Those with horses a ?

Has she always done that?
It could be a lot of things- her age (not wanting to walk too far), her wanting to pee on something absorbant (they do not like having pee splash up on their legs)... those are the two things that come to mind.
Some horses are just messy like that, too. My gelding is very picky about where he pees and poops. He goes in the same exact spot day after day. If I put bedding down, he'll pee in the bedding. My mare will pee and poop where ever she happens to be standing.

 

How long has she been doing that? A friend of mine has a stallion that would do this when he hadn't been studded for a while. I always thought if a horse did this they were upset about something. Anything new happen recently, new or loss of herd mate, change of environment?

 

I have an older mare(27) that would walk a mile to poop in her house. Sometimes in the summer on really nice days we lock her out with a board across so she won't. (why make extra work for us). My othe older mare (23) doesn't care where she goes. Merry

 

Sounds like she's normal. They do like to pee on bedding so it doesn't splash up on their legs. Some will go right near where other's have gone to mark the spot with their own scent. I haven't heard of any tricks you can use. It seems that they choose a spot and stick with it. I've got a yearling that poos on the windowsill and the top of the fence. Maybe put her hay in a net.

 

My horses get in a habit of doing thier business in the barn too but I can break them of it. It usually starts when the weather is bad, monsoon rains for days on end or the super cold days. I can see them not wanting to go outside in the cold but after a few times, all 3 start doing it and wont stop. This last winter was bad, I have rubber mats instead of bedding but the poop froze down so I couldnt remove it and removing it is a simple way to break them of the habit. It was so bad this winter, I had to give up till spring and use the loader on the garden tractor to clean up. I am still fighting thier habit too but its better now, at least manageable. I think they are playing the scent game too as they always sniff around and add to where the other one did it last.

Break thier routine is what works best for me. I lock them out and clean well to remove scent. If they start again, I lock them out longer. I have even moved the water and hay bin around to break the routine. Of course, this winter I couldnt let them stand outside when it was so cold so I lost pretty bad. I did get one heck of a compost pile though and I have been using that to fill some ruts in the yard and holes in the pasture (the holes the horses dug themselves, morons).

Side benifet of chickens is they like to scratch in the horse poop and after they do, the horses dont like that spot as much. Since the chicken coop is right next to the barn, the chickens take care of most of the problem.

HTH

 

Horses are weirdos, and old mares are the weirdest of them all!