Separation Anxiety (essay sorry!)

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98maddy

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Hi,

I have an 11 year old Welsh D Gelding. I have had him for 7 months now.

Robyn has serious issues with being left on his own. He has a field on his own with a good amount of grass and has horses all around him. He regularly paces his fence line and get VERY distressed if left on his own.

I have been to a show today, i was aware that other people from my yard were going so purposefully went in a trailer on our own and parked on the other side of the field from them. he was fine, at our trailer eating his hay. As soon as he saw the coloured from our yard he went crazy, i had to untie him in fear that he would pull back and hurt himself. He then took near on 1/2 hour to calm down, run circles round me, whinneying (so loud) and just acting so distressed.

He has this behaviour very often, if he is on the yard nice and quite he will get distressed if someone walk past him to go for a ride.

I get so stressed when he does this as hate seeing him in such a state. He will ride out on his own, needs a little encouragement to get out of the yard but then he is perfect.

Can anyone offer some advice, as this is becoming a real issue.

Added: It is not possible for him to share a field, also it is not possible for him to be right next to a horse all of the time. Alos, I am very patient with him and try to comfort him when he is distress - this doesn't seem to help at all.
 
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I am sorry but imo. horses are herd animals and should be kept together especially if obviously unhappy alone.He will get stressed and continue to do so if kept alone.
Can you move yards?
If you cannot why can he not have company.
If you comfort him when he is stressed you are actually reinforcing the behaviour a bit like petting a dog during a thunderstorm.
For his sake try and make some changes to his living arrangements.
 
I'd echo everything bepositive says. Horses are herd animals. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have hard wired them to rely on the herd as a survival strategy. When your new-ish horse (and that alone can make many horses anxious) acts desperate and distressed it's because he IS. He won't be thinking that he's a bit worried, he'll be spending every hour of every day thinking his life is in danger. Some horses cope with being alone, most don't. Just because he can see other horses, it's not the same. He needs company. He won't see YOU as another horse, at least not until you have shown him through leadership that you CAN be trusted. And I'm sorry to say that I think you're probably making the situation worse because you are as anxious as he is and he will pick up your body language and be even more frightened by the fact that YOU'RE frightened. I would never, ever keep a horse on its own. You are risking his health as well. 24/7 stress will give him gastric ulcers, fence and box walking will damage his feet and limbs eventually and at some point, believ me, he will try to jump out of his field and could break a leg, get onto a road or god knows what else. It won't take long before he starts to display behaviours that will get him labelled as dangerous.

He needs company. Why can't you put him in with the other horses? Why did you park so far away from the others from your yard? Is something else going on here that you haven't said? I'm sorry to be so direct but you don't sound very experienced with horses. Your 1st action needs to be to get him some company, even if it means moving yards. Then you need to increase your own experience and confidence. I'd recommend talking to a horsey friend or getting some lessons on horse management. A good book on horse management basics would be a good start - you have a lot to learn. Good luck.
 
Horses are herd animals - as far as they are concerned being on your own is very dangerous and makes them vulnerable to predators. This is built into them. Also, "comforting" him when stressed only rewards the stressful behaviour and you are very efficiently training him to get stressed. Is there any reason why you can't have a companion in the field with him?

People like Richard Maxwell and Michael Peace are extremely good at "reading" horses and find solutions to the problem. They also have written books and produced DVDs which could be of help to you. They both have web sites or you could give one of them a ring and they would recommend which books/DVDs would help you.

Alternatively, perhaps someone on here could recommend a local trainer who could help you if you post the area you live in.

Hope you can get through this - good luck.
 
My daughter's mare is like this so I work round it by making sure she has company at all times! Luckily she shares a field with my mare and if I want to ride on my own then I borrow a friend's Shetland to go go in next stable to her! The only time she is on her own is in the trailer and she is fine as long as we move off straight away and unload at other end so she can see other horses! There is no way I would ever leave her on her own as she gets so upset and stressed. It is so much easier just to work round it!
 
As others have said I really think you will see a big change in his behaviour if you can get him some company in his field. I have a lovely gentle horse who lives usually with 3 others but is more than happy to leave the field and be ridden/taken to shows etc, he is currently on box rest but can come out for hand grazing, although he can see the others from where I am grazing him he is like a different horse! Every time someone walks past or a car comes up the lane he jumps out of his skin (and almost on top of me!) and looks terrified, he obviously feels very insecure being in the field without his herd, I would hate him to feel like this all the time which is how your horse probably feels, if I were you I would move yards if he really can't have company at the current place.
 
Hi, i agree with all the above about trying to let him share a field with some friends. I'm in a situation where i can't have another horse in the field with mine (but they can interact over the fence which i know is not the same but better than nothing) and My mare did have some issues as she got very attached to one particular friend which got alot worse once theymoved to a new yard together. she was stabled next to her and was also in the field next to her. My mare would go crazy if her friend left her so in the end i had to make the decision to make her go cold turkey. They both used to go out at night and in through the day, so i changed it so my mare was in at night and out through the day so they didnt see each other, and i didnt hack out with the other horse till i knew my mare had got over her addiction. My mare still ALWAYS had contact with other horses but not her friend that she had became obsessed with. Now she is transformed! she can now be with her friend and not worry when she leaves and it has made her a much happier horse.
 
You poor thing, this is very difficult to solve without changing the horses living arrangements. We had 2 horses kept at home and they became very attached not surprisingly. It got so bad that if you took one out of the field and shut the gate, but didn't actually go anywhere, the one remaining in the field would be hysterical even though its friend was literally stood on the other side of the gate. Riding became a nightmare as they both had to go out together at all times, one of them took to climbing (not jumping - you had to see it to believe it!) the fence if the other was on the other side.
We did the sums and it was cheaper for us to move them both to a local yard than to get a third horse, and the transformation was immediate. They barely looked at each other again when we moved to the big yard. We put them in seperate fields straight away with new friends. Neither formed any obsessive attachments and have been totally fine ever since. One has now sadly died and we only have one of the horses remaining and she is in a field on her own now, with others over the fence on both sides and she is the happiest most laid back horse ever.
If you can change his living arrangments so he had consistent company then you will probably see a dramatic difference. He is not programmed to be on his own, horses on the whole simply can't tolerate it, only a few seem to cope with being on their own and sadly yours isn't one of them. Good luck with him
 
I 100% understand the need at the moment for your boy to be on his own. Can I just suggest something else however? I have several ponies, a couple at home, a couple of oldes out on loan and another little mare who gets HORRENDOUS seperation anxiety....bordering dangerous when other horses are taken away....she bonds very deeply. I bit the bullet and moved her to a very busy livery yard (even tho I have my own place!), where there is same sex huge turnout. She's out with 11 other mares and 5 cows 24/7. She has changed completely. She doesn't latch on to anyone and although sometimes whinnies when taken away, she no longer throws herself about as she used to. Her work ethic is now fantastic as she has calmed.

Any chance you could do this for a short time? Probably between 6 and 12 months should improve behaviour? :)
 
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