My Mare has seperation anxiety.......?

Question

When I take my 7 yr old mare out from the stables, her 18 yr old companion and my mare go nuts!! They live in seperate fields during day to try and overcome this but so far nothing has worked! Admittedly they are the only 2 horses @ the yard. Hacking out is fine, cos once were away she forgets, but if I take her to the school, they both call and go mad so in the end i give up riding!! help!! p.s on hacks because she is on her own, the spooks are triple as bad.......

Answer 1

Horses are herd animals, so it doesn't surprise me that they are very attached to each other. I agree with the poster above me, let them have time together in the same field. Hopefully this will get her over her separation anxiety. Good luck!

Answer 2

This is a really hard problem to solve.  It can be improved, but it tends to always sneak back up again.  Some horses are just prone to it, no matter how well you handle things.  For that reason I would try to avoid buying a horse with a huge seperation anxiety things in their life!  Sorry, but its such a pain, as you're finding out, and there are many other horses out there without it.

Since you own the horses that have the problems, you can try to do some things to help.  I personally agree that keeping them together at times is good, but they also need to learn they can live apart for times.  One good thing to do is - take one horse away seperately and tie them in a safe place for an hour or two out of sight.  I would give them a hay bag or something so they can be occupied.  Then be prepared that they will neigh and fuss the whole time.  Plan to do this for about 7 days in a row.  It will likely take that long before you see any improvement, and most people won't stick to 7 days but instead give up before then, but don't quit.  I think you will find that most horses eventually settle down because its just too much work long term, pawing and acting like nuts.

After that I would make sure to keep moving them in different pens and places.  One day keep the two of them together in one spot.  Then put them in seperate pens out of sight for a day or two.  Then put them back together.  Then put them in different seperate pens.  

Keep it up and with time they should adjust to the fact that things change and they will be okay.

Also, do lots of groundwork getting them to focus on you, not their buddies.  Do roundpenning or lunging for respect.  If they are distracted and staring off in space and neighing, really put them to work changing directions and backing and sidepassing and working hard.  Its tough for them to neigh and act up if they are busy obeying you.

Good luck.  If you don't see any improvement after a couple of weeks of doing these things, I think you'll be stuck with the problem.  Just like some horses are prone to spooking no matter how much you work with them, some are prone to being herd bound.

Answer 3

my horses r the same way what i do is i give them a field to share with each other and i try to have them so they are riden at the same time. i find that helps a lot.

Answer 4

you can try feeding the other horse when you take her away.

i have a mare who had the same problem so every day i would take her a small distance each time then take her bake until she got use to that distance i then in-cress it little by little and i have no trouble now.

Answer 5

wy dont you try riding as a pair with the other horse and its rider and if you cant do that try getting another companion 4 the other hose so when your schooling the other h**e might not be so botherd when your horse leaves the feild becuse they will have another horse with them and vice verca

Answer 6

If u are getting really frustrated with ur horses, mabey u should lead the 18yr old beside the 7yr old or buy another cheap companion.

Answer 7

If she has been around this horse for a long time, she's probably loves him/her. At my barn, a boarder has a Swedish Warmblood and he and my Appendix QH mare are IN LOVE with eachother, and eventually we had to move him to the stall across from her. What I would do is give them time in a padock or field together for a while. Once my two love-birds have some time together, their usually fine. Good luck!

Answer 8

Sounds like she's herd bound.

This article explains to you what you can do:

"Our goals are two-fold. Number one: We want to ride away from the group or buddy horse without our horse becoming upset or the other horse becoming upset. This means we will need to set up this situation of riding away from the other horse many times. Repetition is going to be the key to achieving these results. Riding away from the other horse once or twice a day will not get the job done.

The second part of our goals is to stay away from the other horse for as long as needed without either horse becoming upset. This is a time factor. In dealing with any time factor during training, always start with the shortest time and work to longer time limits. For example, ride away from the other horse for only a few seconds at first. Extend this period to 10, 20 then 30 seconds, then on to minutes until we reach the point that we can ride away for hours.

