Okay, let's hear some of your equine questions

[shellonabeach]

It's not really behaviour related but I would, as an equine behaviouralist, appreciate your opinion.

I have had my boy, Ross, for 8 years now. Unfortunately he boards at stables. When I went to university 3 years ago he went to live with my dad (who has a field and stables for him and he had horsey company). My dad didn't get on with Ross so I ended taking him away after he had been there 6 month to a temporary home for 2 months, he then went to a stables near my mum. He stayed there for a year before the owner out of the blue branded him destructive and dangerous and gave me 24 hours to move him (I have never seen any evidence before or since of what she accussed him of) he stayed in a field with a friends neighbours small pony that night and moved to the current yard he is at the next day.

The dilemma I have is whether or not to move him again next month. I feel so bad having moved him around so much, every time it was out of my hands, for the 4 years before he went to my dad's he lived happily at the same yard (until they closed and he went to my dads). In the past 2 years he has in effect lived at 5 places which must have been very unsettling for him. I am staying in the city where I have been at university for the next year or two and Ross is at home at the yard where my mum lives (200 miles away). I like the yard he is at, it has brought the best out in both of us but as space is limited they cannot offer turnout all summer which he desperately needs, in the summer he goes out for only 4 hours daily which is really not enough. I will also hardly get to see him, whilst at uni I saw him for a month at christmas, a month at easter and 3 months over the summer.

Is it fair to move him again so soon when he has only been at his current yard for a year? I have found several nice yards here for him, all offering 24 hour turnout in the summer. I will also be able to see him most days, if not everyday (he will stay on full livery so his care will be seen to). Is it selfish of me to move him? Especially when we may be moving again in a year or two.

Many thanks