would you be slightly miffed?

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janet68

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went up this morning to feed rich and he was stood at the far back of his stable looking very nervous,his eyes where popping out of his head and he was snorting,I went in and he seemed quite panicky so i asked him what was the matter and carried on tying net up talking to him all the time but he still carried on snorting. Then i turned round and spotted the problem,the yard owner had put a bull in the stable next to him without any warning.Now if they had mentioned it i could have told them he has a fear of cows and requested it not be put there. Now i have the fear that if i can ever get him out of the stable (has to walk right past the door) i will stand no chance of getting him back in. What would you do?
 
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Miffed?! very!! Speak to your YO i would..
 
I think my horse would have jumped out of her stable if there was a bull next door! Are they planning to move it out of there?
 
I did say he is bloody terrified in there and she just said its because he has only just gone in and he would settle. He was the same when i went later only coming to front of box once the bull had laid down. I went to find her but she wasnt around i will have to catch her in morning
 
That was very rude of the YO to do that. Some farmers have no idea about horses though and if they are used to having cows, they really think horses are just big cows and behave as such.
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I once had a horse that came from Birmingham - the dealer I brought it off described it as 100% in all ways - but when he dropped it off in our yard, he mentioned that it had a thing about cows......It blooming well did - the first day I rode it, it froze as we went past a field of cows - and it took me 15 minutes to get it past.......what did I do - well, not surprisingly I took it straight home and chucked it out in a field with cows.....and yes it shot to the bottom of the pasture with its eyes out on stalks - within a week they were grazing together, cow phobia tackled! Morale of the tale - leave your horse to acclimitise to the bull next door, and within a few days there will no longer be an issue.....maybe you are more scared of the bovine than the equine is??
 
I aint scared of it but am quite scared of getting horse out because i know he is gonna do the flight thing and p1ss off with me down the yard and then refuse to go back in. And after years of having a sh1t of a horse to the point of him being an angel at new yard i am slightly annoyed as this could set him back massivley
 
Few years ago my sister was coming down for the weekend and I was taking her to meet Sunny, my chilled and superstar veteran gelding. When I got to his stable he was steaming round the inside of it in terror, snorting and eyes popping out. I hardly recognised him as the same horse and going into the stable with him was decidedly iffy. Every now and then he'd sort of semi lunge towards the next door stable but pull back in fear.

What was in the next door stable? The YO's brand new stallion.

I got the same guff about oh it's just coz he's new but thank god the stallion moved in a couple of days, or I'd have moved Sunny (he's moved anyway now!).
 
I would have been pretty miffed had I had a horse on paid livery! But this post does bring to mind 2 funny stories...

When I first brought my Welsh D over from the UK (7 yrs ago) he was so lonely whilst we were looking for a companion suitable for my eldest son then 4yrs. It took us ages to find a nice well mannered 11.2 so until we managed to find one Taffy was all alone.

Everyone said we should try and put the friendliest cow we had out with him so we gave it a go. Taffy was at the bottom of a huge paddock that has a massive field leading down to our beach. Imagine a cow at full gallop towards horse, horse munching grass notices galloping cow horse canters off jumps the fence with mouth full of grass, cow gallops through the straight through the fence, horse then jumps the gate to get back up to the yard. Cow ends up giving up and lies on its back as it is so tired from running.

The funniest sight I have ever seen, but poor Taffy talk about traumatised!

Whilst we were converting a section of the farm into stabling Taffy was kept in a cow pen that we rubber matted and made reasonably safe for him. Opposite to him was a cow pen with a few cows in.

One morning we went down to find him with an unexpected newborn calf right next to his stable with Taffy almost cuddling her and licking her clean. The calf's mother had abandoned her and Taffy stepped up to the plate and looked after her over night until we found the little tyke with Taffy in the morning.

Soon after the whole stables were finished and the cows were all moved into the main part of the farm and lets just say Taffy was a lot happier!
 
I would have been miffed to say the least but agree with dressedkez, that if you can leave him in there for a while immersion therapy will probably get him over his fear of bovines. I used to have a virtually bombproof Clyde mare, whose only worry was cows. At first she shook as we rode past a local dairy farm but she improved considerably as she got used to the smell. She did though once almost walk over a mini, trying to get as far away as possible from a bull who LOOKED at her from the far side of his field, over a rather high drystone wall. She was convinced he would do her far more harm than a footling liitle car!
 
That is not immersion therapy, it is flooding. Don't risk it. I know a lady who did this with pigs on the advice of an "expert", now her horse is much, much worse about pigs. You'll just have to see how this goes, but whatever you do, I personally would not put my scared horse in a stable next to the thing that scares it and leave it for the night. You need to have a chat.
Oh, thought of another one, again pigs. Lady put her horse in a stable next to pigs, it was a struggle, but she said it had worked because in the morning her horse was asleep. In fact, after that she was able to stable her horse next to her pigs with no problem, the horse used to go in and fall straight asleep, so he was obviously very relaxed wasn't he? No, he was so overloaded he was shutting down as the only defence.
 
Turning out with a couple of quiet cows is one thing, the horse can choose how close to get to them and get closer in their own time - being trapped right next to a bull is totally different, and I would not do it. I would have a word.
 
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I would be a tad more than miffed!!

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Precisely, how flipping inconsiderate and thoughtless. Surely its common sense and common knowledge that a fair few horses are scared of cows. I would have a word with YO
 
I would be a bit annoyed but try and be positive for your horse and see it as a good chance to get him used to cows? I have a very hotheaded warmblood mare and she used to be absolutely petrified of cows, we moved to a lovely yard with cows on the doorstep, after one week of freaking out she decided they were ok, and now she's not bothered at all. see it as a challenge to educate your horse.
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Looks like it might not be as bad as first thought,when i went up today he was quite relaxed and did come out straight past its door without taking off with me,he was a little concerned about going back in and stood and looked for a while before setting off running so he could get past as quick as he could. I caught him having a sniff before i left and hopefully he will soon get over his fear. I asked yo this morning how long its gonna be there for because my horse is scared of it and he just replied,"well it will do him good then" and walked away i prob wouldnt have minded to much if i was told beforehand but this is a livery yard not a working farm.
 
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