Question: I have a Dartmoor pony on loan which is great in every way, but the problem I have is that he box walks and he can become very anxious if there is any noise at the back of his stable. He has ab lib hay, he has had his door lowered so he can see out. His stable is at the top of the yard so he can see everything going on. I have tried him on top spec calmer but hasn’t seemed to have helped. He is fed on top spec balancer and good doer alfalfa. with carrots. Is there any other calmer on the market that actually works and that would calm my pony down. Jenien

Answer: (By Suzanne Berry - Equine Behaviourist): Thank you for your question. There could be many reasons why your pony has developed this behaviour and without meeting you and your pony I can only talk in very general terms. A consultation with a behaviourist would ensure that the root of the problem is addressed and a step-by-step programme personalised to you and your pony could be drawn up. This approach of solving the cause of the problem is preferable to trying to manage the result of the problem with calmers etc.

Box walking is when a horse or pony constantly paces or circles around the stable. It is an example of what is known as a stereotypical behaviour – defined as a repeated, relatively unchanging sequence of movements that has no obvious purpose. Equine scientists have found that these behaviours are usually caused by being confined in barren environments, in environments the animal finds disturbing or threatening, or in social isolation. Stereotypical behaviours are therefore caused by boredom and frustration of not being able to act out the behaviours that an animal has evolved to do. Horses have evolved to spend 16-18 hours a day eating, and moving as they eat. When this is prevented by confining horses in a small space, or in a space in which they do not feel safe, horses try to address the need for movement and thus can develop box walking.

Box walking is a serious issue that, owing to the amount of energy involved, can lead to weight loss. Also, the considerable spinal flexion required in turning in a restricted area can result in painful back conditions. In addition, the associated stress of acting out this behaviour can have knock-on effects in other areas of the animal’s life – it will effect how the animal deals with other situations and its general well-being.

It’s great that your pony has access to ad lib hay as this will address his natural need to eat for a large part of the day. It’s also good that he can see what is going on around him. However, you mention that he ‘becomes anxious if there are noises at the back of his stable’, which suggests that he is not feeling relaxed in his stable. It would be interesting to know whether or not he has been stabled before you got him or if he has had any bad experiences in a stable.

Usually the provision of adequate turnout is enough to solve the problem (if a horse is boxed for a veterinary reason, such as box rest, turnout should be discussed with your vet and behaviourist). However, I would strongly advise that you enlist the help of a behaviourist who would ask lots of questions to get to the root of the problem and devise a programme that will teach him to be able to relax in his stable. A behaviourist would also consider other issues: he/she will be able to advise you on other aspects of management including diet and training (which can both have a role in stereotypies).

Resolution of the box walking will depend on how long he has been doing it for, how old he was when he started it, and other aspects of his management regime but the good news is that stereotypies can usually be alleviated by 70-90% when a behavioural modification programme is put into place.

Question: "I have had a 15yr old 3/4TB mare for 2 1/2 years and she has had a lot of back and neck problems.She has had osteopathic treatment under sedation and general anaesthetic also chiropractic treatment and equine touch.  She is much better and is moving well but for the last 6 months she is very nippy with her teeth when I am rugging up etc. I tie her on a very short rope and say NO when she goes to bite but I have never hit her as I dont believe in physical punishment but also she realises she has done wrong and is very defensive and really goes for me with teeth and legs.  She is not basically a nasty horse and is a delight under saddle but I am getting very fed up of coming home with bruises and I really love her and want her to like me too!"

Answer: (By Suzanne Berry - Equine Behaviourist): Thank you for your question. First, please be careful around your mare, it sounds as if her behaviour is becoming dangerous. There could be many reasons why your horse has developed this behaviour and so I can only talk in general terms. A consultation with a behaviourist would make sure that the root of the problem is addressed and a step-by-step programme personalised to you and your horse could be drawn up.

Horses usually give a warning sign that they are irritated, usually a tail swish or ears back. Only when this doesn't work do they resort to biting and kicking so carefully noting your horse's behaviour should enable you to move out of the way when she turns to bite you. This won't address the cause of the behaviour but will help you to keep safe during the process of solving the problem.

Perhaps your horse is defending her personal space: horses have a personal space and in the wild use body language to invite another into their space. If the approaching horse does not receive the invitation he/she will stop approaching. As owners, we want to be able to enter a horse's personal space so we need to make being in our close proximity 'nice' for the horse. It's great that you haven't been using punishment because this could make being in your presence a negative thing and thus increase the biting/kicking behaviour.

You mention that your horse nips when you rug her up. This could be owing to a previous bad experience with a rug (e.g. rubbing/discomfort) and she remembers that so well that she has developed a negative association with rugs. A behaviourist would be able to work with you to teach her that rugs are good and to be calm when being rugged up.

You said 'being rugged etc' - perhaps she is also biting/kicking when being groomed. Your mare might find being groomed irritating or even painful. Horse's skin is very sensitive; they can detect a fly and move their skin to remove it so horses can find some brushes uncomfortable: try changing to a softer brush. However, tickling can also be irritating. Horses groom each other, known as mutual grooming. Some horses try to groom
their owners back in this way but this can hurt and so the owner might move or react negatively and the horse learns to try to groom quicker and quicker. This can result in nipping and when this happens repeatedly the
original motivation (to groom the person) is lost and the horse routinely nips when groomed. Provision of a toy box - a skip or box containing objects of different textures - at grooming time can help. The horse can use
his/hers lips to 'groom' things in the box (e.g. brushes, cuddly toys, things to smell like used yoghurt pots) rather than the owner.

Horses play with each other and scientists have identified three play patterns or 'games'. One of these games is nip and shove: horses sometimes try to play this game with their owners, or interpret being 'shoved' by
their owners as an invitation to playfully nip!  I understand that tying her up short is a strategy to avoid the bruises but it is difficult for her to relax on a short rope. A visit from a behaviourist would help you to stop having to do this with safety as a priority.

As well as the suggestions above, you should reward behaviour you want and ignore behaviour you don't want. This can be easier said than done and clicker training can be very effective. It is best to be introduced to
clicker training by an experienced trainer but the concept is that this method allows you to reward the behaviour you want (not biting, facing forward, being calm) precisely. When a horse does something that is followed
by a good consequence he/she is more likely to do that behaviour again.  So, first the horse is taught that a treat always follows a click. Then you can use this to 'click' the behaviour you want and this precise timing of the
desired behaviour with the click, and then the treat, makes it very clear to the horse exactly what is required. As long as you only offer treats when the horse does what you want it to it will not cause any nipping/mugging.

Question: I own 2 horses that I compete at the moment at low level dressage I have riding lessons regulary ,without any change to their daily routine they have become dangerous to ride to the fact that they have both bucked me off on a couple of occasions now  ,I feed them I feed per day which is a feed balancer with alpha a and that’s it the  rest of their feed is made up of haylage because of the time of year I put haylage out in their paddocks in the mornings , as no grass and they have 2 large nets each as they come back in around 3 pm and are in til 6 the next morning  one horse is 16.1 irsh draught cross and other is 15 hh trakehner  , I am thinking their behaviour is down to the haylage that I am feeding it is produced by the farmer where my horses are kept ,do you think the protein content  in the haylage could be to blame ,also in my trakehner her legs swell up over night she is 6 yrs old no injury probs and this has only started happening this winter do you think this could also be connected to the haylage ?   

Answer: Haylage could well be unnecessarily high in protein, so I suggest you take them off the haylage and put them on hay and see if that makes a difference to their behaviour.  Some haylage has an additive put on when it is made which again could be making matters worse and Alfalfa is also high in protein.  The fact that the legs are swelling up on one horse could also be a sign that the protein is too high!   ? We suggest you swap the haylage for hay, soaked if necessary. You can still continue with the Alfalfa if you are cutting out the haylage.

Update: I have halved the quantity of haylage and used it with hay. The horses have settled down  again now. Interestingly, Horse & Hound have a website in which they have forums to discuss horsey issues, with the most recent one about horses behaviour when on haylage.  It seems the general opinion is that haylage does make a difference and noticeably more if you have a thoroughbred type.  Unfortunately some people have no choice in this when their horse is at livery as it is what the yard supplies as I also found this out on this website …thanks for your response again 

Question: I have an eight year old gelding who was two when i got him and aready castrated, but he has got riggish behavior. We are unable to ride him because he is very flighty. I do not know about his parents but he was trying to mount my other gelding until my friend brought mare and he is always mounting her.  When we broke him as a three year old, he was fine to start off with, but then he began to start panicking and would take off, so I sent him away for reschooling. However, there really was not any change, so I had the vet out to look at his teeth and he said it could be them that was causing the poblem so he had all his teeth done but again no change. He has had his back checked and I have put him on calming supplements. He is lovely to handle and has a nice nature.  I love him to bits but would like to ride him, but I cant trust him as I am not a youngster.  Thats why i wondered if his hormones could be causing these problems with his behaviour. Can you advise?

Answer: (By Suzanne Berry - Equine Behaviourist): Thank you for your question. Without meeting you and your horses I am only able to talk in general terms.

The behaviour you describe could be due to hormones but is not the only possible cause. To find out whether or not he has been gelded properly your vet could do a blood test to check his hormone levels. Sometimes horses retain a testicle and most vets advise horses to be gelded properly in such cases.

