😆 Feel the same way. Good ideas or know hows are always helping someone. Today, after not being able to go to the Farm/Stable where we boardMy 7yr Mare for a wk and She is always easy to carch, well not today. 😮 😀 😀 cShe is in the Herd of 30ish and She would turn away and walk around in the Herd then stop, then when I appoached , She wouild turn away and walk again. This went on for 5′ or so. I was very quiet while walking beside her and turning when she did. Finally she started licking and slowing and then stopped, told her. She was a good girl and haltered her and we walked to the gate. Should I have done differently?

i’m a disabled horsewoman,When I work my horse in th roundpen He’s much quieter/safer if I give him a little quitex 2 hours before we work

Exactly. The breeding of horses has caused such an over population of unwanted horses that it should be apparent that no run of the mill horse owners should leave studs uncut. Barbed wire…
No horse can hold a fence like that to let an another through is illogical.

We have horses at our barn that are trailered away, leaving the barn for trail rides and come back to their pasture mates. We have a couple of pairs of “lovers” Attached horses can go away for a ride separately, but their “lover is anxious in the pasture the whole time. This happens several times a month every month all year long. If they are taken on trail rides together, they have to stay together. Neither respects their rider when they are together on rides. It just plain isn’t safe.

I was riding in a group with the two pair of “lovers”. My husband was riding one of them. I had to drop back and go around a steep embankment that wasn’t safe for my mare to negotiate. She was fine going away from everyone but my husband couldn’t join me because his horse wouldn’t behave and the owner was riding the other “lover”. He insisted they stay together leaving me to go off by myself. Even though my husband felt confident to manage the horse separate from the pair bond, the owner didn’t and wouldn’t let him follow me.

One of the other lover pairs fell back with me so I didn’t have to ride by myself. He mentioned that his horse was being anxious because it wanted to be with its “lover”. I told him, that my horse was calm and his would learn in this safe circumstance that it didn’t have to be with the other to be safe. After about 10 minutes or around the time it took for the others to get far enough away so the horses couldn’t hear each other, his horse settled down. He was amazed. He said it was the first time he had ever ridden separately from the other horse.

My husband never got to ride with me that day. He swore he wouldn’t ride the man’s horses again and wanted his own horse to ride.

So we recently got him one. This horse had been babied by a woman who had him since he was weaned at 4 months. He is 4, and was very pushy dominant at first. Once he learned that we were not going to let him push us around he settled right down. He has only had 1 month of prior training but he now stands to be mounted and has quit mugging for treats. He didn’t want to ride away from the barn though. My husband was determined that he would not have a horse with separation anxiety. So down the road past the barn, back and forth, back and forth they practice every time they go for a ride.

Every time the horse tries to turn off the road into the barn path, back down the road past the path my husband takes him. The horse gets tired of working and finally learns, if he doesn’t turn in, he won’t have to go past the path. He is a young horse and needs to build his confidence, but, we are working on it and he is learning and respecting us more and more every day.

I must say, some horses are neurotic, just like people, they are mentally damaged. Whether they can ever be safe is questionable. We all like to think that Buck and natural horsemanship can fix all horses. BUT if you watched the movie about him, you saw, some horses are NOT fixable. A lady in the movie had a mentally damaged stallion. Buck couldn’t do anything with him to make him safe and didn’t recommend anyone else try after the horse attacked his assistant.

We have the horses we have, we do the best we can with them. Sometimes getting professional help is necessary. Sometimes there is nothing that can be done and we have to decide how dangerous is the problem behavior or if there is a work around if the behavior can’t be cured.

Sounds to me like Lisa is dealing with horses that might hurt her or hurt themselves. Slowly separating with fences between might work, but, only IF the horses can respect her. Since they aren’t she has to find a way to build that respect. She is trying to do that with the ground work. So, maybe first working them attached together, halter to halter, like circus horses is the answer. Working working working, together, for several days then after a together training session of about 30 minutes, work one separate from the other. When they get tired enough, working together, they will be tired enough to work separately. OR maybe they are so attached emotionally, that they will never respect her completely. Its something to consider.