How will my horse react when I move him into a stable?

vampire1765: How will my horse react when I move him into a stable?
I just got a 2 yr old horse from a rescue. He is a calm horse that doesn’t worry about life. His whole life he has been a pasture horse. My mom and me want to board him at a stable. I am worried he may get stressed out and not enjoy being a stable horse. I am also worried he may start to be a aggressive horse because of the change. How do you think he may react to the big move?

Answers and Views:

Answer by ~Ashlee~
its up to you, but my best friend says its a bad idea. She knows A LOT about horses, and she said that it most likely wouldnt work. You cant stick a horse from the rescue center that is used to a pasture in a stable.

Answer by Caroline
Hi, Congratulations on your new horse!
When you move a horse to a new stable, how the horse reacts all depends on the specific horse. Some horses don’t care at all and act like nothing changed, some, like you said, may become aggressive and sour and act like different horses.

What I would suggest for you is to find a stable where the horses get to be in a stall AND get turnout time in a pasture. Most stables have the option of keeping a horse in a stall, but turning it out for a few hours each day. Even better would be a place where the stall is connected to a pasture, so the horse can go into the stall when it wants to, but gets to make the transition gradually and of its own choice. If this horse has never been in a stall before, switching it from pasture land to all day in a stall is not to go over smoothly. The best way to do this is gradually.

I am not a fan of leaving a horse in a stall all day anyways. They get bored and may develop the habit of cribbing (chewing on the wood in the stall), and they don’t the natural fibers from grass that they need (even if the get hay—which they MUST get, if they don’t get grass). They also don’t get any exercise, and unless you plan to ride 3-4 times a week, the horse will loose muscle and gain weight standing around in a stall all day.

Often times you will hear about a sour and unhappy horse that has been in a stall its whole life. Then the owners will turn the horse out in a pasture, and things change drastically. The horse has more energy and is happier and not so sour.

But ultimately this decision is up to you. There ARE many good horses that are kept in stalls. It really just depends on the horse.

Good luck with your new horse and I hoped this helped!