AllieBaba
Posted : 12/3/2009 9:01:36 AM
Okay...here's the deal when it comes to feeding. You are the boss. But they are hungry, so it isn't a time to mess with training and "let's all feel good about ourselves" lessons.
Take a training whip with you, put it under your arm, and when you are crowded, spin in a circle so that whoever is within the circle gets it. You can't hurt them doing that way..you're holding hay, the whip is pointed backwards, it's just sort of an incidental thing. Feed them fast, boss mare first then second horse, make sure they're more than a horse and a half length apart, and skeedadle. If one eats a lot faster, maybe have three feeding stations so when the fast eating one is done, the last one has a place to munch. My horse generally get fat in the winter.
Do NOT allow horses to pin ears at your or grab at the feed while you're holding it. If you are carrying hay and a horse comes towards you with pinned ears, spin around and nail them with the whip. If the only time they pin ears is at feeding time, it's not a battle you need to fight other than that.
It isn't bad ground manners, however, for a horse to freak out when the rest of the herd is removed. I have an Arab that I don't think I would leave behind. She happens to be my saddle mare, so I've never ridden out and left her alone, but I don't think I would. I've seen her charge fences and try to pull down 8 foot chain link fences with her teeth when her pasture mate (whom she despises) is out of sight.
That's just insecurity. If you have good fences, a round pen and/or a human buddy you can train her out of it. One person takes the gelding, one stays with the mare and works with her. When I say "works with her" I mean just stays with her, keeps her occupied. That could just be giving her goodies, grooming her, putting a halter on her, picking her feet...in other words, distracting her at critical mass time, and keeping an eye on her.
I've had horses that I've given food when I take their pasture mates out of the area, and so they get conditioned to actually enjoy it. I've had other horses that couldn't be kept alone for any period of time. They wouldn't necessarily go through the fences, but they wouldn't eat, they'd pace until they had windpuffs, become anorexic if they were separated over days.
So treat the obnoxious behavior at dinner time as a manners issue, treat the behavior regarding separation as an insecurity issue.