Stall walking

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

@fivestrideline

Hmm is there any way you could switch her and your other horse’s stalls?

This was going to be my suggestion. I had a mare that was either perfectly content or walked non stop. It turned out that any negative experience on her first couple days somewhere set her off and she never got over it. Moving her to a different stall or paddock was an instant fix and she never thought about it again. She was never overly attached to her neighbors but if she was the first or last horse in or out before she settled in to a new place, that set it off again. Once she knew the routine, every horse on the property could have left for a weekend without her noticing but that “bad stall” set her right back to square one if I tried it again before she had 6 months to forget.

So… my advice is to switch stalls and manage her experiences very carefully for the first week. First one fed, middle horse for turn out/bring in, another horse at her end of the barn at all times, etc.

[AwesomeDiscover09]

Thank you!!

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

I hope a change of scenery works for you. When all was good, my mare would be casually munching on hay while the rest of the barn was trying to jump out the windows because of high wind or ice sliding off the roof. When things weren’t good, she wouldn’t eat at all and her normally pristine stall was trashed. It was a night and day difference once I figured out the issue. I was the barn manager or working off board the first few years so that made it easier to play with what worked. Later on she was always the barn favorite wherever I boarded as long as they followed my instructions to make her feel comfortable initially.

[Simkie]

Does where you plan on sending her for backing have pasture board?

Sending her there for a year of being a baby horse before backing could be a great option if so. It sounds like your current boarding arrangement just isn’t suitable for a youngster. It’s awfully hard to find somewhere that is, especially when you’re trying to find that plus riding facilities, all in one place. But limited solitary turnout and living in a box stall isn’t going to give her a good foundation for the rest of her life.

[B_and_B]

She is a two year old? Not to be incredibly rude here…but why the H— is she in a stall most of her day? Unless you are doing very intensive work with her on short 15/30 minute intervals several times a day, plus her turnout…In my opinion, she is going to go nuts. And yes, constant stall walking/weaving? Congratulations. You have a two year old with some serious behavioral issues. And you created them. She is bored. You said in your original post she loves to watch things, she loves to do things. Guess what…
What to do? Send her out Now. Somewhere, anywhere. Anywhere for 24/7 she has to be a horse in a herd. It may not be where you want her backed. But anywhere where 24/7 turnout in a herd is possible and safe. Do it.

[pony_baloney]

My previous horse did this for most of his life when in a stall. Pasture board was the best thing for him. When he was in his 20s he wasn’t as bad but when stressed would stall walk constantly (and also developed mild ulcers from the stress of being inside).

Please find some way for your horse to live outside. Most horses are much happier and healthier living that way.

[Bluey]

OP, do not feel guilty, if a horse has a tendency to start a stereotypy kind of behavior, something, sometime is going to stress it and it will start and keep at it.

At the track, when one started stall walking or cribbing or weaving, few from the many under similar management circumstances did, someone always remembered such and such other sibling or parent that also did.
Some horses seem to inherit a tendency for those vices.

Now, there are ways to try to minimize them, try to figure if and how you can find some way a horse so affected may not do it or not over the top.
We had some that were impossible, one mare out to pasture 24/7 would find a fence post top and crib on it.
We tried to put bales on the fence where a fence walker kept walking back and forth and he acted as if he didn’t see them, would stumble over them coming and going, so we took them out.
We tried hand grazing him on the yard, then left him there grazing, his pen gate open and in a few minutes he walked back into the pen and went back to walking the fence, with the open gate in his path, crazy.
Then we had one cutting horse, a stallion until 7, that would fence walk in one pen, but not in others or in stalls or pasture, just in that pen, that we didn’t put him there any more, of course.
The friend we bought him from said that he did walk in his pens always, he kept him up as he was using him as a stallion, we wondered why here he only walked in that pen?

Horses, some times they are hard to figure, but you may be able to help yours yet, keep trying.

[AwesomeDiscover09]

I did change the stalls yesterday. She seems happier there. She only did a little walking when I brought her mom past her to go ride. But other than that she didn’t walk at all and seemed to like having another horse next to her. We have a mare coming in on Oct first that we are hoping to put her out with. And her mom was always a weaver even out to pasture she would find a way to do it. Time will tell if this will work. I’ve been looking for pasture board in my price range that isn’t 2hrs away with everything I need for both horses to go there. Not easy but ill keep looking.

[Bluey]

@AwesomeDiscover09

I did change the stalls yesterday. She seems happier there. She only did a little walking when I brought her mom past her to go ride. But other than that she didn’t walk at all and seemed to like having another horse next to her. We have a mare coming in on Oct first that we are hoping to put her out with. And her mom was always a weaver even out to pasture she would find a way to do it. Time will tell if this will work. I’ve been looking for pasture board in my price range that isn’t 2hrs away with everything I need for both horses to go there. Not easy but ill keep looking.

Great, you may find a way to keep her from walking, at least most of the time.
That is so hard on their legs, especially knees and hooves, plus can frazzle the nerves of those that have to hear/see those stereotypies going on and on, all day long, like in bigger stables.

I have known some horses that weaved a bit at meal times but it never did get worse, just at that time and not too violently. We tried to manage them where we feed those first.
Others when in pasture conditions, that were at the same gate waiting while one weaved didn’t ever seem to “catch” it.

At least you found a better place for her now, wonderful.