We kept him in a run-in all through that gawdawful winter, blanketed when
necessary (very necessary, very often). But our ambitious ride schedule
had me worried. Mom's are REAL good at "what-ifs", what if something
happened, what if we needed to confine him, on and on. So we arranged
for a stall next to Miss B, everybody smiled & Kasey seemed fine--no
stall walking, no apparent weaving.
Then the competitions started, Kasey got to be pretty fit, feeling quite
the young stud, and the weaving started again, big time. And he added
digging to the inventory. He darn near destroyed the clay dirt floor in
his stall in just one night. So OK, out you go Mr Smartypants, in the
run-in with the Hannoverian brood mares. The field is right next door to
Miss B and Mr T, he walked the fence a bit yesterday but with the nice
grass, it looked OK.
Last night I brought him out of the field, gave him his supplements (a
whole extra meal really, which is why we feed our horses separately from
the rest of the boarders), brushed him & generally fussed over him while
Kevin took Mr T for a spin in his new saddle. Put Kasey back in the
field & watched....watched him not just weave but fling his body wildly
from one side to the other, clipping his ankles each time, with his chin
scraping on the top bar of the metal gate. It went on forever.
When it became apparent that this wasn't going to stop, and he was quite
possibly going to injure himself in the process, I walked down to the
gate. He immediately stopped and poked the gate with his nose. When I
brought the halter out, he literally threw his head into it, he even
helped me open the gate with a little flick of his head.
When he was outside the field, he sighed, dropped his head and leaned
into me ever so slightly, a definite "thank you".
So back to the owner who kindly found a stall with mats. Put Kasey
in--he can see Miss B & Mr T even though he's across the hall--and not
once did he weave or act uncomfortable. So here we are again. I know
he'll weave in the stall but at least the mats will protect the floor, if
not him.
Yes, I read the articles about neurotic behavior. I think this is so
entrenched that there is no handy "cure". Teddy used to put hobbles on
him but we board and I don't want to burden the owner any more than
necessary (we're enough of a pain as it is, always fussing about the
horses).
Anybody out there with this problem? Other than driving people nuts (it
doesn't bother me) are there long term side effects that you might have
noticed? Anything you've tried that worked?
Diane @ Safe Haven
Allentown, PA