Young horse upset in horse show stalls

[ElementFarm]

First, sorry for the novel….

So I have a cutie homebred gelding. He’s 5 and just started his show career this year. He was born on our farm, and spent much of his first couple of years living out with friends in grass pasture with a very nice run-in. During occasional storms, he would come in, often sharing an oversized stall with a pony gelding, and while not wild about being stalled, was overall fine, just messy. This year he transitioned to life as regular riding horse, and we moved to a new farm where everyone is stalled overnight (or days, depending on weather), and no one lives out 24/7. When stalled at home, he’s okay. I turn him out first because otherwise he’ll spin and pace while other horses are led by his stall. He’s messy in a stall in general, and walks circles overnight, but not frantically. He’s orders of magnitude better if his stall window is open (dutch window) and he can hang his head out, which is fine for spring/fall, but not ideal in winter as we like to keep stall windows closed to keep the barn warmer.

This summer he went to a few one day events where we hauled in, rode, and then went home. While I wouldn’t trust him to be left tied to a trailer, he was fine. Then in the fall we started introducing some ‘away’ shows where he’d go Thursday to school and show Friday/the weekend. Both times he seemed fine in his horse show stall overnight Thursday. He’d walk a bit and make a mess, but was happy to look out the window and eat hay. The first outing he was so very good on both Thursday and Friday, I ended up bringing him home Friday after his classes. The second show he was also very good, and I opted to leave him there so we could show over the weekend as well.
On Friday morning, a horse got loose and was galloping around the show grounds. My gelding saw it run by, and watched it head back over to where it came from before getting caught. That excitement got my gelding all upset. He was rearing and bucking in his stall and I’m glad I happened to be there to keep him from escalating or trying to go over his stall gate. It took him quite a long time to settle back down, but when he finally did, he was fine.
Early Saturday morning, I got a call from the trainer with the neighboring block of stalls. She reported that my gelding was flipping out in his stall, rearing, and actually tore down the gate (this show venue uses wire stall gates, not full sliding doors). She took him out and he was fine to walk around a bit, but when she returned him to his stall so she could go school, he started acting up again. Luckily my coach arrived about then, and so friend handed him off to her. I called about an hour later and my coach said he was a bit amped in his stall, but was more or less okay, and was eating hay. She did ask that I come out as soon as I could (original plan had been to meet up with her in the afternoon) so he wasn’t unattended for long while she was ringside and riding.
At that point I figured I’d bring him home, as I didn’t have schedule availability to babysit him all weekend, and of course I didn’t want him to get hurt or colic. When I arrived at the showgrounds, he was tied in his stall and eating hay. But as soon as DH untied him, he started running around the stall again and in general just bordering on wild and frantic. I loaded stuff while DH watched the gelding and kept him back off from the door/gate when it looked like he wanted to rear. Gelding loaded fine and settled in quietly as soon as we got home.

So, I find myself at a loss about what to do next. I can’t easily replicate Horse Show conditions at home, and even if I could, not sure how to train ‘stall tolerance’. The coach only half jokingly suggested bringing him to a horse show with full sliding doors and just letting him have a tantrum where he can’t break down a gate and get loose (but could still easily get hurt or sick).
Not sure a buddy would be helpful, as A: I tried that for one of the early haul-in shows, and he got so bonded to the other horse in the trailer that he’d have a meltdown when separated from her to go school or handwalk; and B: he did have a stall neighbor on one side of him at the overnight show, so not like he was by himself in an empty barn.
More handwalking? I do ensure he gets out of the stall several times to handwalk or graze, but the freak out was at 6am, after a normal night period.
Take him to more shows for just one night and hope he gets accustomed to it?
Don’t do overnight shows? There are some shows that we are close enough to that I can haul in/out every day, but honestly I really don’t want that hassle, and it significantly limits my venue options.
Ace or other chemical help, though obviously I couldn’t show him on it. And it’s a lot of money to throw at a 3-4 day show if he can’t actually compete.

This gelding tends to be a bit of a worrier in general, and I do provide gastric support before and during all off-farm adventures. He’s fancy and coming along well, but if he can’t adjust to a horse show stall-life I’m not sure what I’ll do with him. What recommendations do you all have to help him adjust to the show-horse lifestyle?

[Ghazzu]

It may sound counterintuitive, but you might try hanging stall drapes so that he can’t view all the activity going on and see if that settles him. I’ve seen it work.

[NancyM]

Sometimes it helps if you can get an interior stall, a stall that opens onto a center shedrow, with other stalls on the other side of the alleyway, rather than opening into the “great outdoors”. Then at least, there are likely to be other horses that they can see, and that are likely quiet (as role models).

[ClassyJumper]

Can you start bringing him to your trainers (or other farms) for some over nights? Maybe it would help to just address the stalling stress without showing on top of it.

