Puzzle has done 3 things to **** me off today - anyone help with any of them?

19 months old and stabled for prolonged periods due to a muddy field ? Get the youngster out on grass livery with a herd. If you can't provide an environment suitable for a filly, then find someone who can.
 
im quite sure they are, they are only looking at her condition,not the fact that she is going to turn in to a spoilt demon, or in fact already is.
she may never get treats from the tack room or horse boxes but to her people=food and dammit she wants it NOW.

she should be out in the field, not in a stable for much of the time, either creosote the rails or put electric tape up to stop her reaching them, or you are going to have a much bigger (literally) problem in the form of an agressive fully grown horse still demanding food and attention.
 
Princess whoever you're way off the mark. It's not a food thing it's an attention thing. And you need to give more credit to whw-when he visits, he obv checks her condition (which is fab thank you) but also handles her and watches me with her (when he catches us when were around) as she is a YOUNGSTER and they need to know how she is being handled as if we were to ever give her back (which we wouldnt) thy would need to have a well mannered horse back to have any chance of rehoming her again.

I think you're rude and purposefully being inflatory, please stop posting on here. Either way I'm not replying any more to you.
 
ARGH just wrote huge post and phOne deleted it!

She's in her stable every night, 7pm til 6am. She does not kick this door. During the day she is either turned out with our mare, or she is in a fenced paddock with no grass but ad lib hay. It is this door she kicks. This door opens to the yard. She's on grass during the day about 4 days a week and she's in for 3 although if it's snowed she's in longer and if it's dry she's out all day every day. So it does vary.
 
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I was on a yard for a bit where 80% of the horses were kicking the door, chewing any wood they could get near and scraping their teeth on the walls. Now I am on a yard where only one (new) horse is a door kicker. What's the difference? First yard, no turnout during the winter and for most of the liveries individual turnout of an hour or so in the summer. Second yard, turnout every day from at least 9-4 unless weather is truly atrocious.

I know you don't like to hear it, but maybe you need to take a long hard look at your routine in terms of turnout. A bit of mud doesn't hurt them - there are two valuable competition horses (think £30k+) that still go out daily, unless it is icy.

Why not try a salt/mineral lick for your foal instead, then at least she is having something that has a benefit to her instead of one of those sugary things? She is also less likely to polish it off in a matter of days.
 
In some aspects I do tend agree with princesssparkle .


When missy was around that age, she chewed on everything, she never kicked the door as such but did like to nibble on certain things.

I know other users are telling you to stay away from treats and that, but perhaps you could try her with a ball, it does give them hours of fun and keeps them amused if she can't be turned out .

Also could you perhaps walk her out inhand for half an hour every day to relieve the boredom and perhaps tire the brain out abit .

Like princessparkle suggested, I would electric tape your field boundaries, creosote fence posts and try and get her out more often ....in turn that should tire the little monkey out and hopefully withdraw some of the kicking she is doing to the door .


All the posts bar a few have been quite sound :) :)

Hopefully its only a phase with the kicking of the door, don't you just love youngsters :D


Col x
 
She has a salt lick she is uninterested in. The treat ball is SUGARLESS! please see above about routine.

It is not that it is just a bit muddy. Were talking, I lost a wellygog inthe entrance to the field last winter, I haven't seen it since. It dries out remarkably quickly when the rain stops but when it is wet it is too dangerous to walk horses across.
 
Thnks col. We do play in the school for half an hour on the days she's in her paddock. I daren't creosote as if they do ingest it it does serious damage and when her teeth were at their worst she was eating wood even though it had crib stop and chilli powder and soap rubbed on it. She isn't chewing in her field ATM as she has no wooden rails only electric.
 
I would take door away completely and use one of those stable chain things. Nothing to kick = no noise :D it's been very effective with my previous kickers.

Also, nailing a stiff brush-bristle (without handle) to the wall where they crib also works a treat for those who like to eat the stable.
 
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Tally ho she does have a chain that I do use when I'm in her box but she so small ATM she can get her head and most of her neck under it and then panics when she gets up and it follows her up!! So I don't like to leave her with it open when I'm in someone elses box. Xxx
 
She is a right royal pain in the butt then when it comes to chewing :p

Hopefully it IS just a phase she is going through with being a youngster .

Thats good that you get her out, is there no turnout near to the yard where she can go out 24/7 now ? with a companion ? and hopefully she will grow out of the habits .

Gotta go and chuck a bigger baby out now myself so will catch up laters x
 
flamehead said:
She has a salt lick she is uninterested in. The treat ball is SUGARLESS! please see above about routine.
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Diet coke is 'sugarless', but have you seen what it does to teeth? Sweetener also can have the effect of sending children sky high - I guess your treat ball is sweetened with artificial sweetener if it's not made from sugar?

