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Horse Behavior and Training

horse anxiety

By:

terry57

Date:

2011-Feb-13 at 06:50PM

My horse has anxiety he has developed this recently after a long winter.when we lead him out to go to a field or have a lesson he runs to the other horses then hes good five minutes later he's very strong and nobody can hold him.
hes only done this three times and we don't want him to make a habit of this so can you please tell us what we should do.

Kit 2011-Feb-14 at 12:17AM

Thats dificult, I'm working with a donkey like that. What I would do and it seems to work although donkeys aren't as flighty as horses. I would walk him towards the sorce of anxiety and pay close attention to him if he starts to get anxious let him stand and get used to the thought of being away from the other horses and incrimentally get further and further away. Also I can tell you every animal has a "sweet spot" aka a place where when you stand there you have the leverage to turn their head, and get them around even if they really don't want to. Believe me, I weigh 100 lbs and the donkey I work with is over 1500. I hate to force anything on an animal but him running away is really dangerous for him, so you need to get him turned so you can keep him with you. Also I would work on teaching him to respect pressure when he is calm, so backing up in the halter turning circles and absolutely under no circumstances should he pass you when you are leading.

Gen (Queensland, Australia) 2011-Feb-15 at 10:00PM

Hi Terry

Have you joined up with your horse? If you haven't, I would make that a priority as it may help. You don't have to be in a round yard to join up, you can do it in any space. Maybe try that before leading him out??

See you later,

Gen

Amberpony - California, USA 2011-Mar-03 at 07:10PM

I agree that Join-Up is the answer to Anxioty.

I have Just gone Through a Horrific Anxioty Problem. I Purchased my Horse from a Hoarder where there were 32 horses that had never left the property unless they died.
It took me 1 1/2 hours to put the halter on ( I did join up with him after he bolted from the Halter). Then it took 3 more hours (4 People) to walk him home 1/4 mile. (my trailer was at my sons) In the 1/4 mile walk home he got away 4 times. Ran Home, then let us catch him again.

My Guy is 6 and a Stallion (Hope to Geld Soon) 2 months after I brought him home, his previous owner was convinced to down size to 12 horses. Needless to say everytime someone came to get a horse I had a Disaster in the making.

The solution was to put him in a 12 x 12 pen and sit with him during his High Anxioty Times. This comforted him. We fed him Mare Magic to help with the Studdy excitement part.

I firmly believe that Join-Up is essential to calming the mind and gaining the trust required to concure anxioty. My Joey now calls to me after doing Join-Up the way Monty teaches in the Lessons Here. It has made a huge diference in our lives. My guy actually asked to do Join-Up every morning for a few days. This was very comforting.