[QUOTE=mishmash;8245615]
He is either unhappy or bored. Turn him out 24/7. Happier, healthier horse. :yes:[/QUOTE]
I would definitely love to 
I would tie him in a standing stall (if you have one).
A horse of mine would have lost his box stall privileged for kicking a door off.
Can you try a QuitKick? They really really work to break the habit of kicking, particularly at this acute stage!
The video will tell you more.
My guess is one night he figured out how to get the door off its hinges. Either he was itching on it just right, or he was bored and kicking, or something else happened. Then, the door opened, and he got to spend the night eating everyoneās supplements and playing around. Thatās so much better than being stuck in that stupid stall! So now heās doing it again and again.
Iāve known several true stall kickers, and itās not a habit that shows up overnight that bad for no reason. I think this is a learned activity.
For stall kickers, Iām a big fan of hanging mats because it often takes away the ārewardā of the commotion it causes. But if his reward is getting out of the stall, then thatās what you have to prevent.
[QUOTE=adcurtiss;8244710]
ā¦He showed a good deal in June. He showed 2 weeks with 2 day breaks between each week, a week off, 2 more weeks the same way, and then 2 weeks off. [/QUOTE]
Thatās a lot of showing and stall time and trailering - what sort of ulcer preventative was he on during that stressful time?
[QUOTE] Putting him out at night, unfortunately, is not really an option for me. No other horses have ever gone out at night and he would not appreciate being out alone. /QUOTE]
Does he have a good buddy whose owner you might convince to turn him out along with your horse for the night?
Hello again
My BM has suggested moving him across the aisle to another stall to see if that will end this behavior, so hopefully that will work.
As far as night turnout, GrayTbred, itās just not something that the barn really provides or would accommodate, unfortunately.
SuckerForHorses, since heās never had a real problem with ulcers before, he was on nothing. That was my mistake. Is gastroguard the best route? The vet is coming to extract one of his teeth soon, so I can ask them to bring me some.
Also, I was just told that if we move his stall she is willing to give him the run at night, so hopefully that will work things out!
Make sure to reinforce the new door before he moves in, might help if heās not rewarded so easily after the move. But I still think the idea to video is a good one, heās taughthimself a new trick and now heās going to keep doing it. Be glad heās not letting all the other horses loose once heās out!
If you do try a slow feed net, introduce it as no big deal WITH hay on the ground as well.
In my barn the horses get hay dropped to them from the loft at the back corner of their stalls. For most, itās great, quiet time, nobody is looking at anybody else. They get to eat in peace. For certain Social Convenor mares this does not work and they a) donāt eat sufficiently to keep their ulcers at bay, and b) what they do try to eat gets dragged to the front of the stall with half or more getting dropped and trampled on the way.
I got mine a Freedom Feeder and read the directions (because I am female lol) and it said to continue feeding as normal while offering the net 24/7 and to keep doing thusly until the hay on the floor was no longer getting cleaned up before the net was empty.
I thought to myself, āHa! This is going to be an epic gd failure and a waste of 70 bucks.ā But it wasnāt. Having that net where she wanted to eat (at the front of her house where she could keep an eye on the rest of the barn) soon became The Best Thing Evah! It took less than a week for me to be able to tell everyone to stop throwing her hay from above.
So, maybe try it, but be careful how you introduce it.
And YES TREAT FOR ULCERS! Iām in Canada and we used compounded Omeprazole with no issue. Itās a !@$# of a lot cheaper than Gastroguard. Because my own horse had symptoms of hindgut nonsense, I also treat with Sulcrate (sucralfate) at the same time. She is also on a pro/pre-biotic daily.
When you stress them out (and what sets them off certainly varies from horse to horse - donāt look at mine funny, plz + tx) you need to take care of those bellyguts!
In terms of sliding doors and rubber matting. I know the answer to this question! Yes, it can be done. You donāt touch the sliding door at all. On the interior of the door frame, you put up a basic 2x4 frame of a half door and hinge it so that it opens inwards. Cover the half door with the heaviest dang rubber mats you can find. Remember to use extremely heavy grade hinges because those suckers are heavy. Voila, kick proof door.
Does that make sense? So, every time you want to get into the stall, you slide the sliding door, and then undo and push in the hinged half door so it folds flat against the stall wall. If it doesnāt make sense I can draw a bad picture for you. Let me know.
Also, yes, to the padded stall walls for kickers and strikers. Run 2x4s at 4-5ā up the wall and all around the stall. Hang heavy mats from the 2x4s. Peace and quiet
[QUOTE=AffirmedHope;8245177]
Ulcers[/QUOTE]
Yes. My friendās horse started doing the exact same thing when he developed ulcers. It was very unusual behavior for him, so they knew something must be wrong.
