separation anxiety

[tes]

Hi. Iv had my new gelding for about a month now he seemed to settle in well at our livery yard and everything seemed fine up until about a week ago when he's latched onto this mare in the herd. He whinnys constantly for her and seems on edge when taken out for a ride last nite he was so full of himself that he threw a couple of bucks and got my daughter off so we lunged him and he was rearing and just wanted to get back to the yard. Hes even started paddying when other horses are walking off the yard while he's teid up being groomed ect. As soon as we turn him back out into the field the mare comes up whinnying to him and herds him off then after they've been grazing awhile they seem to have distance between them in the field. Any advice on what to do please?.

 

[Barnacle]

My approach to this would be to try and get him to a point where humans are more of a thing to focus on than other horses. At the moment his head is back with the horses in the field when it should be with his handler or rider.

The easiest way (and less controversial than positive reinforcement...) I know to do this is lots of free lunging/roundpen-type work. In the UK most people don't have a roundpen so I make do with a school or other smallish enclosed space. You want to start by just getting him to free lunge, at a slow canter or forward trot one way around. Then you have to keep him going in that direction no matter how many times he tries to change. If he stops and starts communicating with the other horses or is looking around, you need to push him on with lots of energy. When he focuses on you more, you should take the pressure off a bit and let him slow and relax. As a rule, I lunge with a schooling whip and hit the ground to get the horse's attention. A lunge whip is just "messier" and you can accidentally flick a horse if you're running around trying to get it back on track, which may sometimes be entirely counterproductive. Walk towards his hind end (not actually close to him so he can't kick! - just in the general direction) and hit the ground if he's ignoring you. Wave the whip in the air and hold out your non-whip hand and point to indicate otherwise what direction he should move in.

Then you make the task more complicated by getting him to come in and change direction. This takes many attempts but you ultimately want the horse turning in towards you and then trotting across and changing direction. To ask for this, take some steps back to "draw" the horse in, switch your whip over and point clearly with your other arm outstretched. If he doesn't do it or he tries to change direction by facing outwards and giving you is backside, you have to get in his way and move him back the way he was originally going. If he happens to do it right, take the pressure off, let him pass, walk towards his back end and let him continue on his way, in the new direction, without making a fuss.

Gradually increase the frequency of direction changes and if the horse starts stopping when facing you, give him a break, look away, give him a moment. Then continue. Horses can get quite tired doing this the first few times while they figure it out so you need to take opportunities to give them a break - but only when they are doing the right thing. ANY time the horse starts hollering or looking outside etc, you move it on.

You'll know when you have the horse's attention because it'll have an ear and an eye on you, will move in right away when you step back and will start following you around if you stop and walk away. You should try to do this once to completion - which may take a fair amount of time so set aside a day - and then repeat over a few days/weeks. When you've done that a few times, you can start practicing this same thing on an actual lunge line in places with more distractions. The first time may take a couple of hours but it's always quicker the next time and it will change your horse's perception of you completely.

To be clear, the exercise itself is not really what matters. The reason it works is because you are looking for a very specific response but it's a simple enough task that the horse can learn what to do easily. This makes it effective but not frustrating and is as much to get you to work with the horse from the ground as to get the horse paying attention to you.

Evidence from scientific studies shows horses that are trained with lots of groundwork are calmer when ridden too - so you can't go wrong with lots of it!