Separation Anxiety - ("Buddy Sour")

Separation Anxiety, also known as being “Buddy Sour”, “Barn Sour”, or “Herd Bound”, is not a vice. It’s not something to punish or ignore, or worse, keep them alone to prevent the unwanted behaviour. Doing that makes their worse nightmare become a reality and then they live it day in, day out, in lonely misery.

I had a gorgeous little pony called Grace once upon a time. She used to live at a riding school, but could only be ridden by one person and just barely. She was a traumatised and deeply troubled pony with endless hoof problems and abscessing from previous laminitis and she also had severe Separation Anxiety. She would scream and run the fence line until her sweat turned to foam. They would often lock her in a stable when she “carried on” when her friends were taken away to be ridden.

 
I asked if she could come and stay with me to keep my new horse company and they let me take her. She was such a gift and I miss her a lot, especially as she was a little clicker training star.

I spent a lot of time, effort and love on helping her overcome her Separation Anxiety. It took the time it took to overcome the trauma of her being locked up away from her friends. I put riding off property on hold for a while and would take her to graze loose near the arena when I rode her companion Mercedes. It was fun having her hanging out with us. There’s no shame in changing the way we do things to make our horses at ease, until we’ve trained them to be ok.

Funny story. Once Grace was ok with us leaving, I would take Mercedes away in the float to do some riding off property or have a lesson. I usually popped in to say hello to Grace on the way through and must have left her gate open. I always leave her some nice hay and food puzzles before we go out as part of the routine.

When I came home many hours later, she was standing calmly waiting for us at the tie up area. It looked like she’d had a nice graze in the area, was not sweaty or stressed, but patiently waiting for our return. She was our welcome home committee. I got a fright and then had a good laugh, it was such a funny and beautiful thing to see.

All I can say is to ignore advice that seems to work against the horse’s nature or tries to change the horse’s feeling of wanting to be with other horses. Or worse yet, advice that tells you to lock them up and let them freak out, struggle, fight and paw a hole in the ground until they give up in sadness and resignation.

There is an answer, a training solution, but it doesn’t involve the horse continually re-experiencing that dreadful fear and panic. It’s done in a humane way and in a way the horse can actually enjoy the process!

Be brave, smile and walk away from any advice that involves “work” or isolation. Think about how your horse would feel, how traumatising, for being tied up or locked up and punished for being a herd animal, a horse.