Won't come out of stable!

Z

Zoey

New Member
Jan 3, 2000
20
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Tyne & Wear, England
Hi Everyone
I am here for help again!
We have got a little Welsh 12.2hh mare in who was a removal from home (welfare case). Very nervous but sweet with it.
She has been in the segregation stables for a week and has now moved on the the block with the other horses. Since Sunday (the day she moved to the block)she will not come out of the stable.
To explain the set up - we have one long block with 16 stables. Right the way along the front of the block is a smooth concrete walkway which the roof overhangs to keep them dry when their heads are out of the stables. This pony (Tina) is terrified of the break between the concrete and the gravel yard ie the line when the surface changes. I have tried everything I can think of - walking along the concrete rather than straight out, walking over it in front of her (with headcollar, without, with leadrope), with food, with hand out stretched, in her own time (which obviously didn't work), putting hay over the crack etc. She will not budge and she is terrified to the point where she shakes if I entice her too far. Tonight I have managed to get her to eat her tea out of a bucket on the concrete walkway butshe keeps backing into the stable. Has anyone got any ideas.
Urgent one I am afraid. This pony has muscle waste and need to be out walking around.
 
Just a thought, you say she was in the segregation block, which presumably she came out of. Can you mimic the set up so it looks the same. Also is there any similarity, from her perspective, between the outlook she has now, looking out of the stable, and the outlook she had before she came to you? Ie are you, in her mind, asking her to rehash old terrors.
I may be talking rubbish but since she came out of the segregation box the problem must be psychological rather than physical. have you tried tempting her with herbal horse treats. We had a horse who was TERRIFIED OF GAPS, anything less than three feet wide, and he would do anything for a horse treat.
Sorry if I am talking rubbish but just a couple of thoughts
 
Hi Zoey - just a thought on the psychology front: would it help if you got a roll of old carpet/rug (or several old carpet samples) and laid them not only over the gap but extending quite a way beyond the gap in either direction. If it is the gap that frightens her so much, it will be well obscured by the covering rug/carpet. Let us know what happens next!
 
I think the carpet idea is great,as it will muffle the sound of her feet on the concrete. I'd also try creeping some of her bedding out of the doorway to try and disguise the carpet.

Other ideas....

(a) is there was anyway you could leave her door open so that she could try and sum up the courage to creep out into the yard on her own? As I don't know the set-up of your yard, I appreciate that this might not be practical.

(b) As an alternative to (a), could you create a largeish pen outside her box, made out of bales, with the walls not very high, leaving her door open, so she can everything the whole time?

(c) Can you make one of those thingies that go across the door at chest height, so that you can leave her door open, but she can't get out, so that she cxcan watch her new world without actually having to step out into it? (I made mine out of a piece of hosepipe and an old lead rope threaded through it, with a clip at each end)

Lots of luck.
 
try blind folding the mare and have someone lead her while u shake a bucket of grian to distract her.Then she would follow the smell or sound stepping out to the open without even knowing it.
GOOD LUCK!!!!!
 
Hi Everyone
Sorry for delay I have been very busy with the little pony this week.
OK so - I tried covering the gap between the concrete and the different `surface' and she wouldn't come out. Christopher one of our volunteers managed to get her out once by feeding her her breakfast on the way out the door and her head was in the bucket so she couldn't see (not ideal as I want her to get used to it but anuyway it worked). We left the door open for two days with her feed about 10ft in front of the stable but she did not come out at all. Finally after nearly a week she will come out (but only in her own time) but she will not cross the line, she will only walk along the walkway to the end of the block and cross the line where the grass has grown a little way over the concrete (ie. not such a `stand out' line). With regard to the psychology of it, the view she now is where she can see everything that is going on with the other horses, we have tried using George the shetland to entice her out but she just gets annoyed at him (he harrasses her because he has a bit of a crush on her). She desperately wants to come straight out but is really scared. I don't want to blindfold her as I think she would completely flip out big time (she is very nervous). I think she just needs to start feeling secure with us and the care centre (she was a rescued case).
Thank you soooo much for your advice. I will play things by ear and try alternatives according to what she does next.

[This message has been edited by Zoey (edited 29 January 2000).]
 
Zoey

I think all of the above advice is excellent (apart from blindfolding her - that may make things worse in the longrun). I think the only thing that will work is lots of time and patience. If you can leave the door open and put some sort of pen up around the doorway, then when she will come in and out of that confidently you could open up the pen so that she can explore a bit further.

Good luck - she's lucky to have you to care about her.
 
Ditto to what Clairev said. I also think that she will come around with time and patience. I also would not attempt to bully her into coming out, as it sounds like she is already a nervous wreck, the poor little thing! Do you know what her background was before your rescue farm got her? Was she abused, neglected, or both?? (although neglect is abuse in a big sense).

She and the other animals at the rescue place are lucky indeed to have you there to look after them. (So many times I wish that I had the funds to open a rescue barn, but I don't...and there are no rescue shelters in my area or I would donate my time.) Bless you for your good work!!!
 
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