Stall walking mare

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Barb Peck bpeck@together.net
Barb Peck
bprck@together.net


>Meagan wrote:
>my mare has been stall walking for that last few month
>from bordom.

Meagan:
What's changed in that last few months?
How old is the horse (if that was stated in the post
forgive me for asking again).
What type of showing (work) does he do?

I agree with Susan, free choice hay and more chew
time will help, but IMO this is an anxiety problem, 
either with boredome, or something else.

It's been my observation over the years, that some
behaviours, once started, can become "hard-wired"
in a horses brain rather quickly, and even  if you
find a way to improve conditions to alleviate the
problem, the behaviour will resurface at times of
stress.

I also agree with Frank.  Horses should be treated
as horses and out 24/7 with a shelter for bad weather, 
but we also know that's not the way show horses live.

In the past, I've purchased 2 soured "show horses"
because by they were such a tail-wringing mess they
weren't winning anymore.  One was a fence walker (10 
year old) and the other was a body slammer in the stall
who was 7. It DID turn out to be constant confinement
that caused these 2 to behave that way. 
For the fence walker, 
  I rounded the corners of a 1/2 acre pasture (so there were
no corners) and let the her have access to a run
in shed, plus she could see other horses. 
(She was used to doing a roll-back in the fence corners
of the paddock she was previously in when turned out).
  The body slammer, demolished every gain feeder ever
designed. The feeder that worked for him, was a shallow
corner rubber feeder pan, suspended by 3 inch bungie cords
so when he bopped it with either head or body, it moved
around alittle and couldn't be ripped off the wall. 

 The point is, like all things with horses, you'll
need to put some time into this to fix it.    
  You really need to get to the root of this behaviour
quickly. It's either mental or physical, so you need to
rule out physical pain first.
  Is he herd bound to a buddy who's now somewhere else?
Is he in a different stall? Is this anxiety a
new manifestation, or has his behaviour been creeping
up to this.

  I guess my point, is that, if you really want to stop this
you'll probably have to make some changes to the 
way he's managed, and the changes  will have to be beneficial
for the horse, which, usually means the stable or owner will
be inconvenienced.

Good luck
Barb