Equine Behaviourist - Bristol area??

oh yeah, sorry!

it was all very interesting, and tonnes of info to take in and it's still sinking in (still waiting for the report/plan to refer to) - jenni was with us for 4hrs! but i'll try and break it all down...

history:
cali gets extremley stressed when tutti is taken away from cali - when cali taken away from tutti, she is not so bad. her behaviour has been getting gradually worse - probably due to two things - my lack of knowledge of how to deal with the problem and an incident at a time when we had no companion pony - i took tutti off in the trailer "as normal" for a lesson, when we arrived home 2hrs later cali had broken out of the field and was charging around the yard, which is right on a main road.

cali 22yrs warmblood - mother of tutti 7yrs warmblood. cali brought up on the continent, most likely having a structured and confined routine - i.e. kept in small fields/herds, weaned at a young/"normal" age, etc - although all this is speculation, assuming the normal practice over there.

cali had five foals before the age of 10/11yrs - speculating these were weaned at young/"normal" age - i.e. cali not weaning them herself.

cali comes over to england, 1yr later we buy her - she is kept by herself for about 2-3yrs, with some "holidays" at other yards. noted that when at other yards cali was quite attached to some other horses - i.e. jumping over 5-bar gates into other fields!

then in 4th year of owning cali, out pops tutti - cali now has a proper companion/baby for the first time in a long time.

cali is allowed to wean tutti naturally - at about 20mths - speculating this is probably the first time cali has weaned a foal herself. jenni stated in the wild mares will wean foals "naturally" but usually "learn" after the first foal - so each foal after that would be weaned quicker/pushed away from mum sooner.

jenni noted that due to cali's history, she is not acting towards tutti the way she is because she is her daughter (although, it is probably making the reactions/behaviour stronger) - we assume she has been "set up" to behave like this for a long time, so if we had a different horse she would most likely still be just as attached.

jenni then gets me to go about my usual routine - our yard set up is an open stable with a gated yard - which the horses stay in while i groom/exercise the other. i take tutti out of the yard, tie up and start grooming, cali comes close by and stands next to us, when i go and get the tack, cali alternates her resting hind leg and won't settle on one leg, when i start to tack up cali is seen to "hold" her breath and her eyes lids are pinched up, as soon as i lead tutti away tacked up cali belts out neighing, pushing at gate, pooing, pacing. then when tutti is brought staight back, cali starts to lick and chew - this is a sign that her adrenaline levels are coming back down.

jenni says cali has an attachment to tutti, which is resulting in seperation anxiety. people talk about seperation anxiety in the wrong terms, i.e. most horses simply have an attachment to another horse, but cali is showing full blown anxiety.

jenni says that each time tutti is taken away from cali, cali learns to "prepare" her flight response much sooner, so she picks up on the signs much quicker - i.e. she knows that when tack is brought over tutti will be going away, rather than tack being put on tutti. so each time she is getting anxious quicker, which is why her behaviour appears to be getting worse.

jenni says cali is "sensitised" to tutti going away, and we must expose cali to the "sensitisation" only so much before she starts to show the subtle signs of becoming anxious - the standing close by, alternating resting legs, etc.

to do this, we must "teach" cali to associate a pleasent experience with tutti going away. best method is food. and also on food, a horse cannot eat and be stressed at the same time because of the different functions (flight and digestive) working on different nervous systems - i.e. have you ever tried to calm a horse down by offering it a bucket of food, but it kicks it all over the place?!

so, with the yard set up, to begin with cali is tied up inside the open stable, tutti tied up inside the yard, they are both fed, and cali then given a treat ball to carry on eating from. we then move tutti to be tied up outside the yard, cali still inside the open stable, both eating, then cali plays with treat ball, we repeat this process - so tutti eats her food further away from cali, then she goes partly out of sight, then fully out of sight, for 10 secs, 30 secs, 1 min, 2 mins, 5 mins, etc. and then we repeat the process but by doing things with tutti in the yard, so tacking her up, walking her away tacked up, walking her around the yard tacked up, doing some ground work in the yard tacked up.

then we repeat the process again, but work on distance - so tutti eats 10m away, then 20, then 40.

i haven't really stuck rigidly to the plan, it's only been two weeks since jenni came and she still needs to send on the proper report/plan (as she has been away so couldn't send it straight away) and i have jumped forward a bit in the process! i.e. cali has been fine playing with the treat ball in the yard, while i lead tutti up and down the yard, cali would then walk over to the gate, give a little whicker but then almost showed a look on her face as if to say "oh no, but the food is back over there!..." and would go back to her treat ball.

so on monday, i gave cali her treat ball in the yard, tacked up tutti and took her down to the school which is within sight of the yard, but about 50 meters away (since jenni came out, i have been putting cali back in the field while i school tutti, which is very close to the school) - cali didn't even notice us walking down to the school, carried on eating her ball, but while i was riding in the school i did notice cali standing at the gate and looking down to us, but she didn't call out, no pacing, no stressing, and she kept going back to her treat ball.

so, although i haven't stuck to the plan, it looks like what i have been doing is working - so i'm going to work on what we did on monday all this week, then perhaps next week we'll be ready to put tutti in the trailer away from cali, and see what cali's reactions are to that.

sorry, i was going to keep this simple but i have waffled! hope it all makes sense.