As the owner of a worrier, it can definitely be a time sink doing all the baby steps. It can be frustrating but it’s worth it in the end when it starts to click for them.

[endlessclimb]

This. I would always request an interior stall for my late mare, as being able to see outside sent her through the roof.

If he’s a worrier, OP, this may always be a potential problem. My late mare would go from OK to psycho over seemingly nothing, and wouldn’t stop until I either tied her or took her out for a handwalk. This went on for several years, never improving. She had an untimely end, but I doubt it really ever would have improved.

She was also a crazy pants on the trailer. She would always load without hesitation, but was immediately an anxious mess once loaded.

[Lusoluv]

Sometimes you just gotta set your show schedule and take it one day at a time vs worrying too far down ahead as to “what ifs”. I got a new horse this spring, 5 yrs old. After 2 months we went to our first off-site schooling with 7 others. We put our horses in show stalls and while my horse was never alone, other team riders were coming and going. She was calling a lot and a bit frantic, tho never offered to jump/crash the gate. She was also the type who’d get upset if horses were brought in from turnout and she wasn’t first inside. Well, 3 weeks later at our first show, I was praying she wouldn’t be “that horse” that drives everyone else nuts by screaming and spinning. She was VERY good. Only called a couple times and paced a little. Month later at next show she didn’t call or stall walk. I kept a slow feed net filled, took her out every few hours and there was a time when all the immediate horses around her were out. She didn’t care. Don’t know what clicked, but I believe our strengthening bond had a lot to do with it. I was SO relieved!

[joiedevie99]

I’d spend the winter doing lots of overnight trips that aren’t horse shows. I’d also schedule the first few horse shows of the spring so that you can be there all day to hand walk/deal with whatever happens.

[Djones]

The more he travels the more you’ll both learn. I would get him an interior stall going forward, hang his hay in the back of the stall, and get him some stall drapes to cut down the visual stimulus. If it’s safe, running a fan for some white noise can help, too.

[Feathered_Feet]

I’ll even add to consider ear plugs, at least for the first few hours. I used to do this with my mare so she could take in the visual stimuli without having to also process all the sounds. After handwalking, lunging, and riding in earplugs she was much more capable of handling all the sounds without getting overwhelmed.

[Pally]

From your original post, I get the sense this youngster isn’t really “good” or “happy” in his stall at home - more along the lines of “ok” and “tolerating”. So, I’d really work on that a lot first. The upside is it won’t cost you any $ or lost show opportunities… just time and patience.

The other big upside to focusing at home first is you can completely control the environment. You can choose which stall, remove any hazards, and control the surrounding traffic and activity. All very hard to do at a horse show!!

So you can set up a variety of stall situations that may be a little bit emotionally challenging to him. If he gets upset and starts to pace etc, you basically ignore him. Don’t try to distract or redirect him (unless of course, you happen to already be in there and need to mind your safety and his basic manners. But don’t go in there specifically to try to fix his behaviour.) When he’s calm, that’s when the reward comes. You could use positive reinforcement (treat in the bucket, scratch on the head, etc), or negative rx (which means removal of pressure, in this case, the “pressure” comes from the 4 walls. So you would take him out, open the window, etc). Personally, I’d probably do a mix of both for this situation.

Ideally, you want to test him just slightly without sending him over his emotional threshold and into a frenzy. As he learns to cope with each small threat to his comfort zone, you can slowly start expanding it. Take as many baby steps as needed. So for example, if you were working on the trigger of horse traffic going by his stall, you might actually start with someone leading another horse around on the opposite end of the barn aisle from him. When that’s ok, have them go right by his door. Then maybe they come out of the stalls right beside or across from him. After all that is honkey dorey, you might try jogging a horse by him, then even having a helper lunge within sight if possible. (I do recommend you stop short of purposely recreating the horse show’s inevitable “loose horse” scenarios .)

If this were me, I’d want him to be able to:

• Be in his stall while I shut the window
• Be OK with horse traffic passing.
• Handle some loud noises in the barn.
• Come in at a random time while others stay out (buddy system first, but eventually alone).
• Accept a mix-up to the turn-out order, so he isn’t always first.
  Of course, these won’t happen all at once, and they all need to be broken down into those baby steps.

When that’s all good, then take him on outings, hopefully to some friends’ barns first, then shows.

Good luck with him!

[oldernewbie]

Schneider’s even sells tack stall drapes for a reasonable price so you don’t have to go fancy schmancy.

Dura-Tech® Stall Drape Tack Room Privacy Package | Schneiders Saddlery

I bought a set of these for my tack stall and can attest that they are heavy duty and a good value for the price. Easy to put up with zip ties.

ETA: May be hard to see from the picture but they only go halfway down the stall - just cover the typical open areas between stalls and the front.