A Horses Perspective on Separation Anxiety

by Hannah
(England, Kent)

Hi,

My mare over the past few years has been getting anxious when you take her buddy away from her. She tends to cling to any horse and not a particular one as long as she has a buddy. Unfortunately the current situation is that she is only turned out with one other pony which is my rising 3 year old that I plan on backing in the spring. He's good to go in every way and doesn't mind being taken away from her or her being taken away from him and is quite happy to do his own thing. However my mare tends to get very stressed when he leaves.

Currently I bring her in first then I go out to get him. After a week and a half of her box walking and pawing at the door she now realizes that he will be in soon next to her and so is quite happy to eat her hay and play with her nut ball. I have increasing the time it takes for me to go and get him from the field and she seems okay with that.

I have also started to lead him straight past, do one circuit around the round pen and back to the stable. Unfortunately to get to the round pen I have to walk past her line of view. and although she is not jumping over the door she is still pawing and calling and getting stressed, I am partly putting this down to a break in routine as well.

However I cannot take him onto the yard, groom, tack up to lunge etc and take him away from her.

Apart from gradually increasing the changes and time away from her is there anything else you can suggest?

She is 7 and I have had her since she was 18 months old. she used to be at a yard with single turnout and always seemed fine to be on her own. I have never left her in a situation where she has been left on her own and been allowed to panic but i fear that perhaps someone else has whilst stabled at a livery yard.

Also, in desperation to rejoin her herd she will go through any barrier, barge out the stable, in/out the field etc. and could at one point only be lead in a bridle otherwise she would bolt off. fortunately these have stopped but this is one that has not.


Hi Hannah,

I am not sure I understand your situation completely. You have had this horse for quite a long time, she used to be turned out alone and was okay but you also describe a horse that will put her safety aside and go through any barrier without thought. Everything happens for a reason. An upsetting experience for a horse will set off a new different behavior.


Let’s back up and look from a horse’s point of view what separation anxiety is. As a herd animal it is completely unnatural to be alone under any circumstances. Even when we think a horse is accepting this situation there is always a long term emotional and health effect that surfaces later. I do not believe we should look upon separation anxiety (because it is an instinctual need) as something that needs fixing but rather something that can be better managed and respected. For the horse that is being left behind, management, lifestyle and comforting routines are the keys. For the horse that is with me being taken away from his herd mates, now that can be helped through leadership on my part.

Because I allow my horses to live as one herd (7 of them) and outdoors 24/7, I just don’t have this problem anymore. No one is left alone when I remove a horse plus I don’t stall my horses for any length of time. You didn’t mention if there are other horses that you can utilize. Are there?

It is not a training technique where we just put a horse in a stall and leave hoping the horse will just get used to it. For some horses this could feel extremely venerable and instead the experience for the horse would not be a good one thus repeating the frightened state they felt. Yet for other horses it may work.

Depending upon the severity of the situation dictates what approach I start with. It could be that I allow the other horse to be just over a fence where they can still see us and I could acknowledge and reinforce them when they are calm. But I would also want to work more with the horse who finds loneliness difficult by using Clicker Training methods concentrating on teaching patient related tasks. Building patience in a horse isn’t any different than teaching bravery for the frightened one. I would want to keep that horses mind engaged when she is away from the other horse. If I wanted her to feel a stall is the best place in the world to be then I would utilize that space to teach that. For example, bring her in, have a special treat waiting in there, when it’s done remove her long before she panics. The time will naturally increase while I add in leaving and returning quickly to find opportunity to reinforce her for being calm and patient. Then you could enlist the help of a friend to walk the other horse by and only reward for calmness. But really my first line of defense here would be to add another horse next to her in the beginning.

Elaine Polny
Horses by Nature