Re: RC: need help with separation anxiety issues in young horse

["Jessica Spoone" <lady_selene@hotmail.com>]

I hope this helps a little. My horse did this for a bit too. His background 
wasn't the same but he would "freak out" if taken from my moms gelding. 
Galloping up and down the fence, screamin, all the fun stuff. He would do it 
until we brought her horse back or he was too exhausted to move. What we did 
took several steps but worked and was pretty "non traumatizing". First we 
moved her horse to the adjacent pasture where they could see and touch 
noses, etc but were still seperated. Once he got used to this (took a couple 
days I think) we moved my horse to his stall for a couple hours each day 
where her horse could wander in and visit but would be out of sight part of 
it too. We just kept increasing the time we seperated them until all the 
"hysterics" were over. Now they are still buddies and love being around 
eachother but he no longers goes nuts if he can't see his buddy. Jess


>From: "Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>
>Reply-To: "Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>
>To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
>Subject: RC:  need help with separation anxiety issues in young horse
>Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 12:57:37 -0700
>
>Hey guys, I need some input here.
>
>I have a very nice coming-five-year-old Anglo-Arab gelding that is having
>some problems, and I need to figure out the best course of action for him.
>A brief background---I bred and raised him myself, he was *perfect*, would
>do anything with total aplomb and absolute willingness.    This horse is 
>not
>an airhead.  I started him under saddle and he spent six months with a good
>trainer in So Cal learning his basics.  And showed in a junior hunter under
>saddle flat class where he took everything absolutely in stride, never
>turned a hair.
>
>When I moved up to Colorado to start vet school, I was way too gullible and
>trusting and put him for 'training' in with someone I thought was a friend,
>the now defunct Visions of the Wind business entity.  A long and fairly
>horrifying story, but the short end of it was that nine months later, the
>horse I rescued back was 200 lbs thinner, untrained or conditioned, his
>floor-length tail had been chewed off from having been turned out with
>strange horses willy-nilly, his tack was broken from his having been tied 
>by
>the bit and my perfectly behaved and brought up youngster's attitude was a
>toal 180 degrees turnabout.  He was afraid of the shoer, startled and
>anxious at every little thing, no longer tied without panicking, no longer
>responds to the cues and leads he was taught, and from having shown
>successfully at the Del Mar Nationals a year before, his appearance looked
>like something the BLM would be ashamed asking a $100 adoption fee for.  
>Not
>to mention that I was out thousands of dollars I'd paid up front, but the
>bankruptcy courts let you get away with anything if you get weepy enough 
>and
>tell a good bedtime story.  But that's another issue.
>
>The bottom line is that he's been with Karen Chaton since last August and
>she's done a *terrific* job of working through the unspeakable abuse and
>neglect that my horse went through.  His health is finally back where it
>should be, he's back on track with his conditioning and most of the 
>behavior
>problems (shoeing, etc) have been taken care of.
>
>The only remaining problem is that when Dakota origially came back form
>this....person....he suddenly had alot of anxiety about being separated 
>from
>other horses, and the problem hasn't resolved with time.  He starts pacing
>and calling, running up and down fences, working up a sweat, the whole
>thing.  He'd never done that before.  We've given him some time and work to
>let him get the idea that he's in a better place now, but he still seems to
>be really anxious about being alone.  H's good out on the trail, alone or 
>in
>groups, but really gets upset when trailered out to strange places, big
>strange groups and so on.
>
>What are everybody else's experiences with working these problems through?
>Karen is going to be tied up with XP this summer, so I have the options of
>bringing him home and working with him myself (which wouldnt be consistent
>because of my own schedule), or putting him with a back-to-basics
>(professional and reputable) trainer who deals with behavior problems, or I
>can put him with another endurance training center (also professional and
>reputable, see, I've learned my lesson) that will keep up with the
>conditioning, but doesn't necessarily directly address the anxiety issue,
>and hope he works through it with time.
>
>Any suggestions or input would be appreciated.
>
>Susan G
>
>
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