What could cause an otherwise bombproof horse to become wildly spooky and upset?

OK. I've been both a loaner AND a loanee. Plus as a YO have horses on loan to liveries at my yard.

My first thought is that your horse is in PAIN or discomfort somewhere. Yes she will have been unsettled at the new place (and IME mares settle less well at a new place), but this smacks to me of pain.

The other factor is how she was ridden at the loan home: if she had a rider who was hanging on to her mouth for dear life, then this would have been enough to have caused a problem. I had a mare who's owner gave me the strictest instructions not to over-hold her, and I didn't. But I do know that this particular mare "bolted" with another rider in another loan home, simply because they chose to ignore the owner's advice.

OK so let me give a recent example of where "pain" can directly affect "behaviour": My little gypsy cob (profile pic) is an absolute darling. She loves being loaded up and going up to our local common for a good old hooley, and up till recently she's been fine to load. She will literally load herself from the ramp and walk on quite happily if I say "walk on"; I load solo, there's never anyone else around, but I always have plenty of time to pop round behind and put the bar & pins in without any problems. Only the last few times she's run back!! Totally unlike her, and totally no apparent reason for it. When I loaded her to come back from our last ride on the common, she was a bit touch-and-go as to whether she was going to go in or not, and I thought Oh heck will I have to ride her home! (a 2-hrs hack, but do-able, but I'd have had to get a chum to drop me back up to pick the wagon & trailer!).

Anyway, so we had our physio here at the yard here this week, so I asked her would she just get my mare a check-over. This pony has been going well, she's lost a considerable amount of weight over the winter (needed to) and is going like a little engine right now, but I thought to get her checked anyway. Physio found she was very sore over her SI area, which came as a bit of a surprise. I asked, would this be the reason she didn't want to load, and answer was yes it would, because when they're travelling they use their pelvic/back-end area to stablise them. I was glad to have an answer!

With horses that exhibit any sort of atypical behaviour, I always always look for pain or discomfort now. There WILL be a reason why your sweet mare has exhibited this behaviour OP. I would strongly recommend you get your physio out and get her checked over. Then teeth & saddle. I reckon it is a pain issue. What a good thing you've got her home.
 
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New Forests Rock said:
How is she doing today @maya2008?
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She has been self medicating with nettles - they’re there, why not I suppose? She a little brighter each morning and eats her feed with more enthusiasm each day. Her field buddies are older ladies who will allow her to mooch gently while she heals. It’ll be two weeks now before I prod anything again or ask her to do much more than relax and let us check her over. Then we’ll see how healed she is and decide again from there.
 
Abacus said:
I had similar once with a horse I loaned out locally. This horse has never been anything other than an angel. He started trying to run back to his field away from the handler, breaking a bridle and being uncharacteristically bolshy about it. Didn’t want to be ridden. This was in the first fortnight. I just took him straight back and he was fine immediately. My feeling is that he just didn’t want to be there, whether it was the people or environment (I don’t think they did anything wrong). Hope your pony is back to herself quickly.
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I could have written this about my pony, lent out a few years ago, except that he took around 3 months to settle again. I know the loaner well, and he had the best of care.
 
Headed in the right direction. We now have interest in people and in her friends leaving and returning. Much more aware of the world and making eye contact with me asking questions which is much more her style. It must have hurt so much. She came home on Thursday night - it’s been 4 days for her to even want to interact!
 
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Poor little mare, what a traumatic and painful experience for her. Thank goodness she's home and has you and your family to take care of her.
 
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