Post by sophielouise on Dec 20, 2009 22:41:57 GMT 1
So, Chester through various reasons, has had to do quite a lot of box-rest recently. He isn’t a horse that does well in stabled for long periods of time – he was a serial box walker and weaver, when I got him and over time, much of this behaviour had vanished and he became a very chilled cucumber about most things.
To put this into perspective – the week after firework night, Chester heard an un-planned set of fireworks and had a bit of a fit in the stable – another livery commented that they had never seen a horse so stressed in her twenty years of owning horse’s. I just replied he was like that all the time when I got him. Now, he might just weave a little bit if he thinks that I should be hurrying with his dinner.
He’s now back out in the field, but he’s become much more difficult to handle in his box – he’s become very defensive and bolshy again. When I first got him, he’d flatten me at the stable door and we progressed to the stage where I could do everything quite safely without the need of a head collar or lead rope.
He also had separation anxiety – again, we got to the stage where he could stay in or come in early, leave his companions and not care. Saturday he came in early and WW3 might as well have kicked off, until his friend’s were in.
The only set-back I can think of, to trigger this all, is that he’s had to do a lot of BR, which understandably he found quite traumatic … or would we think it is a sign of something else? But what?!
To put this into perspective – the week after firework night, Chester heard an un-planned set of fireworks and had a bit of a fit in the stable – another livery commented that they had never seen a horse so stressed in her twenty years of owning horse’s. I just replied he was like that all the time when I got him. Now, he might just weave a little bit if he thinks that I should be hurrying with his dinner.
He’s now back out in the field, but he’s become much more difficult to handle in his box – he’s become very defensive and bolshy again. When I first got him, he’d flatten me at the stable door and we progressed to the stage where I could do everything quite safely without the need of a head collar or lead rope.
He also had separation anxiety – again, we got to the stage where he could stay in or come in early, leave his companions and not care. Saturday he came in early and WW3 might as well have kicked off, until his friend’s were in.
The only set-back I can think of, to trigger this all, is that he’s had to do a lot of BR, which understandably he found quite traumatic … or would we think it is a sign of something else? But what?!
