If you have a horse that gets anxious or even panicked when taken from his best pasture buddy, barn or “happy place” with his fav friends, you know what I’m talking about…it’s hard to diminish for good, dangerous for you and the horse on occasion, and just makes riding way less fun. All of ours are probably a little bit herdbound because, they are all in a single pasture together 24/7 and being herd animals and prey animals – have that instinct built-in for their survival. But one in particular is the shining star of separation anxiety here at the 4J – Ranger (our little sorrel, in the middle of the pic above).
Curiously, he’s also high on the status totem, probably general alpha of the pasture – which makes me question that its purely an insecurity thing…he’s generally our steadiest horse who tolerates new situations best, and also pretty good if he’s the one being taken out, but just wants his BFF (my horse, Parker, dun with the thin strip blaze in the pic above) in eye or earshot at all times.
We added Six (the palomino on the right in the pic above) about a year after Parker, and after quite a prolonged and miserable “probationary period” they finally allowed Six to acquire third-man status in the herd. Now they are settled and happy and if any one goes out of ear or eyeshot, they do notice. I would say of our three, Six is least-worried about being taken out or hanging out, solo, but he still calls out if we are all out of range for too long (just a few moments, in actuality). Parker doesn’t mind being taken out of eye or earshot so much, or riding out a little bit by himself without his BFF (I’m sure he appreciates the break, haha), but he would happily turn around and head right back to Range as soon as the opportunity was there. Ranger’s getting better at being taken out by himself, but it takes regular work to keep him that way.
Here’s what we do, at our place, to manage this pretty common horse-situation:
1. Individual riding time
Ronnie likes to ride a few times during the week, and all of this is made better when he does. I’m usually hanging in the barn with him, cleaning up or playing with the kitties, etc. If we don’t have time or energy at the end of the workday to saddle somebody up, we will sometimes just work individually with each horse – which means maybe a hoof cleaning and grooming, or some very basic groundwork and/or a few laps around the round pen, or just a walk if someone’s got some kind of injury or non-ideal situation going on (which is probably 1/4 of the time – wish I was kidding!).
If Ronnie has time for a ride, he’ll sometimes start by sending his horse for a few laps around the round pen – for the purpose of making sure they are moving on their feet well, no visible signs of lameness, making sure everyone’s tuned in and paying attention, and in youngish Six’s case, yes – burning off a little extra energy as well…He’d probably be happy to run circles for an hour – his mama was a barrel racer and he has racing in his bloodline, so I guess its natural that he has a lot of “go.” Our older horses look for the slightest body language flicker of “ok, you can stop now” and they are all over that stopping business – they are the BEST stoppers, haha!
While Ronnie saddles up and rides, I’m busy in the barn, turn on the radio, dole out some alfalfa for the two remaining horses, sometimes walk over to the arena and put an eyeball on Ron, play with the cats, sweep up and do all the regular stuff – I guess the sounds of all that and the routine might be reassuring to any horse who’s worried about the other being gone – everything sounding like normal. And repeating it often is probably a way we can try to lock that experience in. Ranger is definitely a little more worried about being left behind than Parker is – even with Six in the stall right next to him – and that is a continual process we work on regularly.
I made a TikTok of this exact routine the other night that shows what this looks like in motion.
2. Group riding time
When we intend on riding 2 (or all 3) horses, we saddle and take all three down to the arena together. If we have a third rider (which, most of the time we don’t), we’ll ride all three together (and apart) – both in and out of the arena. Occasionally, friends or family might join us for a ride so its usually all horses getting tacked up at the trailers, then riding in the arena at first to make sure everyone’s feelin good, then out on the trails around the arena and house, together. I’m always so proud of our horses – they do amazing with riders of all kinds of experience (or none at all) and interacting with our fam, especially dear Ranger who on several occasions has hosted my brother with special needs, my 81 year old mom, and my uncle and his toddler granddaughter safely, on his back.
If it’s just Ronnie and me riding, he’ll sometimes ride Six (or Ranger) the night before, or he’ll ride one horse first, or just lunge whomever won’t be ridden that day in the round pen for a few laps, so they can be given the opp to just relax while tied at the trailer and hang out for a bit. When waiting at the trailer by himself and I’m riding Parker, is Ranger’s most challenging time. I made a lil’ TikTok compilation of buddy sour sounds from our guys and you can hear both Six and Range calling out for their buds – again, the more regularly we practice this, the easier it seems to get.
Our rides are typically short – 30-45 min. And the trailer is parked right next to the arena, so if anyone’s chilling by themselves at the trailer, its not for hours at a time and we try to stay in ear/eyeshot for the guy who’s by himself.
Six ‘pulled back’ once at the trailer, which is a term meaning panic sets in when they realize they can’t move around freely, so they ‘pull back.’ With that much force, either their halter/leadrope snaps, setting them free – or it doesn’t. Either is not ideal and can be dangerous for the horse’s body, and/or also then ya have a horse running around freely. He was younger and new to us at the time and it was while we were riding our other two with some friends (nearby but out of eyeshot), and Six snapped his halter from the leadrope and just trotted down the road over to us like “hey you forgot about me!” – hah! He REALLY wants to be where the action/family/friends are…the next time we had a family day and figured he’d be happier eating alfalfa in his stall while we put a few visiting family members on our older horses down at the arena for a couple laps in there, Six pitched a gigantic fit in his run-in and was super-mad we left him behind, LOL.
So, now we’re sure to bring him down to the arena with everybody else and if he’s not being ridden that time, he can just hang at the trailer and be a supportive friend (which, it doesn’t seem like he minds) while we ride the older guys. We use blocker tie rings, in lieu of hard-tying the horses to the trailer, to help avoid injury in case that were to happen again, but we respect the horse’s need for herd safety and try to only be out of ear/eyeshot briefly.
So, I guess the three most key points for us, for managing our herdbound/buddy sour/separation anxiety issues have been:
– Be aware of herd instinct
– Practice separation safely and in short bursts
– Be consistent, practice often
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