Helping the horse with seperation anxiety

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Second time i'm writing this because I accidentally deleted the first

Seperation anxiety is a common problem in horses with many different levels of severity. Some may just get slightly stressed when their friend leave, others may completely panic if there's just a fence between them and the other horse. All horses showing signs of seperation anxiety could benefit from working on it, but especially those where it's bad need help. In this post i will go over the method I use with my own horses, as I believe this to be the best way to handle seperation anxiety. There are of course many other methods and I can't say how good those are, but the important thing isn't the method, it's helping the horse feel better so it won't feel the need to behave in undesired ways.

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Helping the horse being taken away

I find this to be the easiest, as there's the most information about how to do it. The method i'll be explaining is one i've seen many good trainers who train in different ways recommend.

The first thing to do is get your horse and start leading it away from the herd. The second it start showing signs of being uneasy or stressed, stop. Some trainers recommend just 1 step more to step slightly out of the comfort zone, but I believe we don't always see the signals early enough to do this, so I prefer just stopping the moment I see it and the horse will be at the edge of or slightly outside it's comfort zone - If it was in it, we wouldn't see any stress/calming signals.

Once stopped, there's also a difference in what trainers do. Some wait for the horse to show a slightly calm behavior, then walk back which negatively reinforce the calm behavior (Calm behavior = Unpleasant feelings of being away from herd removed). Others, which I prefer, feed (or ask for easy behavior and reward that) and then go back in order to 1. Calm the horse through chewing motions and 2. Through classical conditioning teach that being away = good things. I prefer the last method as it's more focused on how the horse feels. If you focus *only* on behavior in your choosen method, it may result in learned helplessness instead of better behavior through feeling better, so always consider what your horse is learning emotionally.

When you're back at the herd, wait for a bit, let the horse graze and calm down for a bit, don't have to be more than a minute or even half a minute, then do the same. Your horse may need to stop earlier, later or at the same point. Honor this and it's always best to stop too early than too late. Repeat this process a couple times, do it often, preferably every day, and stay patient. Your horse is dealing with anxiety, possibly panic attacks if it get too far out of it's comfort zone, just ask any human with anxiety how hard that is to handle.

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Helping the horse left behind

I find this issue is even more common than the other, yet almost impossible to find information on. I have talked with someone who have succesfully helped a horse with severe seperation anxiety in all situations get over it and that's mainly where this method is from.

It's a good idea to be 2 for this and a horse with no seperation anxiety itself would also be great. It's a lot like the other method, but there are some differences.

You start by taking the non-anxious horse and walking it away. The person walking this horse need to pay close attention to the one left behind, especially if they're alone. As soon as the horse left show signs of being stressed, you stop. This is where the second person comes in, as someone, preferably a person it know and trust, should be standing with the horse left to comfort it and feed it.

After a couple seconds, the horse being taken is turned and walked back. If there's no ekstra person, it's really important to stop early and walk back quickly. The horse is then walked away again and this is repeated a couple times, just like in the other section. Preferably daily or mixed with training going away from others. Eventually, the horse being walked away will be able to be partially, then completely invisble without a reaction from the horse left behind, first a second, but then building up to as long as it's needed.

The purpose of training it this way is to, in as low stress enviroment as possible, teach the horse the other horse will always come back and there's no need to panic. With a second person to feed, the horse left behind will have more emotional to help it not get as scared while it's comfort zone is pushed at, while also clasically conditioning the horse through feeding to learn that good things happen when the other horse is gone.

Keep in mind that in both this and the anxious horse being the one to leave, the classical conditioning *only* work if the horse isn't getting pushed too far. It's important to take baby steps here and not try to push it too much.

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That's what i had for this post, i hope it can help someone and wasn't too confusing. Feel free to ask questions if you have any :blush:

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