Turnout Dilemma....

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Mongoose11

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Ok, so when I moved yards YO said Olive would go out on her own and then eventually the little palamino pony would go in with her ready for moving to the Winter grazing.

So, they have been in together for two days. No problems, grazing quietly not really interested in each other. Problem comes when owner wants to catch the pony - Olive won't let her near the gate, chases her off with ears flat back and trotting at her. Watched her do this 3 times tonight before I led her away so pony could be caught. Pony cantered off each time that she shooed her away and owner is worried that she will 'do her legs in' (pony is 22 and arthritic).

Owner very worried about the pony as apparently Liv has unsettled her so much that she did a wee in her stable last night and she never wees in her stable (I mucked said pony out as a favour last week and she had wee'd in her stable that night :rolleyes:).

Pony is a little tucked up tonight and it is all Olives fault?

They haven't been near each other except for the 45 seconds that Olivia chased her away from the gate. Owners solution is that in future she will bring Olive in before the pony if I am not there. I don't want this.

I know I will have to speak to YO and explain that I would rather have Olive on her own than have to schedule a bring in every night but I want to know if I am being unreasonable (AIBU for all you crazy Mumsneters!).

So - what do you think?
 
Owners solution is that in future she will bring Olive in before the pony if I am not there.
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I would rather do this than have my horse on it's own, but I'm soft and like my horses to have mates. It's also early days and your mare should settle down further.
 
Faracat said:
I would rather do this than have my horse on it's own, but I'm soft and like my horses to have mates. It's also early days and your mare should settle down further.
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I would usually agree but having seen this lady handle the pony I am not convinced she wouldn't just let mine go if she was on her toes a little. The pony was just looking around today and she was shouting at it to calm down! Olive can be a bit of a pig in the dark and I can honestly see it going wrong very quickly. Olive would also be next to all of the others if the pony were to be brought in. They only have electric fence separating them in the winter paddock.
 
Faracat said:
OK, so lady isn't competent enough. That does make it tricky. :(
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It does. Only last week I was advertising for someone to bring her in for me so it isn't like I am against her going in early or when I'm not there. The lady's version of bad behaviour on a lead rope is when the pony simply looks around or walks slightly faster than she might like. This is a 13h very fine thing. God knows what she would be like with my 600kg heavy cob :eek:
 
Just to say... owner has it the wrong way round ;). Horses can hold on to poo when they're relaxed, but loose control of their bowels when they're worried. Pee is the other way round... a horse will hold on to pee when they're nervous, and only pee when they're not stressed.

So it sounds as though her little pony has been quite anxious in the stable for some time, but is now more relaxed because of her new companion :)
 
Way can't woman walk into the field, put headcoller on her pony and simply lead it in from the field?. She only needs to square up to your horse once or twice for the situation to be sorted.
 
AmyMay - I'm not quite sure. I would be happy for her to take a stick for an arm extension.... Today when cob put her ears back and trotted at pony the lady called 'mind out (insert name of pony'. It's just normal horse stuff right? Annoying but olive always seems to be in trouble for something and she is one of the easiest horses I've known!
 
I had a problem like this but I was the one with the horse being chased away. It's so annoying for both people. Is there not another horse that could go in with your two, maybe that would stop your horse doing this?

Could also try feeding yours some hay whilst she catches hers?

In the end ours settled down and most of the time I could get mine in but I did end up with a Shetland anyway so mine didn't have to go out with the other horse anymore :)
 
I do understand that it is annoying but she wouldn't even go in the field to catch the pony. She wants the pony to come to the gate, clip the rope on and then open the gate. As AM suggested she would be better of coming in to fetch but I think she is frightened. Seriously I have never seen such a half hearted attempt at being dominant from my mare. She never got with three meters of the pony.
 
Forgot to say. I will suggest taking up a bunch of hay tomorrow but as her field is full of grass I don't know if this will work. I know it is against all rules of nature but olive was so settled on her own. She does get panicky around others due to living for years in isolation prior to me buying her and I think she had really settled. No worries with bringing in etc - I thought I would hate her being alone but she seems to love it. Very chilled (she can always see others over fence etc. I hate change!
 
we had probs like this, my youngster wouldn't let my friend catch her pony for the first few day, because he was so blimmin excited about having a horse to play with (my mare shoes him off)

The problem was, is my friend was scared of my horse and when her's was being silly she was scared of him too, so I think that made my boy worse! I help in out of the way for about a week then he got used to the other pony coming and going that he became much easier for her!

but its hard when the other person is scared because it seems to make your horse worse! she needs to man up more, its not fair that your horse should come in earlier and he needs to get used to horses coming and going!
 
Poor Olive, she's behaving just like any horse who's moved to a new yard. It always amazes me that some horse owners are so unaware of horse behaviour that they make a big deal about a minor short term inconvenience.

