Yard help - Arg!!!

3Beasties said:
This ^^^

I'm not sure if this is a daft idea or not....I would go down there early but not actually turn him out. Maybe give him a groom, walk him in hand etc while the other horses are being turned out but then put him back in his stable until 'normal' turnout time in the hope that he will get used to being in with just the two other horses. If he is settled with the above you could gradually decrease what you are doing with him during them being turned out until he isn't bothered about it.

Can you get an infill for the grill so there is no way he can get through it?
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I did try that today...it didn't go well :( but I might try it if he appears to calm down at all. I was brushing him when she turned her horses out and as soon as they went through the gate, he started thrashing around on the end of the rope. I managed to get him listening long enough for me to untie him and take him out, but he really panicked :(
 
I was also going to make milliepops suggestion, especially if he is not 100% sound (so you don't really want him being a tit/box walking
 
I doubt he's panicking - just being a stress head.

Personally, I'd just turn him out when hers goes out. Give it a couple of weeks, and then start donig what 3Beasties suggests (which is a really excellent idea).
 
Nah said:
I did try that today...it didn't go well :( but I might try it if he appears to calm down at all. I was brushing him when she turned her horses out and as soon as they went through the gate, he started thrashing around on the end of the rope. I managed to get him listening long enough for me to untie him and take him out, but he really panicked :(
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Could you start with him tied on the yard? Or walking in hand? Or even just turn him out for 10 mins and then bring him in again?

Sounds like he's being really difficult but I think you should stick with it for now if you can.

Is moving stables an option so he is between the two remaining horses?
 
I appreciate you love him and want the best for him ect however sometimes the best way to cope with horses not helping themselves is to detach yourself from them emotionally.

Put a full grill over his stable so he cannot jump out, make sure he cant hang himself off anything in the stable and give him time to settle into a routine. If that means horses leave the stables early in the morning and he has to wait another three hours so be it. He will get over it!!!

Blimey if anything ask if he can be on full livery for a few weeks, get into a 'yard' routine without (and no offence I am such a worrier with mine) an overly attached and worried owner.

He has learnt this terrible habit of jumping out and it needs to be stopped.

You have no idea what the routine would be at a grass livery, people might come ride at 6am and the next thing Ned would be jumping out to follow them on rides, then you would be thinking being in overnight would be better.

2 days to a pea brained horse is nothing.
 
Buds_mum said:
I appreciate you love him and want the best for him ect however sometimes the best way to cope with horses not helping themselves is to detach yourself from them emotionally.

Put a full grill over his stable so he cannot jump out, make sure he cant hang himself off anything in the stable and give him time to settle into a routine. If that means horses leave the stables early in the morning and he has to wait another three hours so be it. He will get over it!!!

Blimey if anything ask if he can be on full livery for a few weeks, get into a 'yard' routine without (and no offence I am such a worrier with mine) an overly attached and worried owner.

He has learnt this terrible habit of jumping out and it needs to be stopped.

You have no idea what the routine would be at a grass livery, people might come ride at 6am and the next thing Ned would be jumping out to follow them on rides, then you would be thinking being in overnight would be better.

2 days to a pea brained horse is nothing.
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Like :D
 
I'm sort of with Buds_mum on this one - I would make sure he is as safe as possible and leave him to it, OR get up early for the first week and turn him out with the others... Then gradually make it slightly later and later gradually, and to a large extent ignore the histrionics.
Having said that - mine never really settled at his previous yard, I didn't realise how unsettled he was until I moved again (yard closed down) and suddenly had the calm chilled out horse I had remembered, I thought the spooky highly strung idiot horse was a product of his growing fitter/stronger/turning 6. However I don't think you can really make a judgement in 2 days!!
 
Buds_mum said:
I appreciate you love him and want the best for him ect however sometimes the best way to cope with horses not helping themselves is to detach yourself from them emotionally.

