Calmer confusion please help! (also in horse care)

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thehorsediva

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I have a lovely ISH who 90% of the time is calm, collected and super chilled. However if something changes he absolutely freaks out. He never has a little spook at something, he is either chilled as anything or he absolutely over reacts and thinks he is going to die!! This makes for a slightly unpredictable ride. I have had him I have tried a variety of calmers just to try and stop him from overreacting. He is pretty intolerant food wise so he is on a simple straw chaff which he wont eat on its own so I mix it with a tiny handful of fast fibre with extra garlic and mint. I have tried the following calmers

- magnesium (natural horse supplies) and brewers yeast (natural horse supplies) fed at same time
- also tried just magnesium on its own
- james hart v calm (contains valerium)

I am currently trying him on herbal calm (valerium, camomille, vervain) from natural horse supplies http://www.naturalhorsesupplies.co.u...900g++%A31899/

But have since been recommended this from Trinity Consultants
http://www.trinity-consultants.com/i...robase29-1-ltr

I am SO confused! Is it possible that a horse has an adverse reaction to valerium? When I had him on the V calm he seemed even worse for over reacting and destroyed his field for hooning around.

The magnesium/ brewers yeast didnt seem to make much difference, he was pretty calm but again over reacted easily.

Not long been on the herbal calm but I have gone up today and he has been going mental in his field, barely any grass left. Normally when he is out he will just graze and snooze, possibly one trot across the field on an exciting day! It may be coinsidense as given everything I have read about valerian it seems that this should help above everything.

Dont know where to cut out the above and try the hydrobase calmer? Or anything else? I am so confused as getting different advice from everyone and am contemplating just trying him on grass and hay again. He gets plenty of hay day and night but grass in his field is pretty limited so make sure he always has hay available as well.

Can anyone help a very confused person out?!
 
My mare used to really 'over react' so my instructor recommended 'cool, calm and collected' from Equifest. It's made a really big difference to her - before she would spook at anything with a stupidly big reaction to whatever it was and i found within about 4 weeks on the CCC she was much more reasonable about 'scary' things! Her concentration is better too.
 
Forget adding stuff willy nilly horses need a balanced diet which is why certain calmers work for certain horses as they are addressing an imbalance.

Do an as fed analysis and work out where your diet is lacking and correct from there.

It sound like you need to do some ground work so your horse learns to deal correctly with situations. If he is calm most the time its prob not a calmer you need your horse is possiably insecure and needs to see you as a leader so he can react better in strange situations.

Reward is the best way to deal with these reactions as so as you get a slight bit of the correct response reward. It may also be your reaction making the situation worse.
 
maccachic said:
Forget adding stuff willy nilly horses need a balanced diet which is why certain calmers work for certain horses as they are addressing an imbalance.

Do an as fed analysis and work out where your diet is lacking and correct from there.

It sound like you need to do some ground work so your horse learns to deal correctly with situations. If he is calm most the time its prob not a calmer you need your horse is possiably insecure and needs to see you as a leader so he can react better in strange situations.

Reward is the best way to deal with these reactions as so as you get a slight bit of the correct response reward. It may also be your reaction making the situation worse.
Click to expand...

^^^ This :)
 
Not helpful horse wise but valerian is supposed to help humans sleep (both my parents swear by it), and when I took it I had nightmares, sweats and crazy vivid dreams, much worse than ever before, so yes, I should think they probably can have odd reactions! There was something mentioned in comp riders that was a scientifically proven calmer, I don't know what it was called but maybe what Natch said. I know it is expensive but maybe worth it :-)
 
Yes we are doing tonnes of groundwork to try and help as he is definately insecure. He has moved a lot during the last year so I think this is probably a big factor. Just want to try and find a calmer to help as well really and give him the best chance to understand things without over reacting.
 
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