Horse will not poop when working?

[endlessclimb]

My young mare will not poop in the arena. It’s the same whether I’m lunging or riding, both lunging with surcingle or naked. We do our work in the arena, including a long walking cooldown, sometimes with stopping to talk for 5 minutes or whatever. I often will put away the arena equipment with her on a leadrope, as well, another few minutes of stop/go/stop/go.

As soon as we get back to the crossties, she poops. Typically I’ll loosen the girth right after I hop off while still in the arena, but I’ve tried not loosening it, and the same thing happens - crossties and immediate pooping even with the girth still tight.

I’m not overly concerned, but was wondering if anyone else had this issue and if it was something bigger?

This year will be full of long trail rides, so she will be forced to work this out one way or the other, but it is a curious habit she has…

[B-burg_Dressage]

My guy doesn’t poop while being ridden. But he ALWAYS poops in the cross ties before, during grooming and tacking up.

I’ve had him 6 years and I can count the number of times he’s pooped while being worked. Not sure if it means anything other than that he just doesn’t like to?

[lenapesadie]

My young (er) gelding rarely poops under saddle, in the cross ties, or during groundwork. He did once take a piss in a line up at a show though Horses are strange

[blue_heron]

My guy would not for the longest time. Only when he started feeling really relaxed in the work-- it was like a milestone for us LOL

[Scribbler]

With broke horses, I take the snort and poop as a sign they’ve warmed up and physically relaxed. There’s a spot on our home trails about 15 to 20 minutes from the barn and it’s clear a lot of horses poop there! I think they also poop when they see other horses poop. Of course there is also nervous pooping, even our good loading horses poop more when they see the trailer and in the trailer

It’s been my self-board conclusion, cleaning stalls at different times of the day or repicking to tidy before I leave, that horses poop about once every two hours, and if they poop five times in the trailer loading and trip, there will be a bit less poop in the paddock the next day.

It’s not much fun to clean up cross ties, but also not much fun to pick out the arena after you ride so 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

My mare remains reluctant to poop while she is moving. So if your young horse is working nicely for you in the arena she might not feel she is allowed to stop and poop (which is wonderful, the badly timed poop stop can be very embarrassing in any discipline!) and hasn’t figured out poop and walk yet.

It’s possible that longer trail rides will help her figure this out, especially if she sees another horse poop or sees fresh poop on the ground. Or gets to relax more.

My mare will also often go out to her paddock and take a good long pee when I arrive and and she knows we are going riding. After a trail ride she won’t pee tied to the trailer on a gravel parking lot, but will once I take her for a grass walk. She has peed under saddle on a longer trail ride once or maybe twice in ten years.

Anyhow, for now I expect that your young horse just isn’t fully relaxed under saddle, but isn’t so tense you are getting panic poop. Give it time. Not pooping in the ring isn’t the worst quirk out there!

[WildGooseChase]

My Rez Mustang filly is like this. I’ve seen her poop a total of 4 times in the arena in the 3.5 years I’ve had her. All 4 times it was during a longer session and after she relaxed and settled in.

[quietann]

I have had my mare for 13 1/2 years, and could count the number of times she has pooped in an arena on one hand. She is marginally more likely to do it on the trail. Her sales video had one hilarious bit of her jumping into water on an XC course and pooping in the water… She did NOT like water questions at all! These days, much to my embarrassment, she will sometimes poop in the river when we go through and I still think she’s giving me her opinion.

She also rarely pees anywhere except in her stall. I’ve learned that if I’m trailering her, bringing her in and giving her time to pee in her stall makes for a much better experience. She has peed in an arena … two or three times since I’ve owned her. And on the trail very very occasionally. She does not show strong signs of heat, so no repeated squat-and-pee down the aisle from her.

She is fastidious, and also TBH a bit of a stressy creature.

[endlessclimb]

No kidding on the “not the worst quirk out there”, haha. It’s just so clock-work-like that she will poop in the crossties, it caught my attention. Sounds like it’s a pretty common thing though!

[Calvincrowe]

My very experienced show hunter mare doesn’t poop while being worked-- she will before we ride (cross ties or stall) and once we are done. I consider it a benefit! No stopping to pick poop out of the arena, no “slow crawl canter” on course as she tries to poo discreetly, or the “I can’t move and poop” pony routine which kills many a nice trip. At 13, she hasn’t died yet from not pooping while working so I’m okay with it!

[Alterration]

My gelding will not poop in the arena, nor has he ever done on the cross ties. It’s in his stall and in his stall only. And he prefers, by the way, if he’s going to pee that it be on a PILE of shavings. He’ll actively shuffle his stall around so that he pees on a pile.