However, as this is an owner problem rather than a horse problem, this is where a good YO finds an acceptable solution without causing the horse's stress.

Depending on the set up of the yard, YO should bring your horse in or put another horse in with yours until she joins the others, or similar.
 
Oh dear!! That's no good. Well if your horse is happier on its own then I would let it be on it own :)

Oh and hi Kerrieberry. Think I know who you are lol xx
 
Thanks everyone. I can see her behaviour is completely normal, she isn't making any physical contact with it at all. I am just fed up of feeling guilty. If it was the other way round I would just make sure bolshy cob got the heck out of my way while I fetched my pony :) she is very amenable and not at all threatening - big scaredy cat really! Will see what happens over the next few days but I do not want the lady bringing her in, not after what I have seen so far. Thing is the lady said she has had a 17hh irish draft before.......
 
It sounds like this woman is the problem not really Olive or the pony. My 13.2 is jealous and possessive of me/little pony towards new horse but I have just chased her a couple of times and she has stopped it. What about splitting field with elec tape or something. I get the feeling it will be a struggle to reason with someone who thinks a pony that "wets the bed" is distraught :o. I'd agree about not trusting her with Olive as well.
 
We are having this same problem but it's just started to happen as the nights are getting darker sooner.

All the horses/ponies in our field (6 in total) are waiting by the gate to be brought in at 4.30 whereas a couple of weeks ago they would be all quietly grazing. It probably doesn't help that there isn't much grass.

It is a bit of a nightmare to get just 1 out by yourself although I don't have a problem, I no longer let my 10 yr old go get her pony by herself as she has been doing all year.

I found that so long as the ponies know that you are the boss in the field they will leave you alone and .......... don't take a bucket of food into the field!!!:eek:
 
Faracat said:
I would rather do this than have my horse on it's own, but I'm soft and like my horses to have mates. It's also early days and your mare should settle down further.
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This I would bring them in together - you might have to if she is a wimp. My mare does this it's totally normal just being top horse and not wanting to be last ... or first :o Mares who'd have 'em
 
amymay said:
Way can't woman walk into the field, put headcoller on her pony and simply lead it in from the field?. She only needs to square up to your horse once or twice for the situation to be sorted.
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This doesn't always work and why should the woman have to deal with someone elses unruly horse?

I've had a mare almost come over the fence at me when I tried to "square it up" when I tried to help a friend get her horse in - she began to dread getting her horse in because of this aggressive mare.

Apparently the horse has no manners to be led either - is this the womans fault also?
 
Unruly = normal herd behaviour.
Bad to lead = anything other than a sedated animal?

Cob can be looky and uppity when led. Barely anything more - not always but sometimes in the wind and rain.
 
It doesn't take long for a perfectly behaved horse to start mucking around with someone who is incompetent. I would not want my perfectly behaved horses handled by someone who behaved in the way Billie described.
 
I have to say unless I owned both horses and they were in the same routine I would never turn out in a pair - it only leads to trouble. It has to be individual or at least 3 -4 horses otherwise it can often lead to separation anxiety problems.

Regardless though - I think it is unfair to ridicule this woman. I have a horse I am happy to be around and handle - there are others I would avoid and I don't want to handle and I don't see why I should. That level is different for everyone some are more competent and possibly braver than others and maybe she has had a bad experience which puts her off - I have a friend with one eye who was kicked in the face getting her own horse in from the field.

I'm not trying to be mean but I think you need to be a bit more understanding of this person. :)
 
I agree SbytheSea. I think I was just a little alarmed at her calling out to the pony to 'mind out' in a distressed voice as cob went trotting over to move her on :) I will get back to the drawing board and see how she wants to play it tomorrow.
 
Just have your horse turned out individually, like you say she is only on the other side of the fence to others and some horses are better that way - it may not be natural but sometimes previous experience makes them that way and if they're happy and you're happy, everyone's a winner including the nervous lady bless her!

We all have different standards on what behaviour we're comfortable dealing with, and sometimes when you don't know a horse you don't know how far it will go. My old horse used to canter or gallop towards and around me when he was having a hoon about, I have to remember my new mare is slightly less aware of her surroundings :-/
 
Can you build a pen by the gate? Vary where the opening is by having a hook on each end (and one in the middle if you can manage it) and get owner to use a different bit each time.
We had to do this for a similar problem and it worked for us.

Good luck!
 
sussexbythesea said:
This doesn't always work and why should the woman have to deal with someone elses unruly horse?

I've had a mare almost come over the fence at me when I tried to "square it up" when I tried to help a friend get her horse in - she began to dread getting her horse in because of this aggressive mare.

Apparently the horse has no manners to be led either - is this the womans fault also?
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But this horse doesn't sound dangerous - just a bit of pain in the backside, and nothing that someone with any horse sense would find a problem.
 
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