[QUOTE=adcurtiss;8245961]
Also, I was just told that if we move his stall she is willing to give him the run at night, so hopefully that will work things out![/QUOTE]
But why arenāt you considering ulcers? How many people here experienced the same thing, and it was ulcers but you dismiss it? By all means, move his stall. Wait - if you turn him out at night, he wonāt have a stall door to kick down! That will take care of any concern you might have had of ulcers. Instead, he will stand outside and suffer from ulcers. This makes me frustrated.
[QUOTE=Ambitious Kate;8246981]
But why arenāt you considering ulcers? How many people here experienced the same thing, and it was ulcers but you dismiss it? By all means, move his stall. Wait - if you turn him out at night, he wonāt have a stall door to kick down! That will take care of any concern you might have had of ulcers. Instead, he will stand outside and suffer from ulcers. This makes me frustrated.[/QUOTE]
I am definitely not dismissing ulcers. I posted twice addressing the issue and asked what the best course of treatment was and will begin promptly. I was updating on what the BM was letting me change, I have already considered ulcers and will begin to treat for them. Iām sorry if it came across that I was dismissing it.
Just a thought here but you say 4 flakes at 4 pm and turnout from 8am-3pm. So four flakes of hay from 4pm until 8am ? If I read that correctly then not enough JMHO for a horse of that size ā¦ Iād go with the four flakes fed on the ground and an additional 4 flakes in a slow feeder hay net . And second , third whatever the scoping and treating for ulcers ā¦ Good luck with the stall move that sounds like it might work also along with some additional hay .
Glad youāre pursuing the possibility of ulcers. My mare was also a raging lunatic in her stall when she had them.
And yes, theyāre never a problem, until they are a problem. My horses donāt step foot on a trailer without getting a preventative. With the amount of trailering and showing you did without a preventative, ulcers would be my first concern here.
Thank you all so much once again for your help. Iām sure with the way that it suddenly came up out of nowhere that it is ulcers. I hope you all know that I feel awful that I didnāt treat for this sooner, but the best I can do know is treat for it as soon as possible. Thank you for your many wonderful, wonderful suggestions and for your advice. Catherines, I will look into getting some more hay for him overnight to see if that helps.
Thank you all again, it means so much.
[QUOTE=adcurtiss;8247062]
I am definitely not dismissing ulcers. I posted twice addressing the issue and asked what the best course of treatment was and will begin promptly. I was updating on what the BM was letting me change, I have already considered ulcers and will begin to treat for them. Iām sorry if it came across that I was dismissing it.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, I missed that, carry on! I am glad you are considering that. Often if you treat for ulcers for a week or two you can see if there is an improvement, it will be obvious in some manner and you can continue the full course. Good luck. Heāll probalby love having the night turnout paddock outside his door.
[QUOTE=Ambitious Kate;8247590]
Sorry, I missed that, carry on! I am glad you are considering that. Often if you treat for ulcers for a week or two you can see if there is an improvement, it will be obvious in some manner and you can continue the full course. Good luck. Heāll probalby love having the night turnout paddock outside his door.[/QUOTE]
Thank you I talked to my trainer about it and for whatever reason she seemed a little hesitant, but either way I am going to contact the vet as soon as possible to get him some gastroguard. I really feel terrible that I didnāt think of treating for ulcers earlier.
Quitkick:A good idea, but ā¦
Hereās a heads up on all the positive posts about Quitkick. I bought one for my horse last yearā$500! I found that if you put the sensors too close to where the horse kicks, heāll kick the sensors and break them ($100 a piece). If you move them too far away from where he kicks, they donāt work. The US Quitkick rep installed these sensors herself, so this is not just a matter of an inexperienced horse owner installing them incorrectly. Additionally, the actual Quitkick unitānot the sensorsāno longer works even though itās less than a year old. Iām currently sending it back to the US rep to fix. Iāve probably spent 10 to 20 hours of my own time trying to get this thing to work and then eventually paid someone to hang mats all over my horseās stall. (For those of you who go this route, we hung the mats on 2 X 4ās so that they stuck out 2" or so from the stall wallāgave my horseās feet additional cushioning before they hit the wall and deadens the sound even better.). We are currently at a new barn and so I am trying the Quitkick again, but only because I already bought it. As far as I can tell, this company is the only one who makes this type of systemāmaybe if they had some competition, theyād see that these very expensive machines were more reliable. It certainly should be effective and humaneāwhen it works.
I took care of a stallion who had learned how to take his door down, came in to the barn to find him off galavanting visiting all the horses turn out. What we ended up doing was putting a second swing gate up to keep him off the sliding door. https://www.google.com/search?q=barn+gate+for+stalls&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiO1ZSiyOnMAhXCGR4KHUzADHIQ7AkIOg&biw=1273&bih=770#imgrc=6VA8CkoDmX4HJM%3A something like this but was taller with no yoke.
