Stopping a box walker walking

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RachelB

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I've been pondering my horse's box walking for a while now, and I still have no clue how to curb her behaviour. She lives out 24/7 but once in a blue moon when the weather is really foul, she (and her two friends) will come into their stables for 12 hours. Maiden gets ad-lib well-soaked hay (properly ad-lib in that she always, always has at least a section left by morning and if in doubt I'll stick some more in last thing). She has a decent bed although refuses to lie down. She has "toys" such as hanging swedes and a snak-a-ball but she finishes them all off pretty quickly!
Is there a particular reason she may be box walking? Is there anything else I can do to try to stop her? I have to stop her as she always walks left and she has an old tendon injury in her left fore and is at risk of re-injuring it (again).
Thoughts and suggestions appreciated
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Err.... I don't think you can, but I'm interested if anyone does have any ideas. One of the driving ponies I do could box walk for Britain, and I tie him up whenever I'm in the yard or he just winds me up and I end up yelling at him. Sadly can't leave him tied up 24-7 though.
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ETA Could you bandage her legs when she's in?
 
Sounds like you are doing a lot to try and stop her, can't really think of anything else except a stable Mirror, that might help settle her.

The reason she may be box walking is that when you bring her in it is a break in her routine, she is used to being out 24/7 so it will be a big shock to her system when you bring her in suddenly.
 
Thanks for the thoughts guys, another thing I forgot to mention is that she was out 24/7 before I bought her two and a half years ago, then she was stabled for half of the day or more and never walked. She was on box rest for four and a half months last year and never walked. She is on a much quieter, more relaxed "yard" (three of us) now and is a bugger for walking. She doesn't do it all the time I'm there (I've met worse) but by morning her stable will have a circle trashed into it...!
 
Could be after all the boxrest that she's become afraid that you might shut her up for good again, almost claustrophobic.
Could you use a chain or grid thing instead of a solid bottom stable door to give her an impression of openness?
As someone else said, it might be an idea to bandage her bad side at least.
 
We had the same problem with an old mare , we hung a short jump pole about 4ft 6in from the rafters so it hang about 3ft 6in from the ground so it cut the box in half , from the back it stopped the circle , we have also used 2 big oil drums. to do the same. and it worked
 
I haven't known anyone able to stop a serial box-walker 100% although I have seen some improvement with a stable mirror.
Personally I would just leave her in the field
 
We've had great sucess with putting a mirror in. It hasn't solved it totally particulary if she becomes stressed, but it has reduced it significantly. We tried hanging things but unfortunatley this stressed her more and as she tends to weave a bit as well, it actually made her weaving worse. Her weaving has also reduced - so thank you to our farrier for suggesting it.

It wasn't very expensive, we are glad though that we went for the proper mirrors as one of our youngsters was in the box and has scraped it with his teeth!!
 
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions
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Sadly when she has to come in, she has to be in her stable and cannot be out/elsewhere/in a barn etc. as we have no other options. I really want to try and "cure" this as much as possible in case she needs to be put on box rest again in the future - obviously her tendon is much weaker now after her injury and although I'm doing absolutely everything I can to prevent further/re-injury, there's always the risk that she may slip in the field or something silly and damage herself again. If I don't try now to cure the walking I worry she'll be a million times worse if she has to be box rested again!
I think I'll save up and get her a mirror and see if that works. Even if it only reduces her walking by 50% she'll then be walking so little of the time it will be well worth it.
Iconique - that's interesting about your mare, mine also does a weaving motion of sorts at feed times (she sort of "trots" on the spot with her front legs rather than weaves but weaving is the best way I can describe it!) but it's actually got a LOT better recently as she used to do it all the time when she was on box rest! She hardly bothers any more... possibly because she walks instead?!
 
Instead of forking out for a mirror, is there any way you can take down the top of the dividing wall between her and her neighbour (assuming there is a neighbour)? My old ex racer was a bad boxwalker but the stables in my parents garden, and also the stables we built only had half height walls and he was always very settled in his box.
 
we used a roll of silver mirror like stuff out of beterwear book stuck it to the wall then put a piece of thin perspex over it to protect it works a treat and cost less than £10
 
My girl's stable mirror is actually a big offcut (about 5ft x 3ft) of the shiny stainless steel used by commercial kitchen fitters. It cost about £15 I htink, and Flo loves her 'imaginary friend'. It has cut down her box walking dramatically.

Good luck.

Fiona
 
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