I think he’s losing his eyesight or something similar.
He’s fine in his stall - where he knows everything.
As my mare got older, I had weird reactions from her about things like shadows of flies (shadows on the ground) - flew backward one day and I thought she would flip over. Looking back, these were indications that she was losing her sight. She probably wasn’t able to reconcile the image and then panicked.
Your guy’s behavior sounds similar. Fight or flight is the first reaction.
They are prey animals after all. If they have a neuro deficit or have vision problems then they are vulnerable and get upset. Rightly so. I suppose while you are working with the horse you are the alpha mare that keeps him safe and he can relax. For some reason he cannot trust another horse to keep him safe and has an overwhelming need to get to safety when something happens in his environment. To us it is inconsequential but to him it is an emergency. I wish they could speak.
I know I keep going back to neuro but balking under saddle is a symptom, especially in a younger horse that never really got going in the working for a living under a rider. But can happen otherwise. There was a youngish (younger than this one) horse at my barn who started having panic moments. Outside for no reason (and he lived outside already and had been for years), and then under saddle. Under saddle it would manifest as getting stuck. Outside he would work himself up. He could be working 4th level dressage one moment and stuck and panicking the next. All of his exams and imaging were normal. He was with a very skilled trainer who did 100% of the riding and handling, and she could not figure it out. The episodes got more frequent, which also meant he could get dangerously sweaty if he freaked out long enough living outside in winter. Although he did not challenge the pipe fencing, thankfully. The owner was fearing EDM but decided on a myelogram first. Myelogram was very abnormal and the horse was put down at the hospital.
This kind of stuff can go on a long time before they have gait deficits or lack of ROM. It’s possible the neuro type pain is coming from his head. And nuchal ligament attachment problems are also related as far as symptoms (since he has some abnormality at the atlas). My neck horse also had irregular upper cervical discs. No one had any idea what to make of that or do about it.
At least everyone got a bit of relaxation today with him in the barn.
Kind of covering the obvious, and maybe not needed if you go with a vet-prescribed tranquilizer, but I like the suggestions of magnesium and CBD, or even a calming supplement like AniMed ViaCalm or Majesty’s Kalm+ Nervous System Wafers, with the tryptophan, etc. plus the magnesium.
Vision or neuro issues seem very likely, though, sadly.
Is this the technical term for that?? I’ve never called it anything and that’s what I will call it now.
Back to on topic discussion!
Definitely the technical term 
I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it - not quite a crow hop, definitely not a buck or rear, just that little front leg flinging thing that they sometimes do when they are feeling excitable. Usually comes with a head toss and roll with the spicy ones.
He’s on ViaCalm already. I haven’t tried CBD yet though.
I know a horse like this. I have known him since he was born… he has always been allowed full day turnout if he wants it but he doesn’t. He is almost 10 now and some days he will stay out longer but most of the time its two hours and he wants in. He will likely be for sale at some point and he almost has to go to some sort of show barn, he would not do well at a place that expects the horses to be outside a lot.
I apologize if this has already been asked but has he been scoped for ulcers? We had one that was nuts in turnout and normal after they discovered she had terrible ulcers/ treated it. And also, have you tried 24/7 turnout in a herd in a large field??
I suggest giving him a stall that he can come and go from as he pleases. He could be very reactive to bugs as that can definitely cause explosive behavior in more sensitive horses.
I would get his vision checked again. Uveitis tends to progress. If so, he is losing vision.
Yes. Scoped and also treated just in case.
He isn’t completely nuts in turnout which is the tricky part. He’s not like a normal horse who isn’t used to turnout who can’t seem to quite get right.
It’s just that he doesn’t seem to take cues from the horses around him that things are ok when he sees something alarming. And I live in a place where there are often alarming things like neighbors and deer and garbage trucks.
And sometimes he runs into things if not controlled when he gets in that state. Now I do have to say (since thinking about this all day today) that most of the things that he has run into are well below eye level for him. He is hugely tall with an extremely long neck and I, at 5’9” stretched up on my tiptoes with my arms above my head cannot reach his ears when he is at “normal alertness”.
I’m still going to get him rechecked but just adding color to this whole thing because he doesn’t quite make sense to me.
I’ll do my best on the stall thing. My barn really isn’t set up for that, and that stallion barn may take quite a bit of work to fix if it’s fixable at all.
It has been on the wishlist to make runs for some time, but that is an expensive undertaking and involves cutting into the concrete block and adding Dutch doors as well as fencing.
I cannot build new structures easily on this land either due to county restrictions.
I second the call for a neuro exam. Sounds a little like EMD - large doses of Vit E could help (10,000 IU daily).
I’d suggest trying SmartTranquility. It’s definitely a step up from ViaCalm. It has less magnesium, but it also has valerian. When I was weaning my mare off of trazodone, I switched her to this. I’d previously tried ViaCalm with her and it didn’t touch her anxiety. The SmartTranquility definitely did.
So, I hate to be quick about euthanasia, but some horses just cannot find their spot in the world. It is really sad, and unfair, and especially unfair that we have to make decisions about euthanizing when it’s not black and white. But, I just don’t see a way to feel confident that this horse will have a good life. He’s driving you and your other horses crazy, he has uveitis and hock arthritis and has flunked out of four other barns. Does it seem realistic that he will find the perfect home or be reliably trainable by anyone else?
I would support euthanasia. That’s the only way you can be fair to your own situation and still know he will not end up terrified or neglected in his future. (Though I would be delighted to be wrong.)
So - the one place he has not been is a barn for his breed’s main discipline. This is why I am not 100% on board yet. The barns he has been at have been dressage and hunter barns. I’m not a saddleseat barn, but the way he needs to be handled fits perfectly inline with what is ordinary there. His only “caveat” to that is that he’s a harder sell in his current state. If I work him in the lines consistently he’s got a better shot at that.
That’s literally my only hesitation.
This is why I’m suggesting giving tying a try.
This sounds like this horse’s last chance. Tying a horse in one spot is not cruel, particularly with a blocker ring where the chances of him getting hurt are nearly zero.
Tying a horse in one spot that’s in a blind panic because of something medical that he cannot control is, absolutely, 100%, cruel.
As I read through your description of the problem & suggestions, I kept thinking this could help.
If he has a stall to retreat to, the limited turnout might help him relax.
It might never make him accept turnout without a stall attached, but at least you’ll have a way to keep him (& you) safe.
As for making him safe to ride, I bow to your expertise & that of others.
I don’t know, if it was already suggested, but could you build him an outside “stall”. At first not bigger than his stall in the barn. Maybe built of panels? With hay and water. Just build it on his pasture. So he still feels “save” in his “confined” area? Try, if he accepts this. Than turn him out like this for a few weeks. After that start to enlarge his stall. Slowly. Make I a bit bigger, let him stay there for some weeks. And so on. Maybe you are finally able to open the stall into something like a “stall with a HUGE paddock/pasture” so he’s able to transition in being out in his pasture. I would leave the “panel stall” there for over a year, so he always can go back to his “confined saftey”.
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