At 17:20:48 on 08.09.10, BigBoys_Gal wrote:

Okay, So my horse has been giving me problems with pulling him away from him buddy's. there are about 24-30 horses in his pasture. he has his own little posse and when i take him away he gives me a hissy fit. I pull him away and he will Winnie and Winnie and if we get to far he will start pulling and yanking back from where we came. one time he even rared up and he is not one to act like this. it started when i moved him.all his manners went down the drain. how do i stop this? should i separate him? i'm afraid he will end up hurting himself trying to get back to them if i do. i have tried working him but that just makes it worse. any ideas? i will try anything. i have also been having ground problems because of this. he wont even let me mount him. he will start bucking.

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At 20:48:22 on 08.09.10, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
I work with a horse that does exactly this. Whenever she reared i would turn her sharply catching her off balance. Try not to make a big thing of it, be really casual, hardly even acknowledge him before you have him halfway across the field, every so often give him a treat if he is being good to keep his mind occupied, pretty soon he will be more interested in you and your treats than his friends :)

At 00:08:22 on 09.09.10, BigBoys_Gal wrote:
ok thanks so much :) I didn't know if this was going to turn into a bad thing or not. I have never had a horse do this before.

At 09:41:15 on 30.09.10, Flicka wrote:
To my mind this is a genuine fear thing which is quite natural for horses. One of my mares has terrible separation anxiety and when I took her away recently to stay at another yard where I was training I put her on rescue remedy and a homeopathic remedy called Ignatia. Anyway she seems to have handled it pretty well. However at home with her field buddies I wouldl tackle it one bit at a time. Just take him out of view of his mates for just a couple of minutes and then back into sight so he realises it isn't too bad and he can cope and won't be eaten if he's on his own!! So I recommend small steps and don't use strong arm tactics because if he has a bad experience he'll lose his trust in you and have even more reason not to leave his buddies. This is about him learning to think of you as his buddy but you have to earn that trust by staying firm but calm and making things easy for him.

At 12:14:09 on 30.09.10, crazycowgirl99 wrote:
Definately agree with Flicka. Over the years Ive had a few with quite severe separation anxiety, one ran laps of her paddock for 6hrs straight in 34 degree heat until I gave her her boyfriend back (at which point she stopped running & acted as though nothing had happened- instant reovery!). One step at a time worked with her, neighbouring paddocks, then opposite paddocks, short amounts of time out of sight etc... I have used herbal remedies on others which have just helped them to relax enough to listen & realise they are just as safe with you as they are with their friends. It will probably be trial & error with your boy, you'll have to see what works but nothing beats positive reinforcement - the more he trusts you, the more he'll do for you.

At 17:10:33 on 03.10.10, caseyluvshorses wrote:
Well I would try to get his buddy's away from him and then get him to where you are going to ride him to and then saddle up.

At 01:30:34 on 29.12.10, IHave29Horses wrote:
i would seperate him from his posse for a while and teach him whos in charge while hes with you

At 11:54:06 on 21.02.11, Lachlan93 wrote:
This is a long term solution if you are willing. All of the relationships with my horses are based on trust. I am an eventer and this is important tackling cross country fences. I always start a horse in the round yard to get their attention. There are many techniques which you may want to research in order to gain a horses attention. I use the technique which is allowing the horse to move forward (often tense at first) and follow it with the lunge whip. When it softens and relaxes drop the whip and any other aid and turn around lowering your body weight. This will have absolutely no effect for a while however eventually, the horse will stop and walk up to you. At this point reward and continue. You now have his attention. All of my horses hate being separated, however when I spend a couple of minutes gaining their attention, they do anything that I want them too, even compete around a 2 star cross country course. It will take much patience and repetition.

At 07:39:48 on 05.08.11, dancingwithdevils wrote:
tell him you are the boss, but be nice sometimes and give him treats. the mare i used to play with would run away when i got close and with a treat when i caught her, eventually she would be waiting at the gait to come in! i'm sure this is super fixable.