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YOUR EQUESTRIAN QUESTIONS ANSWERED
My horse bobs his head up and down if he is in the stable for a while. Most people laugh and find this funny, but my stable manager has recently said that she thinks his behaviour could be due to stress. Is this true? Firstly, we would recommend contacting your vet, who can rule out any physical causes for the behaviour. If the vet confirms that there are no obvious physical causes, then it is likely to be related to stress or anxiety. There can be numerous reasons why your horse is stressed and showing this response. For example, he could be experiencing stress due to long-term confinement, or he could be displaying a form of abnormal behaviour (a stereotypy) as an outlet for his anxiety. In order to address the issue, ensure that your horse receives sufficient turnout, forage and time with other horses. You can also look into enrichment sources for times when your horse is unavoidably confined to the stable. Some ideas for enrichment sources include hanging horsesafe vegetables like carrots from the ceiling of the stable, cutting holes in a cardboard box and filling it with different foods, or putting various types of hay in different stations around the stable. It is best to find the cause of the behaviour and make changes to address the cause rather than attempt to fix the behaviour itself, as this could result in further stress. If the behaviour continues, it would be worth contacting a qualified equine behaviourist to see if they can get to the bottom of your horse’s behaviour.
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