Stereotype Behavior walking a 20 metre circle

[Scribbler]

Mare belongs to a friend. Ten years old, probably unbroke, fell through the cracks mare. Not a racing breed, and has never seemed neurotic. Anyhow, today we noticed that she is walking a perfect 20 m circle in the back of the pasture, wearing a path in the grass, very dogged until dinner buckets arrived.

I have only read about this once, and this was a children’s story about a loyal old mill horse who turned the grindstone his whole life, and walked a circle in retirement. This mare has never turned a grindstone! And we doubt she has ever been in a walker, though you never know.

Horse will be moving to a different, better pasture with a herd group soon, so presumably that will break things up.

Thinking she might believe she was being longed, I leaned over the fence and said trot on, cluck cluck, etc. She didn’t pick up her pace but she did start to cut in the circle to avoid me on that corner.

Anyone ever seen this before?

[SuzieQNutter]

Horses who are injured can walk in circles. If this is the case it has nothing to do with their mind.

[csaper58]

This sounds like either a neurological issue or a vision issue the horse may not be able to find water and is at risk of dehydration.

This horse needs to be seen by a vet ASAP

[Scribbler]

Well as soon as dinner was served she went right over to the other horses and had no trouble navigating that.

She isn’t having trouble finding food or water and she can walk in a straight line if she wants.

And it’s a big generous 20 metres not a small circling like the horse can’t get unstuck.

[Highflyer]

We had a very young horse of a client’s who was a terrible stallwalker who would walk in circles in the field. Did this one just spontaneously start or did your friend just get her?

[Bluey]

We have had fence walkers that go back and forth for hours on a stretch of fence, but not without a fence there to walk along, just out on the open in a circle?

I would take videos of that and have your vet put it up on VIN and see what answers they get about this?
Maybe a neurologist could suggest something to try, see if it is really a stereotypy or some light seizure activity, very rare in horses, or what else that could be?

Those repetitive behaviors are not good for the horse, there is too much wear and tear happening.

That is very interesting.

[khall]

I had an OTTB g that did this when he was bothered by something mentally. It was not a neurological problem. Once he was comfortable in the pasture situation he would quit. I still have a circle in one of my pastures from his walking even though I put him down in 2010 at 27 yrs old.

[allons-y]

My OTTB walks a big, irregular, non-identical circle when its time to eat. He just cant comprehend ‘stand still’. If I’m really late, or its too hot, buggy, etc he runs. Movement is his go to answer to all things

[Palm_Beach]

@Highflyer

We had a very young horse of a client’s who was a terrible stallwalker who would walk in circles in the field.

^^ This. It’s a symptom of anxiety. It’s a behavior pattern like stall walking or weaving or walking the fence line.

[Scribbler]

@Palm Beach

^^ This. It’s a symptom of anxiety. It’s a behavior pattern like stall walking or weaving or walking the fence line.

Yes that was pretty much our thoughts on the matter.

Now that I think about it, mare was until recently in a larger field with a more diverse herd that shares a fence line with the smaller pasture she is now in. There are only two other horses in the smaller pasture. She is walking her circle adjacent to the fence line of the larger field. The move was for pasture management, ease of feeding hay, etc. So she may just be unhappy to be in the smaller pasture.

I’ve seen pacing or trotting the fence line, I’ve seen cribbing and head bobbing and things like that. I just never saw such a perfect 20 metre circle, being walked slow and steady but persistent exactly like she is turning a grindstone or on a race track hot walker.

Hopefully when she moves to another property and a bigger pasture and herd, she will stop the behavior.

I don’t recall her doing any walking or weaving in her smaller paddock last winter.

[SuzieQNutter]

I wonder what happens if you put trot poles on her circle. I guess in this case she will just move the circle and it would add more wear and tear if she didn’t.

[Bluey]

@SuzieQNutter

I wonder what happens if you put trot poles on her circle. I guess in this case she will just move the circle and it would add more wear and tear if she didn’t.

We tried putting square bales along a fence a horse was walking senselessly all day long.
Didn’t help any, he kept walking along stumbling over those like he didn’t even know they were there.
We took them out, he was going to cripple himself doing that all day long, very sad.

[SuzieQNutter]

@Bluey

We tried putting square bales along a fence a horse was walking senselessly all day long.
Didn’t help any, he kept walking along stumbling over those like he didn’t even know they were there.
We took them out, he was going to cripple himself doing that all day long, very sad.

You are right that is so sad.

[Abbie.S]

Obstacles in their path don’t change the fact that the horse is mentally bothered. He’ll just run over them or worse, get hung up in them and possibly hurt. When you do this, you’re ignoring the living, cognizant part of the horse and treating it like a robot that is repeating a pattern without purpose. THAT is sad.

OP, I’d agree with your guess, it sounds like just a unique stereotypie. If she didn’t do it before but something changed and now she does, revert back to the way she was kept before the change and I’ll bet she gets perfectly OK.

[Bluey]

@Abbie.S

Obstacles in their path don’t change the fact that the horse is mentally bothered. He’ll just run over them or worse, get hung up in them and possibly hurt. When you do this, you’re ignoring the living, cognizant part of the horse and treating it like a robot that is repeating a pattern without purpose. THAT is sad.

OP, I’d agree with your guess, it sounds like just a unique stereotypie. If she didn’t do it before but something changed and now she does, revert back to the way she was kept before the change and I’ll bet she gets perfectly OK.

Have you ever been around horses that have stall vices like cribbing, weaving and senseless walking?

It is not sad, it is what stereotipy behaviors are, the horse’s brain gets shortcircuited and can’t stop doing it.

We were trying to get him to “wake up” and look around, but he was just too intent in his mental loop to stop.

First, we tried walking him out to the green grass in the yard to graze.
He did graze some, then when we left, went right back into the pen and to walking, gate open, walking right past it, back and forth.
That first night he made a 6’ trench there walking back and forth on that one stretch of fence.

We talked to the breeder and he said he was a very promising performance horse when young, until he started that walking.
He wore himself out so bad, they sold him for light use because of that.
His full sibling also did it, but not quite so bad.

Mental health problems can be at times heartbreaking, you can only do what you can do to manage those problems.

Not being cognizant of that and jumping on others with little understanding of the situation is what is sad.

[Scribbler]

Mare didn’t show any stereotyped behavior in the larger field or indeed in the smaller paddock she lived in over one winter, so we are hoping that if she goes out on a big complex pasture with a larger herd situation, that will keep her brain occupied.

[Bluey]

@Scribbler

Mare didn’t show any stereotyped behavior in the larger field or indeed in the smaller paddock she lived in over one winter, so we are hoping that if she goes out on a big complex pasture with a larger herd situation, that will keep her brain occupied.

Most horses can improve with the right management.
A few just won’t, like the cribber that will find a stump in the pasture or if nothing, another horse’s neck/back to crib on.

Sounds like that mare is doing what she does more as a situational, not true stereotipy.

I know horses that only weave when someone starts feeding and quit once they are fed.
Some do go on to become all time weavers, some never do.

There may be help for those horses, eventually.
One of the horses in our riding center was the first one to be operated on for cribbing, cutting two smaller slits high on his neck.
He was five and just started cribbing and, last I knew, he had not started cribbing a couple years later.
I heard that doesn’t last very long on most, so it is not a real solution.

Best luck you find a way to get her to quit, all that walking is hard on their legs.