help me decide re livery...feel like an idiot

[feekerry]

so i have just left my current livery yard after 5 yrs as it was a 15/20 min journey each way from my house and work and it was getting a bit run down... so after being on a waiting list for 4 months finally got a space at a lovely yard 5 mins from my house and work. moved there last week.
my normally v easy going/settling horse is very upset. its a large yard and no one ever turns out or if they do its for half a day so my horse is literally the only horse on the yard out for more than few hours. he seems to have a panic attack when left on his own and goes nuts. v unlike him. he is v isolated.
if he is out then there doesnt seem to be a horse within sight as they all seem to stay in. he has spavins so need him out as much as poss.
the yard isn't all that friendly either. he just seems so unhappy so i am not sure whether to move back to old yard....
aghhh i hate this

Have a look around, see if there any others nearby/in a slightly different direction but less far than your original yard/nearer home or nearer work

Maybe more will turn out as the temperatures rise? I'd try to hang on for a week or two, - is it diy livery? Could you offer to turn out someones else's with your own?

Horses dont worry about what the yard looks like!
Your horse is unhappy and doesnt sound like he fits into the yard routine. I would be back in the old yard like a shot personally. I wouldnt be happy anywhere that proper turnout isnt the norm, and by the sounds of it your horse isnt either. He's a herd animal who is being seperated from the herd and left alone. He's bound to be upset.

He's normally easygoing and settles, but he's been on the same livery yard for 5 years. This one has a very different routine. Not surprsing he's unsettled really. I'd do what newfie suggests, see if there's anyone else whose horse could be turned out with yours, especially for this transition period. YM may be able to help. It's such a big upheaval moving, I think I'd give it a bit of time, just to give him the chance to settle if you can. You never know, others may want to turn out for longer but may not have had the chance. You might be able to change things to suit you.
It's horrible when your horse is unhappy isn't it. There must have been things you liked about the yard when you chose to go there, I'd try changing the bad things, enjoy the good, and if the bad things really can't be changed (field companion for example) then think about moving.

It's funny how some yards just really don't suit some horses. Mine has been totally chilled and happy at every single yard she has been on apart from ONE. It was years ago now. She was so stressed there and spent the time she wasn't in the field basically cantering round her stable. Needless to say, we moved on, and by the end of the day at her new yard she was back to her normal chilled out self in her new stable.

Most horses don't like to be left on their own with no others in sight so he's reacting pretty normally. If you want him to have as much turnout as poss. I reckon you'll have to move him. Even if the others start turning out more when the grass comes through you'll still have the same problem next winter.

thank you for your replies....the situation has changed somewhat as i rode him today (been there over a wk now) and he was awful. walked him round a bit in hand to get used to the school etc. got on him walked a few paces and he stood up vertically then bucked me off.
now whilst he can be a bit jolly sometimes to ride can't remember him being that bad. this was a real get me off type of thing.
i then lunged him and he was pretty much fine. got back on and walked him back to yard. he half tried it again but i was expecting that.
the hacking is on to a busy road (normally would be fine with that) but now i dont want to hack him out and no one is forth coming to hack with me.
the old yard is so far away for me.....and the fields are absolutely awful. but he was settled there.....