She is driving us nuts!!

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Fionafaye

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Just a bit of a rant.....

My 16.2hh 4yo mare is driving my family mad. Every night she poos and pees all over her stable, the lies down in it so her rug is dripping wet in the morning, she kicks all through the night, making holes in the wood and when she is outside she bites chunks out of the fences.

My dad is going mental because he is the one who is asked to mend the stable and every time he does, it is broken again in a few days. It is costing me a fortune to get her rugs washed so we have just been putting the messy ones on until they are truely disgusting which isnt nice for me or the horse.

I guess I will just have to hope she grows out of it, if she doesnt my dad will be selling her for dog food!!
crazy.gif
 
How long have you had her? She could jsut be taking time to settle in and at 4 she is still learning things.
Does she have enough hay to keep her occupied during the night?
Have you put anything on the fences ie crib box, paint on horse poo to stop her chewing?
As for wet rugs she can't really help that, have you given her sufficent bedding so most of the wet is soaked up by the bedding rather than her rug?
Could you put rubber matting on the walls to help with the kicking as it should cushion the walls and therefore less chance of holes?
24/7 TO might be agood idea if this is possible.
Chin up, things will get better with time
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When we first got Lace (also 4) she was a little bit stressy in the stable but after a while she settled down and now loves chilling out in her stable
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Do you think she would be happier living out? Sounds like she is quite stressed in the stable. Does she get enough hay to last her all night long when she is in? Can she see other horses? Is she next to a horse that she dislikes which is worrying her?

I think you need to find why she is behaving this way to be able to find a solution. (When she is out, I would put electric fencing out to protect the wooden fencing and make sure hay is available so she munches on that rather than the fence!)
 
Ive had her a year next month. I'm waiting for the fence stuff to arrive, though I ordered it over a week ago. She gets alot of bedding, but she pees and poos then walks round a bit and mixes it all through so it doesnt make much difference.
 
Has she got company? Has she got ad lib forage? She sounds like a very unhappy horse. I'm afraid it may just be a case of trial and error until you find a way to keep her calm.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Just a bit of a rant.....

My 16.2hh 4yo mare is driving my family mad. Every night she poos and pees all over her stable, the lies down in it so her rug is dripping wet in the morning, she kicks all through the night, making holes in the wood and when she is outside she bites chunks out of the fences.

My dad is going mental because he is the one who is asked to mend the stable and every time he does, it is broken again in a few days. It is costing me a fortune to get her rugs washed so we have just been putting the messy ones on until they are truely disgusting which isnt nice for me or the horse.

I guess I will just have to hope she grows out of it, if she doesnt my dad will be selling her for dog food!!
crazy.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

She sounds very stressed to me a horse doing that all night is not happy, is she in pain? ulcers maybe? I would get her checked by the vet.
 
Does she have company when in, and if so can she see the other horse? What about when she is out? How long is she stabled? Doe she still have hay left in the morning? Although in my experience some stressed horses just ignore their hay.
 
Could it be RATS???? in the stable. But it does sound like she's really getting stressed out, has she been stabled before you bought her. But I had one old horse who use to freak out with rats and would kick the stable to pieces, so found where the rat run was and put down rat poison, where cats,birds and the horse couldn't eat it.
 
My 4yr old is very messy in the stable too - she seems to poo at speed and then mix it in!

She's just spent 2 months in livery where she was stabled a lot, and she did get better in that you could actually find lumps of droppings rather than a trail !

But she was always very wet.

I spent those 2 months experimenting with more bedding, less bedding, no bedding (as rubber mats were down).

She just downright nosey I think!!
 
Im pretty sure there is no rats in my stable as I have a very good killer cat, but there is a small chance I suppose. She can see other horses but she cant get direct contact with any (we boarded up the bars between her and the horse next door). She was stabled before got her but they were built with cement blocks so I doubt she would have kicked them. Her old owner didnt mention any messy stables or chewing fences, but then she was trying to sell her.
 
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