need horse help

[Zannie]

i just got my three year old AQH gelding back from the trainer last week,he's doing good were working on ground manners he has a habit of being to close but were working on it and he's doing well he rides great ,alittle lazy but a nice ride the problem is he's herd bound he gets very nervouse and runs back and forth,my trainer told me to keep him seperate from the herd but this seems cruel to me,does anyone else have any solutions to this problem
thanks

 

[Paula]

I agree with your trainer, keep him separated from the rest. He should be fairly content to be able to see and hear them. He will need more grooming and attention from you, which should reinforce your relationship to him.

Be sure to keep him out of your space, but make a point to quietly step into his space for grooming and tacking. To this end, when you lead him and need to turn, if at all possible, turn to your right, into his space, making him step away from you. This is a dominance issue and you must win.

I have a 6 yo draft cross mare that was very spoiled before I got her. While she has improved, I still work on the space issue.

 

[lhsdavis]

It may seem cruel to you but its actually will help him..if you look at it that way...I have a 3 year old mare that is majorly herd bound..and one day when she was 2 I took her away from where they were grazing..and was going to give her a bath..she was acting out a little about being pulled away, but then seemed to settle down...boy was I wrong..just about the time I finished bathing her..she snapped...(it was windy that day too so it didnt help)...and she ended up dragging part of what she was tied to thru 2 electric fences and ran non-stop for about a 1/4 mile with me chasing her...she injured her back hock severely and took quite some time to recover..luckily the only time her injury effects her now is when its cold...but that is just one of the things she has done that ended up hurting her because of her "seperation anxiety" and there have been a few more...it got to where she spent some "tree time" (tied to a tree) out of sight of the other horses to gradually adapt her to being apart from them...when I sent her to the trainers for 2 months she spent the first 3 days in a state where she was trying to colic (they gave her banamine for 3 days) and I know its because we took her from her "comfort Zone" . So with these examples in mind you are actually doing whats best for him...and he needs to realize that he still will be with the other horses he just has to realize there is the "work time" he has to get thru when you ride him...it could become dangerous to ride him if he gets really bad...I would hate for something like that to happen....whats funny is that I have her half brother (7 days apart and raised together) too and he doesnt have any problems with separation...hope this helps...

 

[Zannie]

thank you both and i'm sure your both right i wish i could get tougher skin i'll work on it and maybe do it for short periods and make longer over time thanks again