You describe that he has mounted your other gelding and your mare. Although you might not have seen this very often, some sexual behaviour including teasing and mounting is frequently seen in all adolescent horses. We are used to thinking of eight year old horses as adults but eight is still quite young considering that horses can live well into their 30s. One famous equine scientist, Susan McDonnell, has estimated that up to 50% of geldings show some behaviour towards mares that would usually be associated with stallions. When a mare is in season, this can also cause some geldings to
show sexual behaviours such as herding, mounting and aggression.

On a slight aside, the common perception that stallions are aggressive and difficult to handle is not really accurate. Often stallions are kept in isolation and this causes the aggressive behaviour rather than the fact that they are a stallion. Many horses would become aggressive if cooped up all the time and increasing turnout and decreasing hard feed often drastically improves stallion-like behaviour.

The other behaviour you describe - the pulling away, prancing and taking off - is probably something completely different. You say that he is lovely to handle, just a problem to ride, so it could be that he's finding being ridden difficult to cope with; after all many stallions are school-masters.

Its good to hear that you had his teeth and back checked and you've obviously tried very hard with him. I'd really recommend working with a behaviourist to determine the root cause of the problem and draw up a
behaviour modification programme tailored for you and your horse. This would ensure that the cause of his behaviour rather than the 'symptoms' are properly addressed.

Horses respond to fear or unease about a situation in four different ways, known as the four F's: fight, flight, freeze and 'fiddle about'. The prancing you describe could be displacement behaviour - perhaps he really is not calm about being ridden but feels he can't run away so 'fiddles about'.
When this doesn't work he turns to 'flight' or running away. If he doesn't feel calm he won't be able to take things in, including what you are asking him to do so he won't be able to learn anything new.

Although you say that you sent him away for re-schooling, I think you need to start again with him. Moving environment is very stressful for a horse: scientists have discovered that moving can disrupt a horse's sleep for up to 4 days after moving. We can all understand that when we don't have enough
sleep we find it harder to concentrate and learn new things so this could be why he wasn't very receptive to new learning when he was sent away, especially if he has a stable life before that.

If you can truly gain a relationship based on trust with your horse and start again with the help of a qualified behaviourist who will be able to determine what methods would suit you and your horse, I think that the ridden side should really improve. A behaviourist will also be able to suggest any changes you could make to his management regime that might be affecting the way your horse deals with new things that are expected of him. The starting again should be done very slowly, making sure that he is 100%
calm when you ask him to do one thing before progressing to something else. This will teach him that you won't push him such that he feels uncomfortable and will help to build up the trust needed for introducing the new concept of being calm when ridden. Sessions should be very short, you should be focussed and have specific aims each time, you should reward calm behaviour and ignore the unwanted behaviour and always end on a good note. Over time this calm, methodical approach, should slowly but surely result in a
partnership where you both feel safe and can trust each other.

Question: My 11 year old daughter has a lovely connemara x pony who has a fantastic temperament. However she has recently become very clingy with my horse, to the point where sometime when my horse is out of the stable and she is the one left she can be dangerous.

She also has a problem when being led. When she is with my other mare she is fabulous, but when she is on her own with my daughter she can be quite dangerous and on numerous occasions my daughter has had to let go of her.

Can you suggest anything we can either do to overcome this, or anything we can give her.
I have tried various calmers but nothing has worked. I don't want to get rid of her because on the whole she is a lovely pony.

Answer: (By Suzanne Berry - Equine Behaviourist) Thank you for your question. I was very concerned to read that you describe the pony’s behaviour as dangerous so firstly I’d like to say please be very careful and wear a hat/gloves when handling her and try to avoid situations when you know she might become dangerous.

Secondly, I’d strongly recommend that you enlist the help of a qualified equine behaviourist because although I can provide general information there are many possible reasons for your mare’s behaviour and to fully understand these and to solve the problem effectively a full history and details of the management and training regime would be needed.

However, generally speaking, your mare sounds as if she has formed a strong attachment to your other horse and is showing separation anxiety when parted from her.

Horses are very social animals and they form special friendships or ‘pair bonds’. It’s really nice that your horses have formed a strong bond because social interaction is an important part of a horse’s life. However, you obviously need to be able to handle them separately and so your pony needs to learn to be confident away from your horse.

Before I discuss how you could work towards solving the problem I’d like to step back and explain a little about the basics of equine behaviour.