Put a full grill over his stable so he cannot jump out, make sure he cant hang himself off anything in the stable and give him time to settle into a routine. If that means horses leave the stables early in the morning and he has to wait another three hours so be it. He will get over it!!!

Blimey if anything ask if he can be on full livery for a few weeks, get into a 'yard' routine without (and no offence I am such a worrier with mine) an overly attached and worried owner.

He has learnt this terrible habit of jumping out and it needs to be stopped.

You have no idea what the routine would be at a grass livery, people might come ride at 6am and the next thing Ned would be jumping out to follow them on rides, then you would be thinking being in overnight would be better.

2 days to a pea brained horse is nothing.
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LOL!!

It's a private DIY only yard, annoyingly. Or I would pay extra to let them deal with him!

I'm trying to snag a Parks Trust field. They're just 2-3 acre paddocks and you pay per horse. All they ask is you poo pick every now and then! They're almost completely Ned proof too! Surrounded by large hedges. It would really be perfect for him as I know he would be ok (friends field was a Trust field!)
I have friends who would want to move in with me too, so he wouldn't be alone.
 
Some horses never do settle into that DIY yard thing of different horses being on totally different turnout/feeding schedules. I own such a horse. However, you won't know if you do after only two days. I gave her highness a year to get used to it, but in the end, she proved to be more intransigent about her refusal to like the place than I was about making her suck it up and get used to it. I moved her to a yard where the YO keeps everyone to a strict routine and she has been a lot happier.

I would give your lad about a week, maybe up to two weeks, and he will either get used to it and settle, or not. In my experience, if they don't improve at all within that sort of time frame, they're probably not going to without some sort of management change taking place.
 
Your lad had been on his previous yard a long time hadn't he? That will make it harder for him.

I would also suggest putting a full grill up so he is safe and can't injure himself. Maybe put an instant calmer in his breakfast that the livery could put in for you? He does have food left at that time doesn't he?
 
Look at Ned. 6 years in a place with all his friends.

You took him off a yard that is not up to scratch. To a yard that is pretty much perfect in your eyes.

But Ned is saying 'where's my friends gone?' .

It took my old horse who had spent 10 years with the same herd (basically untouched by humans) nearly 6 months to settle into the yard ... I moved 3 times, the first yard I moved because I didn't get on with the owner. The second one was because it was just too far away from me. The third was not up to my liking. It had no arena, the stables were very closed in and I thought my horse would hate it. He was in a field with just one other horse from a herd of 4 and I thought he'd hate it. It took 6 months for him to settle. But I was so happy when he did, the YO was so lovlry and helpful in this period and he turned into such a chilled horse that I could put my non horsey OH on to and he plodded around like a donkey (in the first yard I honestly thought he was going to kill me - tried to throw me off into an oncoming digger). I ended up gifting him to a friend when I hit trouble. She's still got him, and recently moved off that yard to one that's got stables that are very closed in but he's learnt to live with them.

2 days is nothing. YOs do expect horses to mess around and be unsettled. Just work with them and give it least a month before you consider moving.

Good luck!
 
galaxy said:
Your lad had been on his previous yard a long time hadn't he? That will make it harder for him.

I would also suggest putting a full grill up so he is safe and can't injure himself. Maybe put an instant calmer in his breakfast that the livery could put in for you? He does have food left at that time doesn't he?
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I was going to say something along these lines - can the other livery toss him some hay if he's run out or stick his breakfast in? Just until he starts to chill out a bit (or you've found another solution).
 
Re the friends trust field (and as we only have 2) will you not poss have issues with him if friend rides and leaves him alone?

fwiw even Frank was a stresshead when moved but he isn't really that type generally- can take him to another yard/show for a couple of days and perfectly happy!

Whatever routine you do for the next couple of weeks I would stick to it absolutely if you can.
 