I keep telling him that’s going to be really uncomfortable someday if we have to be in the tack longer than he expects, but he doesn’t listen. shrug

[Scribbler]

My mare also does not want to step in poop. So she will even try to poop off the rail or on the edge of the trail, if it occurs to her. She almost always only poops in her runout, only in her stall rarely in pouring rain and usually right up against the wall. She sleeps inside. Now that it’s nice weather and she sleeps outside too, I’ve noticed she isn’t pooping so much at the back of the paddock where she sleeps.

[Jarpur]

My gelding sees me coming when it’s time for him to go to work, so he moves to his favorite pooping spot in his sacrifice paddock and gets it over with.

After he’s groomed and tacked-up, on the way to the arena, he has a spot where he stops and urinates. Then he’s empty and doesn’t eliminate in any fashion while being worked.

I figure it has nothing to do with tension, in his case (he’s naturally a very relaxed, free and easy mover) – he’s just smart enough to take care of business in advance, lol. It’s like when we were kids, and our parents always told us to “go” before we left the house and got in the car for a trip.

My old gelding also did the “poop immediately before being brought in to work” thing, too. But he didn’t like to urinate in what he considered a public space, in front of people; he’d go when I was around, if I turned my back and gave him his privacy, holding him at the very end of his lead rope or reins. If we were on a trail ride, or at an event, I could tell when he wanted his space, and I’d take him somewhere, such as behind a building or trailer.

Wasn’t nerves in his case, either, he just liked his space. Totally tolerable quirk.

[Spudsmyguy]

My little mustang went through a phase where if we had hauled out to a lesson or a ride, she would wait until she got in the trailer to come home before urinating. I even left her tied to the trailer for an extra long time waiting for her to go. I had to leave so as soon as I loaded her, she let go; complete with groaning. No class I tell ya’

[shiloh]

My mustang did kind of the same thing. She would NOT go outside her stall. She was even OCD in her stall - poop at the end by the gate and pee at the side about halfway down. She was most offended the week she could not go outside because it was sheeting down rain and she had to poop in her stall corner. Oh the HORROR. I remember I came out to see her and she very pointedly looked in my face, went over to the poop pile, looked at it, looked at me, back at poop - “I get it! I get it, your majesty.” So there I was in the worst thunder and lightening and pouring rain cleaning her stall. I sort of broke her of refusing to pee on the trail by making her stay out for a couple hours and even then she was not happy.

Horses are goofy - just like people.

[foggythistle]

A friend’s gelding won’t poop under saddle. The only time he has done so was a brief stint when he had diarrhea. To avoid the predictable poop-in-the-aisle after riding, she just heads right to his stall and lets him get it all out in there.

My guy has no shame. Poop in the ring? No problem. It’s even usually at one end of the ring - the furthest point from the muck bucket, of course. And, he leaves mountains.

My sister used to have one that would leave one and two bun poops all through the ride.

[Spudsmyguy]

My mare did the same thing, either outside or as far away from her food source as possible. If you watch horses in the wild or some domesticated ones, they have a designated pooping area and will walk to that area away from where they’re grazing so as not to foul the entire pasture. My TB will do that, leaves where he’s grazing, walk to the poop place, poop and then return to where he was. The appy, not so much.

[afjordlife]

My retired guy does not poop anywhere but one corner of his stall and in his field (and even there, in one corner of the field), and prefers his stall corner. So much so that if you take him from the field to the cross ties without stopping first at his stall so he can poop he will be a huge fidgety PIA until he can visit his stall corner. He’s not ridden anymore, but don’t really remember him ever pooping under saddle and I’ve owned him for 20+ years.

[MsM]

My horse has never pooped or peed while being handled. Not under saddle, not on crossties, not even in the wash stall! He almost peed on the crossties once when I was slow to recognize the peepee dance, but made it into his stall.

He is pretty neat in his stall with the poop generally piled in one corner and one pee spot. More random in his paddock with a preferred pee spot but several sites for poop.

He is, however, fascinated by any poop left in the arena. Even though it is from a horse he knows well, he must sniff!**

[endlessclimb]

My Old Man Horse is very private about his peeing. He hardly drops when he does pee (just the tip, lol, ugh gross gelding things), and I joke and say he is self conscious about how it looks or something. Weirdo.

Glad I’m not the only one with a horse with weird pooping habits!

[outerbanks77]

My mare is 8, and after four years owning her, she has just discovered that she can poop while being ridden. She will often go out in her pen and poop when she sees me arrive, or takes a big poop right when I unsaddle her. Prior to the last month, I don’t think she ever pooped while riding, and rarely while lunging.