Well today I moved my Prince up the road to our lovely new yard. It is small and quiet, peaceful actually, and he is now in his new field with his new "brother" - the TOP SECRET pony :wink:
TS pony looked at me like he wondered why I had brought another horse to see him this morning but he was interested without being bonkers when Prince went it. I watched him drive Prince around a little in walk and be near him wherever he went but both were just grazing within a few minutes. I checked them several times during the day and all seemed calm. Phew!
In contrast, the day did not start as planned AT ALL. I was going to bring Prince in, tack up and ride up the road to the new yard (it isn't actually a road, it's a byway) with OH on foot. That didnt happen... Prince came to me in the field, same as always and we walked calmly to the yard... then it went wrong almost instantly. He was bargy, pushing himself sideways as though trying to trap me against the rail where he was tied, he tried breaking away and trotting off and then, when I went to brush some mud off his leg. he lifted it as if to tell me to get off! I couldn't work out why he changed the instant we got to the yard and I was really upset as I hadnt seen him behave like that in a very long time..... then I clicked what was different on the yard this morning. The YO was there!
I know he is very wary of her - she is the main instigator of his bad reputation. SHe is rarely around these days as she has now employed a manager for the yard but they are short staffed so she was mucking out. In fact, she was in the stable directly behind where I had tied Prince. When my OH arrived a few minutes after I managed to tack Prince up. he said straight away that the yard felt tense! He was right - when she is there no one calls out hello or even talks to each other. It is horrible!
So the end result was that he was a bit like a wild thing as we walked off the yard on foot with him. My OH ended up taking him (he is NOT horsey at all) and led him up very firmly while I walked behind to his left. Prince was really anxious and got away from us once but my OH was a hero and stayed firm with him. As soon as we cleared the area of the old yard, Prince calmed significantly.
Sorry for the long post but having read Esther's comments on her thread last night I wanted to share this with you guys. It's not just the horse herd that affects their behaviour it seems. So now we are with calm, accepting people and he has a calm fieldmate I will leave him to settle and then start again with him and see how much we can achieve.
I'm hopeful :happy:
TS pony looked at me like he wondered why I had brought another horse to see him this morning but he was interested without being bonkers when Prince went it. I watched him drive Prince around a little in walk and be near him wherever he went but both were just grazing within a few minutes. I checked them several times during the day and all seemed calm. Phew!
In contrast, the day did not start as planned AT ALL. I was going to bring Prince in, tack up and ride up the road to the new yard (it isn't actually a road, it's a byway) with OH on foot. That didnt happen... Prince came to me in the field, same as always and we walked calmly to the yard... then it went wrong almost instantly. He was bargy, pushing himself sideways as though trying to trap me against the rail where he was tied, he tried breaking away and trotting off and then, when I went to brush some mud off his leg. he lifted it as if to tell me to get off! I couldn't work out why he changed the instant we got to the yard and I was really upset as I hadnt seen him behave like that in a very long time..... then I clicked what was different on the yard this morning. The YO was there!
I know he is very wary of her - she is the main instigator of his bad reputation. SHe is rarely around these days as she has now employed a manager for the yard but they are short staffed so she was mucking out. In fact, she was in the stable directly behind where I had tied Prince. When my OH arrived a few minutes after I managed to tack Prince up. he said straight away that the yard felt tense! He was right - when she is there no one calls out hello or even talks to each other. It is horrible!
So the end result was that he was a bit like a wild thing as we walked off the yard on foot with him. My OH ended up taking him (he is NOT horsey at all) and led him up very firmly while I walked behind to his left. Prince was really anxious and got away from us once but my OH was a hero and stayed firm with him. As soon as we cleared the area of the old yard, Prince calmed significantly.
Sorry for the long post but having read Esther's comments on her thread last night I wanted to share this with you guys. It's not just the horse herd that affects their behaviour it seems. So now we are with calm, accepting people and he has a calm fieldmate I will leave him to settle and then start again with him and see how much we can achieve.
I'm hopeful :happy:
