I’m curious if anyone else has gone through this with a young horse and what you did, if anything.
I’ve known my horse since he was a foal and purchased him the day he turned 1. He’s 4 now. He’s still boarded at the barn where he was born and he’s working with the same trainer who subscribes to more of a Warwick Schiller approach and whose career is largely based on training/backing young horses. He was gelded when he was weaned around 5-6 months.
He was really pretty mellow as a yearling, especially compared to other yearlings. He was kind of care free and lackadaisical but he still had yearling moments. However, he’s kind of regressed as a 4 year old; he’s spookier and more anxious/fidgety and “hot” and the other day he was mounting a gelding in the field for the first time that anyone has ever seen.
I’m sorry for some of the anthropomorphic language, just the best way I can explain it, but basically he has had a few “come to Jesus” moments with the trainer (he’s usually better behaved for them vs myself because they work with him more consistently) regarding cross ties and him trying to bully his way around among other things. Like, he suddenly can’t stand still remotely enough and he winds up breaking cross ties. Or he just pushes into someone or how he’s started trying to walk in front of me with his attention 90% elsewhere. Vs as a yearling he was much more mindful of where he was compared to his handler and was quite relaxed walking around the farm and stayed at your shoulder. None of this sounds serious, but the fact he REALLY struggles with focusing as a 4yo when he could actually focus for a good 15-30 minutes as a yearling, and could DEFINITELY focus when being led, has triggered some warning flags.
I have zero idea why this is happening, especially the spookiness, distractedness and him being “hot” mentally. I mentioned the regression to his trainer today and they agreed but we didn’t have a chance to discuss troubleshooting, just that we were seeing the same change in behavior.