Horse playing up in school if another horse leaves....

[juliecwuk]

Any suggestions?

Anxious horse, doesn't really like being left behind when other horses are finished and leave.... She rears and pratts around....this is when under saddle.

[sjp1]

I would say not settled or secure with its rider.

Tobes used to be extremely clingy to to other horses. As time has gone on and we have gained trust in each other, he is happy to go along with me. We started by grazing away from the others on better grass (cheating really!). Nothing awful happened to him and bit by bit he gained trust. Horses (all of them) could then be brought in past him and bearing in mind the stables were a long way from the field, he would be happy standing with me grazing.

This gave me confidence in him,which made him more confident with me, and we progressed to ridden.

Having said that, I am not 100% sure that schooling, which is tedious anyway, is the best place to start separation.

What is the horse like when by itself being in a stable, or led away or anywhere else?

[bitsnpieces]

Have you tried having her in hand in the school and getting another horse to leave, then doing some groundwork to calm her down?

[juliecwuk]

This is the stressy anxious horse that I have mentioned before with regards to trailer loading, separation anxiety, hates being stabled, etc.... It's all related. She has got much much better generally, just a way off perfect still.

Im just not sure what to advise the rider to do.

It was a strange situation tonight, in that the girl rode her in the school with another horse, other horse left. Que D getting very upset and mini rearing/jumping around. This is perhaps the first time she's been in there with a strange horse who then left.

The girl has a method of 'sitting it out' but I see her going silent and still and the mare then makes the decisions and panics....

What would you do?

Personally I'd try to get off and do NH groundwork stuff instead, but the girl feels more confident in the saddle.

Should she sit it out, or make her work, give her a purpose - small circles, big circles, etc etc?

I have said she needs to avoid riding in there with another horse For the time being, until she's more settled in there. Unfortunately it's turned out that D isn't brilliantly schooled either, doesn't seem to know what leg means, she's got lots to be taught, which can't be done if she's focusing on the other horse. Unfortunately the girl tends to ride in there with her friend riding D's field companion, so D is not learning to be independent.

[bitsnpieces]

Personally, I would ride in the horse in there on her own at first to educate her to have some confidence both in the school and in the rider. The problem with trying to ride her forwards if she doesn't understand the leg is that it will add to the anxiety.

It's not a bad thing that she sits it out as the mare will be learning that she can't get away from the rider by jumping around, but maybe there needs to be a step in between where she is now and sitting it out? Maybe doing some in-hand exercises whilst in with the others, then giving her something to do whilst the other horse leaves to re-establish the relationship with the handler which can then be transferred to the rider.