From: Tracey
Hi Jessica:
First, as I am sure you've heard a million times by now, I have learned so much from your posts and from Horse-Sense -- thank you for sharing your expertise with us.
My current concern: My gelding and the 2 geldings he lives with all have free access to their 6 acre pasture and stalls 24 hrs a day in my backyard. However, when it rains, my horse tends to be the dummy that won't go inside :(
He seems to handle a normal passing showers/drizzle fine, but there have been several all- day cold rain storms that I didn't lock him in and have come home after work to find him shivering *badly*, standing just outside his stall while the other 2 are inside (The owner of the other 2 horses does not lock them in as she knows they will go inside if they need to. ).
I don't know at this point what the best thing for me to do with my horse is? If I lock him in his stall for the majority of a rain storm and the other 2 wander out of his sight, he has a hissy fit in his stall. I am okay with keeping him in if I am home and can check on him/replenish hay or rotate the in/out for several hours each, but while I am at work I worry something might happen. He hasn't injured himself in his stall, but he whinnies frantically and circles constantly.
I've considered purchasing some sort of sheet, but don't trust that there is one that will really keep him dry and not just soak the sheet through making him colder and wetter since it would be on him all day til I got home from work. Is there really a sheet suitable for heavy rains that would protect him? The sheets that are advertised as rain sheets that I have seen all seem to be something that goes over tack? Am I just being a worry-wart that my horse will have ill effect from these cold rains since he hasn't been seeking shelter on his own? Is it better to just keep him in and hope he behaves? I want to just let him be a horse, but I certainly don't want him sick.
It's unusual for a horse to WANT to stay out until he is shivering; most horses are like the other two geldings that share your horse's pasture. When the weather gets uncomfortable enough, they go IN if they have that option.
First, cold rain is a variable commodity. Horses can and do elect to stay outside in anything short of sleet and strong wind. What makes a horse sick is not getting wet, but getting wet to the skin AND cold AND unable to become dry and warm again. To meet those conditions, your horse would have to be standing outside in icy sleet for quite a long time -- and at that point, he would probably come in of his own accord IF he isn't worried about coming in (more about this later).
It's better to leave clothing OFF horses when you aren't there to watch them; the exception might be a New Zealand sheet. But any piece of clothing is something that can hamper the horse's movement and rub him somewhere, and any piece of clothing can catch on just about anything. Geldings turned out together can be incredibly destructive of one another's sheets and rugs; you might well put a new sheet on your horse in the morning, then come home that night to find it in tatters.
I think that the problem you're dealing with is psychological, not physical or mental -- your horse feels the cold (shivering is nature's way of making a horse warmer) and he is certainly not "too stupid to come in out of the rain. " But he doesn't WANT to go into his stall, and you need to find out why. I suspect the answer is quite simple.
It sounds to me as though your horse is convinced that going into his stall when it's raining means being separated from his buddies. If he has fits when you lock him into his stall and the others wander away, he's telling you that he wants to be with his friends, and does NOT want to be locked up. And since it sounds as though the ONLY time you lock him into his stall and the others disappear from view is during rainstorms, he has good reason (horse-reason, not human-reason!) to want to stay outside, even during the worst weather. To you, the stall is a shelter, and locking him in means keeping him safe. To your horse, the stall is a trap, and if he goes in, the door will close and he'll be unable to escape and rejoin his "herd. "
In the long term, he will probably change his mind about the stall PROVIDED that you feed him IN his stall and leave the door OPEN at all times, no matter how horrible the weather seems to you.
In the short term, the best way to teach him that he CAN go into his stall when it's raining is one that may get you rather wet! During the next rainstorm, bring him into his stall, give him a treat and a pat, and let him run back out of the stall. Do this until you run out of treats (and patience). He is infinitely more likely to use his stall as a shelter if he learns that it isn't a trap. Right now, he knows that he can walk into the stall, but he also knows that he may not be able to walk OUT of it again, and that the trap closes on him when it rains. You have to force yourself to let him get wet and cold -- allow him to come and go freely, and he'll be much more sensible about going into his stall when the weather is bad enough that the other horses go into THEIR stalls.
Good luck!
Jessica
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