Monty Roberts Equus Online University | Monty's Horse Training Post: Fence walking

← back

Horse Behavior and Training

Fence walking

By:

Gemma

Date:

2019-Apr-20 at 11:16PM

Hi,

I have a horse who constantly fence walks. I have had for only 5 months, but before I got her she had suffered a bout of laminitis. This means she does need to be restricted as otherwise she will founder very easily. I do make sure she has constant access to fiber but this does not stop her pacing the fence. She is in an area that is as large as possible for her and my gelding is right next to her(they can touch over the fence) but they both require to be fed very differently hence why they are not both in together. She gets herself very anxious and is almost in a trance when she is pacing up and down and sometimes gets drenched in sweat. Or when it is raining she makes a big muddy mess and is slipping everywhere. Even when she is fed she sometimes will only eat a few mouthfulls and then go back to pacing and i'm not sure why. She is fine if I go in the paddock with her but as soon as I need to leave she starts to pace again. I have tried a treat ball that she has to push around and work to get a little bit of stuff out to eat to keep her occupied, but she will only play with it if I am there. I try to increase her feeding time and do plenty with her to keep her occupied but she still seems to pace the fence. She even has been lame recently and she still continues to try to pace the fence. I am so confused as to what is upsetting her and causing her to pace the fence as my gelding is not normally upset at all when she is pacing up and down. I'm just wondering if anyone has had this problem and has any idea why she is doing this and how I can help her to relax and settle down and stop the fence walking. I am extremely worried that it is bad for her joints and etc.
Thank you to anyone who may offer some advice!

JoHewittVINTA 2019-Apr-21 at 02:12AM

Hi Gemma & welcome to the Uni. Laminitis is bad enough but repeated attacks lead to cushings disease - Max has cushings & Kirk has had laminitis twice so I know a little bit. However, cushings which, once diagnosed, gives the owner a legal obligation to medicate ( in Britain ) is not cheap & is now known to affect a huge percentage of elderly equines irrespective of whether or not they have a history of laminitis. I suggest that, rather than tell you all the strategies I've tried that failed we cut to the chase & I tell you what works for us. Now given that 18 months ago Max had such a serious episode that my vet had to give him veterinary morphine ( he may have seen pink elephants ) & feared as soon as we got spring grass we would loose him ( that would be spring 2018 ) & he's not only still here but in the best shape he's been in for years, not to mention Kirk has been in great health too, for us I've really cracked it! Firstly, stop separating - treat everyone the same. Let your horses be together but on very limited grass. I use an electric fence & move it a little bit daily. This way they have new ground/grass regularly & you avoid poaching the ground. If your gelding looses weight then supplement his intake. Once the grass starts really growing, use two lines of fence, preceding & following so they use the whole pasture, just not all at once. If practical, move the fence as the sun sets - sugars in grass sink into the roots when the sun goes down. Obviously age, breed & weather are all factors so there are no hard, fast rules - you need to find what works for your guys. Cheers, Jo.

JoHewittVINTA 2019-Apr-21 at 01:18PM

Hi Gemma, again. I forgot to mention that Humphrey & Miss Moley, neither of whom have health issues but are similar insofar as they are very hardy & easily get overweight - Kirk is Miss Moley's big brother & Humphrey sired them, all live together with Max in a herd of 4. So, limiting grass is good for them all. It makes my life easier too - poo picking is kept to areas easily sorted daily & the need to worm is greatly reduced. A worm count twice a year routinely shows Miss Moley & Humphrey ( the ones without laminitis tendencies ) don't need wormer. Neither needed any wormer in 2017 or 18 with low to uncountable levels. All horses should have worm counts taken twice yearly - it's half the cost of worming & avoids unnecessary medication. Cheers, Jo.

Gemma 2019-Apr-21 at 11:21PM

Hi Jo,
Thank you very much for your response! Over the past few months I have been trying many different things with my horses but so far nothing has really been a solution, but I will keep experimenting! My horses used to be together but my mare (who paces the fence) literally eats everything and my gelding (Bart) gets very little so it becomes difficult. Bart is also 30 and retired so requires a lot of supplements to keep him in good condition where cameo literally gains weight just looking at grass! I live in New Zealand and so we are coming into winter right now so it’s important to keep him in good condition. I may trial having them together during the day and separate at night so Bart can have his supplements without cameo eating everything that she doesn’t need! But hopefully during winter it will be a bit easier to manage as the grass looses its nutritional value and stops growing and so they can be together full time and just be separtated for hard feeds.
Thank you again for replying!! I will keep trying and see what works and what doesn’t!
Gemma