Box rest and needing a calmer

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CaroS

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My horse has been on box rest for 4 months and we are now riding him at a walk for 30 mins to bring him back. The trouble is that he is now really spooky having never been so before. Can anyone suggest a successful calmer. He is a 6 yr old warmblood:
 
We use sedalin when we bring ours back into work after box rest. It just takes the edge off them. and you can drp thedose down until they are used to being out and about again.

Hope that helps
 
Do you ride them on sedalin? Our vet seems very reluctant to use it in case he trips etc? And do you use it for turnout? Thanks a lot - Caro
 
I think Sedalin is fine to use for turn out and would just use a very low dose for riding just to relax him a bit - virtually a smear on his tongue. I have just started my chap on Magic by Naff as he is a bit uptight and gets easily stressed - no idea if it will make any difference but thought i would give it a try. Also a friend uses Magnitude by equine America for her horse on box rest it is a very reasonable price and lasts for ages. I only bought the Magic because they had sold out of Magnitude and would have bought that otherwise. Magnesium is the key ingredient which is supposed to act as the calmer.

If anyone else has had any good or bad experiences with these or other calmers for a tense/nervous horse, I would be interested to hear them.
 
I've switched from Naf magic to Horse First Relax Me. I have definitely noticed an improvement, in that she is less spooky and not quite so excitable.
 
I have found Horse First - Relax Me to be one of the best calmers around. However, I am just bringing my horse back into ridden work after 6 months box rest (still on box rest, ridden walk exercise only) and was advised by the vet to use Sedalin when riding. I started him on 2 - 3ml and over 4 weeks have now been able to drop it down to 1/2 - 1 ml. He has never been so 'out of it' that I felt he might trip but it has certainly taken the edge off him and I have been able to safely progress with his ridden rehab. When it eventually comes to being able to turn him out again I will up to the dose back to 3ml, although the vet did warn me that after a long period of use its effectivness does tend to wear off.

Edited to say - Vet has also suggested the use of Xylkene, although this is mega expensive!!
 
Top spec calmer turned my new gelding who had been on box rest, from a total nervous wreck (couldn't handle him without him spooking, rearing and jumping out of his skin) to a completely calm, normal boy. Only took a couple of hours to kick in too. It didn't work with another horse on the yard though (but she was just being naughty and not genuinely nervous), so it depends on the horse.
 
We used Sedaline for turnout, although the vet said under no circumstances should we consider riding with it.

Thankfully my boy was good to bring back to ridden work so we ended up not using a calmer. However, friends in similar positions have had success with Equine America and Equesto Equilizer, and as a one off (possibly for the first ride back) my vet recommended something like Oxyshot. Good luck!
 
We use sedalin for turn out and riding on advice from our vet. generally we use about 0.5ml to ride and about 1ml to turnout. Although it does depend on the horse. some it has less of an affect on than others, so you have to tryand see what dose works best. We never dope them enough to start tripping. And we dont really do more than a walk and a trot on it with most of them. It just helps to stop the excitement of being out and about again.

Hope that helps
 
I feel your pain. Went through this last summer, only just got to turnout in time for early winter.

I got my vet to inject a long acting sedative. Cant remember the name, but it's first used on children for ADHD (or similar) & I did notice a real difference after the 2nd shot (one every 3weeks). It cost less than £20 too.
It took the edge off my nutty horse & enabled me to hand walk him twice daily for 20mins.

Talk to your vet. I didn't use sedaline as it worked too much then when he came out, he came out fighting & was worse than had I not used it at all.
 
I put my mare on Horse First Relax Me after she'd gone a bit loopy on box rest and it really seemed to work. She is generally a bit spooky so I continued it and have now swopped to magnesium oxide as its a lot cheaper and seems to work just as well in fact I am a bit weirded out by how calm she is and keep expecting her to go back to her normal crazy ways as I am usually a bit cynical about these things!
 
Oh thanks everyone - just nice to know that there are others out there that have had the same problem, and that it's not just me being hopeless! I'm so upset that my previously lovely horse is now mad after all the box rest. It is the most soul destroying thing for both horse and owner. I shall try some of your suggestions...and pray that the next tiime the vet comes she is more encouraging about getting back into full work - I'm sure all will be OK then.
 
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