Boxrest Madness!!!

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tasel

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Anyone have any tips to calm down a horse that is on boxrest??? Mine is on boxrest due to her hindleg with a few minutes of hand-walking a day. The hand-walking is becoming ridiculous. She wants to go faster, but gets annoyed if she can't... that even resulted in a full-blown vertical rear - which is NOT very good for her hindleg at all...

Her feed is very basic and is based on getting her calmer already!!! What else can we do?
 
As you know, I sympathise.

Josie is great in the box, but wasn't to start with. I give her ad lib hay, 3 buckets of hi-fi lite and ready grass throughout the day,a treat ball, and she always has company.

If you search my posts people gave me some great ideas on how to make it less boring for her the other day.

As for the walking, who knows? I guess I should be greatful Josie doesn't rear, she does however tank off with the strength of an elephant and spook at carrierbags!!!

Ours is also a hind leg (suspensory) so I know it is extra worrying.

Bloomin horses!!!

ETA she's also on topspec calmer, which she's had for 3 years now, and it really helps. Another girl down our yard swears by boxrest calmer.
 
You could ask the vets about using some sedalin just for your hand walks..... for yours and her safety! Good luck!
 
Have you tried taking a very large bag of carrots with you whilst you walk out in hand ? It was the only thing i could think of to keep our very mad and big 4yr old TB occupied enough after 9 mths on box rest (i shudder just at the thought of it!) Oh - and wear a hat!!
 
I know it's not easy cos you constantly worry incase they injure themselves again. Would she be calmer if you were carrying carrots and feeding her them as you walked? I'm not a fan of chifney's but might stop the rearing and there's lots of calmers on the market which might be worth a try?
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Have you tried taking a very large bag of carrots with you whilst you walk out in hand ? It was the only thing i could think of to keep our very mad and big 4yr old TB occupied enough after 9 mths on box rest (i shudder just at the thought of it!) Oh - and wear a hat!!

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What a FANTASTIC idea!!! Thanks so much, and considering she's the most food orientated animal I've ever known, it just might work!
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Thanks for the replies!

Wasjosiejo - Mine has a stifle ligament problem (so she really shouldn't even be able to rear like that!). Yes, bloomin' horses... they don't seem to realise it's just all for their own good. No, mummy is just so mean and won't let her out to play!!!
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Yes, I do wear a hat 99.9% of the time... put it on even before I enter the yard. Will try the carrots idea, and am ordering more calmers... her feed already has "in-built" calmers, but a bit more should not be too bad. Gosh, drugging my horse up to the eye-balls here!

It's such a pity... she was a bit mad before (i.e. frighteningly mad), but we made such good progress prior to the boxrest - she became such a "little" lamb... well as "little" as a 16.2hh horse can get. I just hope this box rest hasn't ruined all that work (which took months!!!).

She never really cares for going any faster than walk when she does not have box rest, and I have never seen her rear like that before! Last year, she was terrible and did do HUGE, bendy bucks and mini rears... and we worked a lot to get that out of her system. BUT she never did the full on vertical rear with a LOT of attitude, i.e. like you see in the movies - she was literally twice as tall as when she's on her four legs!!! Prior to her rear, she even tried kicking me with her front feet - her feet were literally horizontal and missed me by a few inches.

I hope she is in a better mood tomorrow!!! My life would get a bit stressful, if she's like that every day whilst on boxrest!!!
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I seem to have had bad luck over the past couple of years with various horses on months and months of box rest and would agree that they can completely change character and behaviour during the box rest and particularly restricted exercise phase. I would never take even the simplest task for granted with a horse on box rest - its a totally unnatural state for them to be in and even if they appear well adjusted, very stressful. Not to mention stress for the owner! Once they come back to a ' normal' existance though it is surprising how their old personality returns and the box rest monster disappears!
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In the past I have tied swedes, carrots and apples on a string and hung them in the stable which gives them something else to do other than look at 4 walls, and try and leave a radio on for company if stuck in one their own.
 
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