Friday, May 4, 2012

New barn update: My horse can't relax

Well, there are some good things and some bad things.

The good new is it's literally 4 miles from my house, the guy who owns the property is really nice and my horse has plenty of room.

The bad news is my horse is an idiot.  She spends almost all day, every day just pacing the fenceline.  She has worn a rut.  The grass will never grow back.  And all the nice grass, which I've spent all week acclimating her to, really isn't getting eaten because she just paces all day.

I'm at a little bit of a loss as to what to do.  Her focus is on the other horses, which makes it annoying to do anything with her.  Which means we spend most of the time rehashing the stuff that I thought she had down as a 3 year old (like manners, etc).  My ears are still ringing from all the screaming she did right in my ear tonight. 

She actually rides fairly well out there, since she has learned that screaming = more work, but it's frustrating to tie her, brush her, saddle her, or do anything else since she is so distracted by getting back to the fence to pace and stare at the other horses that could care less that she's a pasture over.

The only upside is her turnarounds are really coming along...

I admit, I did not expect her to have this reaction.  She has never really been a "horse oriented" kind of horse, so I was hopeful the transition to solitary living (within sight of other horses) wouldn't be a big problem for her. 

But here we are, a week later, and I thought she would have "settled in" better.  She has better days where she does less pacing, but yesterday she was pacing the fence when I left in the morning, and pacing when I got back that evening to put her away.  Sometimes she is sweaty, sometimes she isn't.  4 acres of grass, and my stupid horse spends the whole day just turning one way, then the other on 100 feet of fence.

Suggestions?

2 comments:

  1. Buy her a goat? Oh, no wait! I have an idea. YOU NEED ANOTHER HORSE! I'm thinking a cute, little Palomino should do the trick. Hahahahah!

    Seriously though, I'm so sorry. It sounds like she's missing her herd and feeling insecure and short of giving her a companion, I don't know what else you can do. Maybe give her some calming supplements as a short term solution?

    Good luck.

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  2. They just NEVER act the way we think they will, do they?? I agree with Mona, a cute lil' paly would be the perfect solution! Could you afford an easy keeping mini or something as a companion? You can usually find one free/cheap and they cost very little.. some horses just can't handle being alone :(

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