STOCKYARD
HORSE  DISCUSSION FORUMS

Trojane

I've been following MyLittlePony's thread on the problem of a co-dependency. I'd like to hear from others who have had this with their own horse, and how - and if - they overcame it, as now am suffering with my own horse.

Three months ago my gelding (also called Red) was moved from a large herd situation (approx 25) to a new property. At the new place, there are only 2 paddock mates (both mares) who came from the same big herd. One is an older, dominant mare and Red shows little interest there. The other is same age as him (13) and a fairly highly-strung TB. Red has become excessively attached to her.

Before the move he could be taken out of the big paddock and into the barn or arena and worked without a fuss.

Now when I bring him in he is constantly looking for the other mare and it is difficult to spend much time grooming and handling, even with a feed and carrots on offer. He is constantly distracted, watching out for her in the paddock. When she is taken for rides without him, he works himself into a frenzy and bolts about until her return.

I can assume it will take a while to settle in, but on the other hand I believe some horse have stronger herd instincts and it may be tough going. Any comments???

Bon & Ted

Over here over here

Ted suffers some serious separation anxiety/herd bound/co-dependancy issues. He is a little "special"

I don't like having him by himself, he gets miserable and pines at the gate all day long. He was in with a pony mare for 10ish months and they formed a ridiculous bond, I was however able to take Ted out for a ride without him losing it trying to get back to his missus. However, when 3 other horses were temporarily moved into their paddock he LOST it, he was an absolute nervous wreck, herded the 3 mares all day long away from the old gelding. When I took him out of the paddock he would tremble, sweat, scream, jump around. Run around crazily in the arena until he just about fell over. It's like his mind just totally froze over and all he could think about was the herd, totally ignored his other surroundings. Once the 3 horses were taken back to their normal paddock he was fine, instantly himself again .

Now I know that when I go to put him with other horses to proceed with alot more caution. In the first day that he was on spell in a herd of 12 on 100 acres, he took my weanling filly (whom he had never met) and another clydie X weanling, separated them from the herd and formed his own mini herd, acting like a big fat mother hen The 2 fillies escaped back to the normal herd and now he is forced to live amongst the big mean broodies lol.

So can I join the co-dependancy club? lol

Oh so my solution is chuck them in a herd WITHOUT their co-dependant horsey partner and they will learn the way horses are supposed to learn.

LNT

oh yey there are others out there with the same problem as me!!

my 17yo tb gelding is terribly attached to my 10yo tb mare, if i ride her out, he runs the fence line constantly, calling out until he's in a complete lather, and according to the OH he doesnt settle AT ALL until i come back.

If if ride him out (she couldnt care less) he prances and jigjogs for about the first 15-20 minutes until he realizes he aint going back until i'm ready and then reluctantly will settle down.

however when we go to arc i cant pen him next to my friends mare cause he instantly attaches to her and then if we are in the same class and she gets ahead of me on the xc course he goes nutso trying to catch up.........EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING and dangerous cause he just stops thinking and just wants to get to her.

even when the farrier comes if i take my mare out of sight to get her feet done, he goes stupid, if he cant see her his whole world collapses!!

i was seriously thinking of moving him on because of this but i just dont have the heart to do it, in all other aspects he's a really nice horse......apart from getting a third horse, which i dont really want to do, i'm of the mind that well he'll just have to deal with it and seperate him from other horses at adult riders and see if that helps.

but yes very very frustrating to have a co-dependant horse.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read

Yarraman

Oh I so miss Red - Trojane.

Even in the herd situation where I agist we still manage to have horses with dependancy issues.

A new gelding has just arrived at our agistment centre and had virtually no experience previously with other horses and hence formed major dependency on a very old horse in the herd. When this horse was stabled he would try and force his way into the stable and would attack other horses and act aggresively towards humans trying to come near the stable. When moved to his own stable would scream and carry on.

Over the fast few weeks he has now switched his affections to a pony and is slowly settling. But when the owner wishes to ride their pony we need to put him in a roundyard as he follows around the arena.

Am watching this thread with much interest.

Toy

I had a tb gelding that would befriend every horse he passed so he was not alone. I got him when he was 9 and for the 7yrs before I had him everywhere he went a pony went with him. Obviously people think its easier to just cart an extra horse everywhere rather than face the actual problem. He would buck, rear and throw damn good tantrums if I tried to take him out by himself. It annoyed the crap out of me I couldn't school him properly or just go for a ride without him carring on. I started by taking him out and showing him he still could see the other horse but slowly moving further away each time. Worked well until it came to the point that he couldn't see. Then everytime he wanted to go back and carried on he coped a slap on the shoulder with the reins and pushed forward. Once he was out and away he did settle a little but it took months of doing this every day to get him fully out of it. My mare I have now spent her first 4yrs running with a herd until the day I got her. She was in my back yard for 11mths by herself. She would call and carry on when other horses went past until she befriended my husky and just must have realised that she didn't need the other horses. She is now in a paddock beside another horse. She couldn't careless what the other horse does. The other horse came from a herd and spends all day watching her and calling to her. We loaded her in the float to bring her in for a clean up and he went beserk, she didn't care. I have found that geldings are more prone to being co-dependant whereas mares generally get over it quicker.

Toy

*laughs* I just finished typing and thought I wonder what sex the horses carrying on is. They are all geldings!

mylittlepony

i always thought mare were more prone to being co dependent, but i work at a stud, so we dont have many geldings anyways! u should see the way some of the mares carry on when seperated! they all have their own buddies, and every year we swap them around the paddocks to try get them way from their friends and they just team up with someone else!!!!!

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Trojane

Thanks B&T, LNT, Toy, & Yarraman (yes we miss you too!)

How about we form "Victims of Co-dependancy" and console each other?

I can see some common themes here...Geldings for one!! Also my horse did used to have his own (tiny) little herd at times within the large group. Usually it was with newcomers, and included both mares and geldings. Being low in the pecking order, they'd often move on to "superior" company after they became established. Is it possible lower ranking horses are insecure and more clingy when the situation arises? I remember reading some top horse trainer used to always choose an alpha horse for his own.

jodles

I know and husbands are worse!!!!! If its not the gelding lol it's the O/H

Trojane

Looks like I jumped the gun there MLP. So I'd better stop being sexist about this!!