What should/could I have done?

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Mrs G

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Hi all, after some advice/reassurance please! I've just left the yard but feeling a bit shaken..Brought horse in as normal from field about an hour , put him in stable, took boots off and was picking feet out, then hubby noticed horses head was very high and I realised he was on 'high alert' mode so got out of stable quick. Horse was looking out of window as if there was something out there, then he suddenly started careering round the stable, mini rears, bucking, spinning, going to back window then to stable door, round and round, snorting, tail held high. We went outside, couldn't see/hear anything out of the ordinary at all. I shut the back window but this seemed to make things worse so I opened it again, I tried talking to him in a calming tone, tried to carry on with my normal routine as though to reassure him all was normal. Left him for about 30mins, by which time he had calmed down a little (no spinning round stable) but he was still a bit tense, hubby suggested giving him his tea as a distraction, normally I would prefer to wait till he was calm before feeding him but thought it was worth a try (very wet, small fibre feed with some supplements in), and it did seem to help. We stayed another 10mins then locked yard up and left. At the time I was really worried he was going to hurt himself and I couldn't think what to do for the best esp as I don't know what caused it?
 
It's most likely the wind and/ or spring grass. Sunny was being a right skittish goat when I brought her in yesterday evening, snorting, banging on her stable door, also doing mini rears, shaking her head, running round her stable, doing 'motorbike' snorts, etc. but settled down after I brought the others in.

I would go and check on him though (just to be sure), but I expect he'll of settled down. Don't worry! :)
 
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Thanks for the replies, it was just so unlike him, he's not a spooky horse and it wasn't windy. I will presume he saw something we didn't and is just feeling the spring grass....x
 
One of mine is like that with hot air balloons, he can hear them miles away and its only afterwards we realised what it was.
 
One of mine won't go in the stable when the wind is like last couple of days or if you can get her in, she behaves like yours. I can leave mine out though.
 
Best thing to do is keep calm and studiously ignore whatever is going on with the horse. Continue with a mundane/routine task as if nothing was happening would be what I would try to do.

Horses are very adept at picking up "vibes", and the mere fact that you reacted to his stress and acknowledged that there might have been a predator lurking "out there" would have reinforced his fear.

Even subliminal stuff like a slight change of your heartrate, slight change in breathing pattern, would have given the game away.

Ignore is the best thing to do, if you can.
 
I had bouts of this sort of behaviour from our horses a couple of years ago, it completely mystified me at the time. They were definitely on high alert and quite difficult to handle sometimes, always staring into the distance and snorting. Turned out that strange dogs were going into their field from the footpath that crosses neighbouring farmland, possibly they had been chased or nipped. The fence now has chicken wire around the bottom and the problem has stopped.
 
Many years ago I had a similar experience with my very stoic first cob. Snorting, spinning around, sweating, eyes on stalks. He'd spotted a little duck waddling around the yard. It took him a week to get over it! And this from a horse who didn't bat an eyelid at sheep, cows, pigs...

I'm sure everything will be fine:-)
 
I agree with the others but for more reassurance, don't worry! Spring does funny things to horses. Hopefully tomorrow he will be more-or-less back to normal.
 
Maybe your horse scented something you could not see. Ignore but keep an eye out is my advice. Horses can scent things on the wind from far, far away.
 
Quite often we never work out what horses have seen or imagine they have seen, if he started to settle I wouldn't be too worried - it would be different if he continued to be wound up as then there's a risk of injury or colic.

We had a strange experience a couple of days ago, for no apparent reason all the mares on our yard were very tense. They are stables randomly round the yard next to geldings who were all fine. Once turned out in a mares only field furthest from this yard they continued to behave erratically. One came in with a cut leg due to running around so much and a couple were sweated up which is unusual for them. That evening one colicked, I assume due to stress. Throughout all of this the geldings were fine. The next day everything was back to normal. I still have no idea what happened.
 
Thanks everyone, horse was absolutely fine this morning, I hacked him out and a runner even stopped to pat him and said "hes a very calm horse isnt he?"!! Which he is normally. I guess it just shook me as I could see he was very stressed and upset and I couldnt help him and Ive never seen him throw himself about in the stable like that in the 4 yrs Ive had him. I will put it down to experience and if it should happen again I wont get quite so worried!
 
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*********** Ignore is the best thing to do, if you can. **********
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Turned two out this morning and they went berserk in the field, spooking at nothing, snorting and carrying on as though something was lurking in the trees. Continued while I was stood at the gate watching them. The minute I disappeared to get on with my jobs, they stuck their heads down and started grazing! Would try act this way (unfazed) if they were stabled, not always easy, I know.
 
Mine has been known get his knickers in a twist on occasion - last time I think it was because he caught sight of the yard cat climbing the muck mountain ! To ignore it is the best advice. They soon calm down if there's no audience.
 
Glad he's ok! They're funny little swines sometimes, aren't they?

I had to go and catch in one night when mine refused to come in and had been left alone. He was screaming, sweating, tense. He came halfway up the lane before rearing and shouting. I absolutely screamed at him-he nearly went down on my OH behaving like an idiot, so I was furious. He promptly quietened right down, went in his box, started munching hay like nothing had happened. I think someone may have tried to approach him in the field, he generally won't be caught by people he doesn't know.
 
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