See now my experience was the total opposite of Caol Ila - my horse was calm as could be on a DIY yard with no set routine, then on a more structured smart yard with set feeding / turnout times for all etc he was awful (jumped out of fields, box walked, weaves even standing tied on yard, always pulling back and running off, idiotic to turn out and bring in and not much fun to ride!! Ended up back on a more basic DIY, having briefly toyed with moving him to 24/7 turnout, and lo and behold, I got my old horse back. Almost instantly! He's still a prat on occasion but he is 17hh, half KWPN and now pretty fit. So I can forgive the odd moment!
 
It not been long.
He could settle.
But if he's used to living out and does well then that could be thr best option.
Cheaper and easier for you too.


Could you come to a deal with another to turn him out early?

I'm at the yard at 5am but the other horses know their own routine so just watch me!
When in at night in the winter I give the others breakfast or hay and turn mine out.
 
It can take some horses months- years to get used to a new yard. as other have said you probably best putting somthing over his door to stop him from jumping out. I don't think it unreasonable if he's got hay for him to wait til you come up. at my yard everyone works different hours we have some coming up at 3am-4am and some as late a 10am and all the other horses have learn to wait this includes feeding. Most horse start off being idiots rearing kicking ect and then they just get on with it. the best way is to not ask other liveries to feed and to ignore any sillyness they soon learn making noise gets nothing. it hard but i found it the easiest way. hope you get it sorted :) x
 
I agree to a point Purple. But the most important thing for now is for nah to establish a routine for the horse that she can work with to enable him to start settling. I think it's very unfair to expect him to just 'get on with it' just at the moment whilst he is settling in. Especially as he can be a little temperamental.

Once he is happy and settled that's the time to be tweeking the routine to better suit the owner. Whenever I've moved a horse or had a new one my primary concern is helping the horse settle. It can be a pain in the butt for a week or so. But after that I find that things come together pretty quickly. And normal service resumes.
 
I understand what you mean but if ned becomes dependent on another horsetoo much nah will have to be there to the mintue. i know horses that have gone mad if there freind have gone out 5 mintues before them. there's routine and then just stupidness routine to a point but not so much that your going to the yard when someone else is not when you want your horse to come in or out.

the was a horse at chirstmas who sadly lost it's companion there were fed togther led together everything. this poor horse was screamed for months because she never been on her own her owner had them both together because they both stressed alone but in the end the one left behind suffered for months for all the times the owner avoided stress itthen hit this pony like a brick wall when the other was gone . I beileve it was more stressful for that horse in the long term then what i suggested above personally the sitaution i have just mentioned is more "unfair"
 
Yep, totally see where your coming from. But if you preempt the situation, the horse become reliant on nothing.
 
amymay said:
Yep, totally see where your coming from. But if you preempt the situation, the horse become reliant on nothing.
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true.


maybe for now turn him out at the same time and slowly increase the time before turning him out after the other up to the time that you would normally come and turn him out.

good luck nah ke us updated :
 
I know it's not the nicest but could you put a grill on his door?
http://www.robinsonsequestrian.com/stable-door-top-grill.html

I have a horse that stresses if another horse leaves him, thankfully he isn't clever/nimble enough to hop over the door. With him I found it works just to let him have a fit, let him throw himself around, squeal about etc. not nice to watch but he is so much better now I didn't give him what he wanted.
Hope that makes sense. Sometimes you have to just make them grow some balls!
 
Ditto the others in that I would give him a calmer and after making sure that he has nothing he can get hooked up on pop a grill up so he cannot get out and (hard though it would be for you to walk away) let him have his tantrum. when he has stood quietly for a few minutes then go to him with no fuss and turn him out but the main thing is to let him learn that stamping his feet and throwing his toys around gets him no attention from you and is totally unproductive. you do need to give him time as he is never going to learn if you take him away from any situation that upsets him and eventually you could (nott would) end up with a horse that does what he likes when he likes. if he ever did something to a leg jumping in or out of a field and needed box rest what would you do then?
 
I know of a horse who hadn't been in a stable years (cant remember how many exactly)... the first time he went in one he thrashed around and went mad- within a month he had settled so there is hope :)

Give him time- hope he settles :)
 
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