ADVICE FOR A NERVOUS HORSE PLEASE?!

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millij73

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Hi All

We have had our lovely 11 year old Section D boy for a month now and I need a bit of advice please guys! He is very forward going and lovely temperament, has settled in well and seems happy but he is very nervous naturally (previous owner says he was the same, terrifed of whips so think in the past he may have had a hard time, not sure). He is literally scared of his own shadow and cant relax in canter (goes flat out, although easily stoppable). We have had his teeth and back checked and I have removed most of the sugar from his diet. He is now on Allen & Page Cool and Conditon with a bit of molasses free chaff. He is also now on NAF Magic Calmer supplement. He is exercised every day. Can anyone suggest anything further we can do? I think he is naturally nervous and that's ok, but I would like to do all I can to make him relax a bit more.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
 
you could give Valerian a try as long as you dont plan to compete under rules for a while, it settled my youngster enough to earn his trust :)
 
I'm sure I've seen previous replies about A&P Cool and Condition to say that it's anything but a 'cool' feed, its quite a high protein feed? If no-one 'in the know' drops in to comment, try a search for other comments, and maybe worth looking at something with less fizz?
 
Hi
Lots and lots of groundwork / grooming / spending time with him to start building up a rapport. A month is no time at all. How much turnout does he get? My horse got loads more chilled once he was on a regime which gave him more turnout (he is now out in the day and in at night) Make sure you are calm and confident around him, he will look to you for confidence in situations where he in unsure so make sure you give him the right signals that it's safe for him to go on, and lots of praise when he makes the right decision.

Small steps, don't expect too much of him at once and I'm sure that given time, you will have a lovely, trusting and confident horse. Good luck!
 
I know many people who have had difficulties with that feed. I would really recommend Mollichaff calmer, it is fab. Also try Mag ox you can getit from eBay very cheap. Other than that it's time and getting used to each other, I think in 6 months it will be a very different story for you and him.
 
To be honest I wouldnt be playing with calmers, he sounds typical welsh Sec D in a new place, if he is anything like the ones I own and know his whole world has turned upside down with the move, new mum, spring grass hes bound to be nervous.

Lots of ground work, long reining, bonding will sort him out.

To be honest I wouldnt even hard feed him at this time of year, soak hay if he needs it.


Welsh Sec Ds are normally quite spritely. ;)
 
Toffee44 said:
To be honest I wouldnt be playing with calmers, he sounds typical welsh Sec D in a new place, if he is anything like the ones I own and know his whole world has turned upside down with the move, new mum, spring grass hes bound to be nervous.

Lots of ground work, long reining, bonding will sort him out.

To be honest I wouldnt even hard feed him at this time of year, soak hay if he needs it.


Welsh Sec Ds are normally quite spritely. ;)
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This ^^
 
I agree with Toffee my welsh D mare is very spritely and spooky. I have used a calmer which the vet advise me to use actually - Magnitude by equine america - apparently natives are known to ave a lack of magnesium in their diets. I did not expect it to work at all and it did, it just took the edge off her.

Might be worth a try. You will find once you know eachother better he will improve & you will have so much fun with him!
 
Molichaff calmer is just a chaff with herbs and added magnesium no molasses or sugar, it's ideal to add any supplements and takes the edge off, as previously commented many horses have a magnesium deficiency which makes them edgy, you can tell if they are getting too much mag as they will get runny poo, all mine are given Mag ox, have never had runny poo which says to me that they are deficient and do need it.
 
I would first look at what you are feeding - keep it simple and as natives are usually good doers cut it right down example a handful of horse and pony nuts but feed lots of hay and then ride everyday if possible, lots of schooling as in figures of eight, circles, changing direction and transitions and try and do it in different places, menage, corner of the field etc then give a 10 min walk to relax.Hack out, not just a half an hour walk but some good work don't carry a stick just quiet riding and lots of praise. Still early days for you but you need to put in the work and the confidence will come.
 
Hello

I had/have one of these!! Welsh cob also, rough history, scared of EVERYTHING (his shadow, butterflies, leaves, his tail, brushes, headcollars, velcro) - so things like putting on rugs, ever jumping in locations other than home, doing shows, hacking alone etc seemed like they would forever be a complete impossibility - not just spooky, i mean just totally scared of everything. I couldn't get on him when it was sunny near walls because my shadow would move on the wall, I couldn't ride him on the road if it was sunny because the cars that came past would have moving shadows, I couldn't feed him in the yard if it was windy becuase his feed bucket would move - and so on and so on.

I'm now four years down the line and wanted to post to give you hope, becuase (though he is by no means normal), he is now hacking out in company OR on his own in all four paces, showjumping, endurance riding, has the ability to wear rugs (which I can even change IN THE FIELD - though I wouldn't try if it was windy), wear brushing boots and not leap in the air when i undo them, I can get on him on my own without having someone hold him so he doesn't freak out, and so on and so on. In fact, he's turned into my almost-dream horse and has proved himself to be amazing at xc. I am so glad I persevered, but it was HARD.

