Buddy Sour Horses (inseparable)

[Jillybeans]

My problem is a unique one.
I have two horses that just came to our barn, one is 24 (the mother) and the other is 19 (her daughter). They’ve been together their entire lives just the two of them, and at the moment there’s no other horses boarding in our barn. Neither of the two are very experienced in anything and have never been trained in any specific area.
The big issue here is the younger horse. She is extremely buddy sour and aggressive in general. When we’ve tried separating them, the oldest doesn’t show any signs of even being phased. Yet, the youngest will pace and call for her mother if they’re not within 10 feet of eachother.
I’ve heard of people pairing their buddy sour horses with others and swapping once in awhile, but we don’t have any other horses boarding and have no idea when their could be more.
Another thing to mention is that the youngest has shown bad habits to her mother, making it almost impossible to catch either of them in the pasture. The younger will charge us constantly and attempt to rear up and kick, the mother is fine but won’t let us catch her if the two are together. Separated, the mother is fine - listens to all commands, easy to catch, doesn’t make a fuss.

Any suggestions on how we can begin to separate them without any other horses in the picture?

[Simkie]

If baby girl is charging you in the field, she needs to go somewhere with a firm but kind trainer who can deal with spoiled horses for rehabilitation. That behavior is so dangerous.

Once you get through that, it’s routine, routine, routine. Separate daily. If baby girl is unsafe fretting in the field find a safe place for her to wait.

But really, you’ve got to deal with the young one’s field manners first.

[wsmoak]

What general area are you in? Maybe someone can recommend a trainer. The younger one needs to go elsewhere and have that behavior dealt with before somebody gets hurt.

[Buckshot1]

Unfortunately ime, the only thing that worked to cure buddy sour behaviour was to have the horses on different properties for several months. They have to be far enough away from each other that they can’t see or hear each other.

It’s such a painful problem…

[ladyj79]

They’re old horses alone on a farm. Is there any reason they really have to be separated at this point in their lives?

[Simkie]

@ladyj79

They’re old horses alone on a farm. Is there any reason they really have to be separated at this point in their lives?

Excellent point.

[Renn_aissance]

@ladyj79

They’re old horses alone on a farm. Is there any reason they really have to be separated at this point in their lives?

I take your point and agree that at their age there’s generally not a lot of good reasons to rock the boat. While I wouldn’t send one down to horse show at WEF, from a practicality standpoint, I would want to be able to bring just one into the barn for the farrier or, if I had to, ship just one to the vet hospital in an emergency without the other getting in such a panic that she also presents with an emergent condition. And if they’re being punks to bring in from the field and are liabilities to themselves and others, that is rude and dangerous and should stop regardless of age.

OP, can you borrow a lawn ornament from someone in your local community to help you wean them off of each other? If there are no immediate plans to acquire other horses and this is really a problem, you might have to be the architect of these plans.