Odd Horse Behaviour - Vice?

Q -
The field where I keep my horse and pony is split into 2, a new horse has come for a short term visit so he went into the field with loads of grass so I put my TB in with him. The horse is an ex race horse, about 3 years old and has just come off the racing yard as he didn't suit racing.

All was fine for the first few days, I did notice that the new horse is the boss which mine doesn't like but now I have noticed all the grass along one side of the gate about 8 square feet is bare earth, the new TB stands licking the ground for a lot of the time when he isn't pacing the fence. My TB who had no odd habits is now copying, is this a vice, is something deficient in the diet, mine is just on grass no feed, the new one has a feed but not sure what is in it.

Anyone encountered this before?


A -
You said you have two different places so:

The first thing you should do and do it right now is to SEPARATE your horse from the new horse because your horse will pick up all the bad habits that all race horses carry Unfortunately.

Yes Ex - Racehorses have stress problems and the owners must rebuild their bad habits and remove their stress from their brains these are all the Human fault which all race horses get during that time.

A lot of wonderful people "rescue" ex-racehorses and want to rehabilitate them but some don't understand the challenges facing them. Sometimes they get lucky and reach their goal with a little difficulty, the challenges are hard and takes a lot of time and patient. Sometimes you take one step forward and two steps backwards.
I always suggest to take the ex-racehorse back to the first basics of Horse Training.

I can say all ex-racehorse have no "Trust" and for rehabilitating a ex-racehorse all is about how much "Trust" we can develop between us and the Horse for doing that all happens on the ground in the basics of Gentle and appropriate Communication.

What are the needs of a ex-racehorse:
Changing old patterns , Developing a Huge amount of "TRUST" and "RESPECT" and Deep Profound "BOND".

Wish you the best and don't forget to remove your Horse before is too late.

PH