All the things that a horse does (and needs to do) in a day can be split into seven categories. The Natural Animal Centre (run by the renowned equine behaviourist Heather Simpson) has an excellent way of thinking of these – as a ‘behaviour triangle’. Imagine a triangle split into horizontal rows:
- On the first row you have all the behaviours (things a horse does) that enable the horse to feel safe. This is the ‘reaction and response’ or ‘safety’ level. Horses have evolved over 65 million years as prey animals and their survival depends on being able to react to danger.
- One the second row is grazing and drinking.
- The third row includes all the behaviour related to ‘body care’ (grooming, rolling etc.).
- Fourth row – rest and sleep
- Fifth row – motion (running and playing)
- Sixth row – explorations and investigation
- Seventh row – territorialism (herd space)

At the top of the triangle is the ‘problem’. The triangle works like this: if you don’t feel safe (base level) you tend not to be able to sleep properly (level four). It is the same for horses: they need to have a very strong feeling of safety to be able to carry out all the things they need to do in a day. I’m sure most of us can understand this because when we feel worried about something we find it difficult to focus on other things we need to do. So, in this case, your pony has made a best friend but now doesn’t feel safe without her and she can’t do the other behaviours she needs to, such as lead properly.

To fully address the problem at the top of the triangle it is vital that we look at the whole picture. Incidentally this is where behaviourists differ from trainers: behaviourists look at the underlying causes of the problems rather than the symptoms that many trainers address. This is also why the calmers you have tried have not solved the problem.

I don’t know the pony’s history but perhaps she was weaned abruptly, or separated from her friends when she was a foal so that now having a pair bond is very important to her.

So, now that we have a better understanding of why she is acting the way she is we can consider how to address the problem. The aim is to give her the confidence to be relaxed and responsive to you without her best friend. This will be a gradual process consisting of three main goals:
- To make her time without the other horse very pleasurable so she learns to associate being away from the other horse with nice things (e.g. feed her on her own).
- Make sure that she doesn’t have any bad experiences when away from her friend, and isn’t anxious as this would just teach her that she was right to be worried without her friend.
- Build up the relationship that you and your daughter have with her so that she is more confident with you and associates you both with good things and not as ‘people who take me away from my friend’.

You don’t mention what you do when your horse is being difficult to lead but it is important that you don’t punish her by shouting or hitting her as this will not work as a long-term solution – it would just teach her that not only do you take her from her friend but she gets shouted at too!

Also, her behaviour at the moment is probably ‘working’ for her. She has learnt that pulling on the lead rope, and sometimes breaking free, gets her to her friend faster than if she walks slowly. Therefore, from her point-of-view her plan is working well and doesn’t need to change it!

Another thing to bear in mind is that the way a horse’s brain works - the more she feels anxious without the other horse the more she is likely to feel that way in the future (if the problem is not addressed). Also when she is anxious about being separated from the other horse she will be ‘stressed’ and this makes it more difficult for her to learn and remember anything than if she was calm.

So, you need to teach her the confidence needed to be separate from the other mare, that it is actually nice to be separate from her sometimes, and that leading calmly is better for her than pulling away. You really need to work with an equine behaviourist to draw up a step-by-step programme personalised for you, your daughter, and your mare and taking into account the logistics of your regime and time available. In a nutshell, however, you should start separating the horses for very short periods of time (minutes at first), ensure that very nice things happen in that time and gradually build it up. This will teach your pony that the other horse will come back and that she doesn’t need to try to run after her. Clicker training is a great way of doing this because once you have taught the horse what it means, you can reward ‘calm behaviour when other mare is not in sight’ very precisely and at the same time be improving the relationship between handler and horse. This is a method of training that rewards the horse for doing the right thing (rather than punishing the wrong thing) and is the quickest and most effective way of training. The method also is very precise, you teach your horse exactly what is required so it is very clear to her what is being rewarded. However, clicker training can be complicated and I’d recommend you enlist the help of someone who knows how to do it properly.

It will be a slow process but separation anxiety can be solved and a programme involving clicker training will also be a really fun way for your daughter to spend time with her pony and increase the bond between them. Click here to read more about Suzanne Berry.

Question: I have a welsh cob 16 hands who is 15yrs old and until 3yrs ago never had laminitus. I nearly lost him on his first attack but nursed him back to full recovery but it keeps reccuring no matter what I do. At the moment he gets Happy Hoof and hay and is brought in over night all year round. A ny ideas how I can keep him from ever getting it again? I hate to see him in pain as I have had him from a foal and I love him dearly!

Answer: I expect that having had to cope with the laminitis, you have learnt a great deal about this painful condition and I wonder if your vets advised you as to the probable cause. The well known cause is too much spring grass which causes a lot of ponies to get the disease. However, it can also be caused by other things such as poor foot balance which cause the laminae in the feet to tear.  Toxic poisoning (such as retained placenta) and Cushings Disease (found in older horses) can also be causes. It is important to consult an experienced vet to get a diagnosis.