

xxx
 
Pop some carpet on it to deaden the sound - no sound = no fun!!
Does she get any response when she bangs? Is all ok with her, is it def her doing it as attention seeking rather than there being a prob? Could you just turn her out overnight? Did she do this with her old owners?
 
Use a hessien sack filled with hay - sew the ends up so the pony can't eat the hay and nail to the inside of the door so when she starts waving her legs she hits the sack.

Are you giving her enough hay to see her through the night? She may be scoffing it really quickly. Putting her hay in a small holed haynet - or inside two haynets so that she has to work harder may keep her busy for longer.
 
Its defo her.. not sure about old owner as YO did not live on site so I guess i theory she could bang as long as she wants,

Its not really possible for her to out all the time, but I guess I could ask, however come the winter she will need to come in and the banging will start again..

she won't eat the carpet will she? lol.. she eats everything at the min!
 
I know how your YO feels! I have a cob who bangs at the corners of his stable as soon as he runs out of haylage in the small hours and wakes me up. He's too fat to be given any more haylage. I considered asking them to leave at one point, it was so bad. In the end I put a tractor tyre in each corner of his box, which may look odd but did the trick! But I think Evelyn has a good solution for you by the sound of it.
 
Shut the top door.
Or one of my house sitting clients has a horse that kicked the door at 2am, same as your got lots of hay. They bought a battery powered thing that fits on outside of door and when the horse kicks its shoots jets of water up and squirts the horse in the face, its worked and now she doesnt do it.
 
If pony /really/ can't just be turned out then consider

- forage & water (I know you've done this, just making check list for self!)
- stable toys/mirror/moving stable so can see others
- is there something (fox/hedgehog/badger/cat/burglar(!)) that could be crossing yard at that time every night and scary pony? Could just be that pony needs to get used to new surroundings...
 
Our old shire used to do this, I swear he'd hear me turn over in bed and start banging. We tried the carpet thing but he just banged harder to make noise. Finally worked it by attaching a length of wood (2x2) to the door and hanging a length of rubber mat from it so it flapped when he hit it.
He solved that by banging on the wall instead! Half his box was done like it by the time he gave up! Mind you this was the horse that ended up wearing his roof as a hat when his butt scratching pushed out the entire wall!
I miss him loads!
 
I think the real answer here is to try and take your horse out of this situation , she's probably bored and would prefer to be out , as she's only 4 she has got a chance of growing out of the habit. When i first had paddy he would bang the door and i have to say it wound me up no end , then i'd shout at him , cue downward spiral , i decided to turn him out 24/7 and also when in i put a stable guard across the door - no door to bang - now he rarely does it , it's a forgotten habit. I know it's hard when you have to have a horse at livery , but try and see if you could give her more turnout , maybe out at night in by day , there's generally more going on in the day that she can watch and so hopefully not get bored. Big plus is, the YO gets a decent nights sleep!
 
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