Herd bound horses...

[Eventer29]

One thing that helps with our nervous mare who is very attached is to turn her out in a larger herd. She has attached herself to her neighbor mare. Heaven forbid that you take her neighbor and leave her. She will not eat, will tear around the stall. She is fine with taking her out to work without neighbor. I know for a fact that if totally seperated from the mare and turned out with a larger herd she would be fine. If back in the stall but seperated from this neighbor she would soon bond with a new neighbor. Unfortunately we do not have the turnout to leave her out in a large field with other horses. Her overattachment does not bother the other mare who could care less about her. It is kind of nice, we take her neighbor out to the field and just let Shilo loose and she follows her neighbor to the field.
Also I think horses like these especially need a leader. So the more they are handled and worked with the better they do. they need a job.

 

[Hoover]

Wondering if anyone has had experience with herd bound horses? I am interested in hearing any suggestions that have worked for others. I have a pony mare about 12 yrs old that is working herself into an absolute frenzy when separated from her pasture mate. She will run the fence line and call and scream until she is drenched with sweat. In the stall she will spin and paw until she tears up the floor mats, banging her knees on the stall door. It doesn't matter if there are other horses in the next paddock or nearby stalls. Even when the two are in stalls right next to each other, she will stand right by the wall between them - though her feed and hay are on the opposite side. She won't eat, or she will run over and take a bite and then run back. She used to only panic if she was left alone but now she also freaks out if she is the one taken away. She was a worrier to begin with, and it is my fault for changing her environment three times in the last six months, but her behavior is starting to rub off on the other mares. We have had her on SmartCalm for two months but it does not seem to help.

Right now the longest they have been separated (out of sight but not out of hearing) is about 45 minutes, and the pony showed no signs of calming down in that time. I wonder if it would be better to just totally separate them and see how long it will take her to calm down? I am worried she will hurt herself, she is so crazed, but that is probably what we are going to start doing. Where we are, we can put her out of sight of her buddy but probably not out of hearing. Just thought I'd see if anything different had worked for anyone else. Thanks!

maybe get her a goat just to hang with when you take the other horse away. Just someone else for her to be with in the field so she isnt alone.

 

[ebs]

Yes, I've come to the conclusion that she needs either A) a big herd that she can be rotated around in so that she does not get overly attached, or B) to be alone with a non-working, non-equine companion. She also needs C) daily work with someone with the experience and patience to deal with a very scared, very sensitive horse. Unfortunately, I am able to provide none of these things. Not sure what we will do. She has her days when she seems to be doing much better, and then she tries to literally climb over the walls and out of her stall.

 

[DeeCee]

Can you arrange a short term arrangement to board her somewhere else safe, periodically, say one week alone then one week with others? Or can you trailer her out alone and back as often as possible and just leave her in the trailer for a few hours each time?

A horse who leans towards herd bound behavior always tends to return to it over time so it's something that will have to be reinforced time and again. Unfortunately, it is up to you to either correct the behavior, pay someone to do it, or give her to someone who won't make excuses for her bad behavior and is willing to do it, IF she's a nice pony otherwise.

FWIW I blame breeders for never separating weanlings and yearlings for short individual training sessions when the young mind is most open to developing self sufficiency skills and an understanding that people can also be comforting herd buddies and leaders.