Two factors we have working in our favor during these training sessions are: Our horse is going to become excited, and our horse is going to be calming down on his own.

When we ask our horse to move away from the "buddy" horse, he is going to become excited in anticipation of leaving his friend. The other horse, at this point, is doing two things to help us in training our horse. One is giving our horse a distraction and two is helping us work with our horse’s emotions.

A distraction is something that takes our horse’s attention off us and onto something else. Distractions come in all different levels, from a leaf on the ground, a barking dog, a "buddy" horse, or even a bear. Distractions are nothing more than pop quizzes for our horse.

In other words, when we come across a distraction, it allows us to give our horse a test. The test is simply a question: will you (my horse) listen to this cue with this level of distraction? If the answer is yes and he responds correctly to our cue quickly and quietly with his mind and attention to us, he passes the pop quiz test. If the horse does not respond to our cue in this manner, then he fails the pop quiz test.

If the horse fails the test, we should return the horse to an environment where he will listen to that cue and begin to re-practice that cue. We will need to move our horse closer to the buddy horse or maybe not ride quite as far away. We might even want to return quicker to the area of the buddy horse.

The second area on which we are working on are the horse’s emotions. All horses become excited at different times and at those times we still need our horse to listen and respond to our cues. Set up the situation in a controlled environment to work on emotions. Get him just a little excited and then let him calm-down. The buddy sour problem can become an excellent opportunity for us to recognize that as we ride away and return, both horse’s emotions are on roller coasters. When we start to ride away, the horses become nervous, upset and excited. When we turn around and start to ride closer, they see the other horse is not leaving so they begin to calm-down. Believe it or not, this is extremely hard on a horse’s system, as it would be on our system. Soon, after putting their emotions through this kind of roller coaster of getting upset and calming down, the horses start to get a grip on themselves. They begin to realize the "buddy" horse is going to come back so they do not get quite so upset. It’s easier on a horse to become upset and stay upset for an hour or so than it is for him to become upset and calm down 50 times in that hour.

By riding away for 10 seconds, then returning and staying close to the other horse until both horses calm down, the rider is putting the horse’s emotions on this roller coaster. After a while, the rider will be able to go farther and farther away and stay gone longer without either horse getting upset. When the rider returns both horses will calm down quicker. This is a great opportunity for the rider to work with their horse’s emotions. Continue with this pattern of going away and coming right back until neither horse becomes upset by the leaving or returning.

At the same time you have been solving the buddy sour problems with your horse, you have also practiced hundreds of times asking your horse to turn to the left, turn to the right, pick up his lead, etc. By doing so you have concentrated on the parts of your horse’s training you wanted to improve and you were able to do so positively. Again, remember to ride where you can get the responses you want from your horse, not where he is doing things you do not want him to do.

With this method of training, you have determined your goal and developed an easy starting point for your horse. You may put steps between your starting point and your goal, with each of these steps being easy for your horse to attain. Both you and your horse have been safe throughout the lesson and it’s even been fun for you to ride and your horse to learn. Because of the approach you took to solve the buddy sour problem, you not only solved that problem but improved other areas of your horse’s training and performance as well.

-John Lyons"

Answer 9

How long have you had them separated and how long have you been riding with her alone?  It takes a LOT of riding to overcome this and may take several months of separation.  Another thing that can work for some horses is to stall them and only let them out when you are riding (of course you would then have to do a LOT of riding).  I do not recommend this but it does work sometimes as a last resort.  

Something that you need to keep in mind is that every time you stop riding and give in this habit becomes ingrained and gets worse.  Instead of quiting when you go to school take her back and work her tail off.  Ride her right near the fence around the other horses until she is so tired she wants to stop.  Then ride her some more.  That will teach her that home means work if she throws a fit and she won't want to go back there.