Question # 141: My mare has been having some sort of mental breakdown for the last few weeks, and I think we've narrowed the problem down to herd separation anxiety.
It is so bad that she doesn't even want to eat her grain (which we isolate her to feed her since none of the other horses get grain) about half the time. She'll eat ok if I stand with her when she is eating. The weird thing is that she has been in a herd since I've owned her (11 years). She's never had any problems with separation anxiety before, and this started about 3 weeks ago. I can sometimes ride her in the arena right by the house and she does ok, but I can't really get any good work done down in the hay field where we jump because it is too far away from the horses. I can't tie her where my tack is because it is too close to the pasture and if the horses walk away where she can't see them anymore she just paces and I can't really do anything to get her to stand still or pay attention to me. I've been doing mostly groundwork last week and she has improved some on the ground, but under saddle she is still a nervous wreck. Today I trailered her over to a nearby barn, and she was fantastic. She tied wonderfully to the trailer, was super calm, and was great under saddle. I would like to not have to trailer her in order to get a successful ride in, do you have any ideas on how to deal with this problem? (Kayla)
Hi Kayla!
I'm sorry to hear that you are having this problem! Whenever a horse has any sudden change in personality or behavior, I think it is always a good idea to have them fully checked out to make sure there is not a physical issue. Ulcers are the first thing that comes to mind. I would either have her scoped, or just do a week or so of Ulcergard treatement as a diagnostic test. If her behavior goes back to normal when on a trial of Ulcergard, then you will know that ulcers were likely contributing to your problem. You may want to have a vet check for things like ovarian cysts, which can make a mare uncomfortable enough to act unpredictably.
If everything checks out physically, then there are a few things you can experiment with... (Click on Question Title above (in blue) to read full answer)
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