Calmers and things may help, absolutely, but they won't change things full stop of course. Here are the things I did with him which helped:
1) clicker training (welsh cobs are SO food based that this was amazing. Now if he freezes in fear, e.g. when I was teaching him to wear a rug, I ask him to do his 'favourite' trick (giving kisses) and it totally unfreezes him. But it helped get over his saddle phobia, rug phobia, and his bridle phobia too, so I always go back to this when I'm having a problem.

2) Mine was so bad I re-backed him from scratch over six months - I took everything RIDICULOUSLY slowly. So one day I would just walk up to him holding his saddle, give him a carrot and walk away. After a few days of this I'd hide the carrot in the stirrup leather and he'd have to find it. After a few days of that i'd hold it near his back. A few days later, rest it on him, give him a carrot, take it off and put it away - and os on. He is no longer scared of his saddle and this is what sorted the getting on issue, too (e.g. one day putting my foot in stirrup, then carrot big pat and walk away, next time putting a little weight in stirrup, big pat carrot and walk away, and os on and so on....)

3) OK don't laugh - animal communicator. Maybe it was all lies, who knows, but there was a lot of specific informaiton and he trusted me a lot more after it, and we understood eachother better. So even if it is purely some sort of placebo effect, it WORKED!

4) Once he was more connected and happier wiht me and the yard as a whole, I took him out to lots of things - dressage, showjumping, sponsored rides, endurance - really really surprised me by how much this helped him. But you can't expect too much too soon....

I posted on here a good few times absoluely ready to give up on him, and it hasn;'t been easy, and i'm sure i'll hvae more set-backs in future, but things are SO much better now, so it is doable even with a horse that's genuinely scared of everything rather than just your average spooky joe. Don't know if any of the above will help you, but i hope so!!

Good luck.
 
My old Sec D was similar to this too - convinced everything was going to 'hurt' him until proved otherwise. I too would ditch the hard food (they are designed to live on air!) and wouldn't think about a calmer to be honest.

With mine, it was just time and building a relationship - as he learnt that things weren't going to 'hurt' and his trust built in me he was fine. It did mean though, that I had to be very careful never to put him in a situation where that trust could be abused (however inadvertantly) as I think he would have lost confidence/got 'scared' again quick smart.

I had to be very calm, patient and firm with mine (even when 'scared', they are not above taking the mickey) and mine could be a bit of a diva too and wind himself up over nothing. The best thing to do was just to sit/stand still until he got over it. His default position is always 'its a monster' though until its proved otherwise - once proven tho, he generally wouldn't worry about it again.

He was generally very good and 'sensible' about the bigger stuff, i.e. lorries, tractors, actually made quite a good 'nanny' horse and we nearly had a helicoptor land on us once! However, hysterics over shadows/the hosepipe/road markings/waving buttercups or odd coloured blades of grass were fairly commonplace...
 
Oh yes, good advice from Taffyhorse there, they do also take the mickey and it took me a long time to understand when mine was taking the mickey compared with when he was actually worried (similarly, mine is fine wiht tractors, lorries, traffic, loading, clipping etc but hosepipes and things are a big no no) - but yes kind but firm and be careful of inadvertendlty putting them in situations in which they think you've abused their trust (i.e. remember that when things go wrong they will always blame you and think you hurt them :-D!! In fact - sorry if this sounds crazy - but when I had the animal communicater (people will laugh at me for this :-s) she said that my horse is really scared about people falling off and that if it happens he thinks he's going to get beaten so I have to make sure the first thing I say to him is 'don't worry it isn't your fault'.... even if it is!!! hahaha.) All good fun......
 
Crazydancer said:
I'm sure I've seen previous replies about A&P Cool and Condition to say that it's anything but a 'cool' feed, its quite a high protein feed? If no-one 'in the know' drops in to comment, try a search for other comments, and maybe worth looking at something with less fizz?
Click to expand...

Crikey, didnt know that, i put my horse on it a few months ago, and she has been getting steadily more stupider, anyone know about ride and relax by A&P?

I got that wrong, my mare is actually on Calm & Collected....is that known for sending them stupid?
 
I would get the cool and condition binned and chamge to fast fibre or even just pony nuts - that type wont need a lot. and you have my vote for mollichaff calmer its fab!!
 
millij73 said:
Hi All
He is now on Allen & Page Cool and Conditon with a bit of molasses free chaff.
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Cool & Collected (blue colourway) or Calm & Condition (rust colourway)?

Not sure if two different feeds are being confused here...

I like A&P but I use Fast Fibre for the TB and the L Mix for the good doers... Both less sugar/starch/protein and more fibre than either of the above... The Calm & Condition was what I used when the TB first arrived and needed to be built up in weight...

jaysh said:
I got that wrong, my mare is actually on Calm & Collected....is that known for sending them stupid?
Click to expand...

See above... :)
 
Taffymare and Morgan123, I think our section Ds must be clones:eek:
I've had mine for three years and he was just like the others (apart from the easily stoppable!) Again it was time, patience, consistency and not letting him take the p**s. Also if he has been mistreated, they do have long memories, mine still has a dislike of fast movements around his head and neck area which can still result in interesting moments if I forget.
 
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