Q: My little mare is about to be evicted from a barn for what I would call "door-banging on steroids." Whenever in her stall, she constantly stands at the door and paws, knocking her hoof or knee against the door. This nearly rattles the door off its hinges and makes a huge noise that is very annoying to everyone. It's even more annoying because she knows she is not supposed to do it. If you approach the door and yell at her, or go open the door a bit, she stops, but only for a little while. Now, no matter how much you yell at her, it just seems to get worse. A few seconds later she is right at it again. Lately the banging is not only getting more constant, she is putting more force into it. The door latch is now bent and a board has split out on the door. The only time we can get her to stop the banging for more than a few seconds is when she is eating grain in the other corner, so sometimes when it is driving everyone crazy, or people are worried that she will break down the door, they give her some grain to distract her. As soon as she finishes the grain she is back at the door.

So, I need to do something. The only other option to stay at this barn is to leave her outside in the paddock where there is a run-in shed. But she loves coming inside. She is the first at the gate and won't let anyone in until she goes first.

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A: Each year at our clinic we get one or more door-bangers, usually large ponies and draft breeds. In recent years we have been able to reliably eliminate the problem quite easily within a few days. So I have learned that if everyone in the barn un-derstands how this behavior starts, why it is getting worse, and what it takes to stop it, it's an easy fix. Usually, it stops alto-gether in less than a week, or it greatly reduces in frequency and intensity. I can tell you exactly what we do. But first let me explain why horses get into this behavior and why it often just keeps getting worse over time, along with the usual steps people take to try to stop it