For me, your response to the field issue has a glaringly obvious solution in it already given that you knew it was bad 'last winter'. :)
 
How about mixing some of her droppings with water and using the "poo paint" to treat any areas she chews? Free and effective :)

Door kicking is sooo frustrating! I tend to totally ignore it tbh. It will probably get worse before it gets better, but if you can get everyone at the yard to totally blank her when she does it she will stop eventually. At the moment I would guess any attention is good as far as she is concerned, whether it is anger or placation. She needs to be totally blanked though, not even eye contact when she is being bad. One thing that did work with a persistent door kicker was to put a grill up in the space. The pony couldn't get her head over the door so couldn't get close enough to kick effectively.

Regarding the treat ball, as somebody whose horse can demolish a lickit in 30 seconds, they get damned expensive! Drill a hole in a swede, save you a fortune :p

And yes, the best reward for your horse IMO is a very brief (2 second) head rub or neck scratch, but really only when she deserves it ;)
 
If you need to deal with door kicking then give the kicking no attention at all (not a whip, shout or glare in that direction). Put something inside the door to stop the noise, like rubber or carpet.
A lot of what is being said here is sound, you are seeing the start of stable stress, and unless you can address the cause it won't go away and may get worse.
 
Persephone what a totally fab idea re poo Paint!! Will give that one a go....

She likes swedes but prefers wood chewing to them!!

Fadedv the ball is uncle jimmys sugar free, look it up if you are that interested.

Why does it matter that it was this bad last year? When it gets bad they come in. It's never been a problem and it's not a problem now, whw inspected us when it was like this and are happy with our routine.
 
have to say I am struggling with how it can be so muddy that it's dangerous for the horses?I can remember loosing numerous wellies (resulting in muddy socks!) at one yard but they horses always went out in it every day and in my time there was never an injury from it because they went out every day so were sensible about it, and on somerset levels so v wet... plenty of lost shoes that we had to try and find afterwards though, the joys of child labour :rolleyes:!
 
It's sticky mud. Clay based? Ie legs get left behind, panic ensues, things get pulled/torn.

Should add field is on side of a hill!
 
pretty clayyey, certainly not on the peat based area of the levels which is soft and very different anyway but flat.

yup legs getting left behind but there was never an ensuing panic, we had about 15 ponies turned out in a relatively small space in winter but as they had their hierarchy they tended not to fight over water troughs etc. tbh we never led them out through the gateways though the way the yard was set up they took themselves to the field and just wondered slowly through and were careful because of the ground.

eta I do remember with the larger horses that tended only to go out 3 or 4 times a week they had a paddock situated at the end of the arena and because it go so bad they were all allowed a play in the sand arena first before they were herded into the mud.

Only saying as what I have seen sort of thing and how they have handled it, just don't think I would ever want a youngster stuck in really.
 
*dreams of the day we have ponies who would put themselves in their boxes* tbh it is better when we lead as we can steady and balance them a bit which helps massively. Anyway we're happy! It's only for a month or so of the year xxx
 
Ahaha!! I dont even need to look it up-proof was when we had the school built!!!! God almighty that was like something out of hell. Xxxx
 
if you knew the yeard was too bad for winter turnout, why have you got a youngster there???????not fair on her at all.move yards or get an older horse used to minimal turnout.

when this escalates to nipping and barging, dont post on here moaning, look back and think what you could have done differently NOW to prevent probs in the future...............
 
flamehead said:
Oh and how can you possibly say that she is 'undoubtably demanding food'?!? She never ever EVER gets food from the tack room (apart from when she's in her field over the road) and she never gets food from other horses boxes so I think it unlikely that she's demanding food. Attention, definitely, but then she is also a rising 2 year old testing and pushing boundaries.
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Rising 2 and stuck in a box all that time. Not surprised she's acting up. Suggest you spend your 600 finding some decent all year turn out and let her be a horse.
 
flamehead said:
Well at the moment, ofcourseyoucsn, she'd break a leg getting to the field as we are literally knee deep in mud. It must be wonderful to live in your perfect world but we don't have safe turnout at the moment. She is in a large fenced area at the moment with ad lib hay that she chooses not to eat when she gets full.
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Flamehead clearly states that the filly? is getting turnout!

Is this a case of people not reading the whole thread again? or have I missed something?

FH, how long is puzzle turned into this area for in a day?
 
I suppose it's because flamehead just says it is a large area which is rather open to interpretation by everyone.

exact dimensions please fh ;) :p :D
 
ester said:
I suppose it's because flamehead just says it is a large area which is rather open to interpretation by everyone.

exact dimensions please fh ;) :p :D
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In imperial and metric, with diagrams, blueprints and exact materials specifications, otherwise how can the HHO Gods decide if you are a fit person?;):p:D
 
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