EventingMum
Well-Known Member
Sorry to ask as I know this topics been done to death but I really could do with some help regarding a calmer for one of our horses.
Horse in question is a 14yo gelding whos always been a stressy, hot headed type especially when jumping, however he seems to be getting worse lately, even at home. Hes capable of producing good work when hes focussed but is often too wired to let this happen. He has evented to 2* but an horrible accident last year meant hes not been eventing since 2010 as he had a lot of 2011 off. Recently he has been increasingly spooky and when we took him to a jumping clinic he was ridiculously tense and rushed his fences (a tendancy he has always had to a certain extent). He went nicely at a dressage competition but the atmosphere there was very calm. Before we can think about getting him back to eventing we need to get him more settled.
As far as management/diet is concerned he is ridden on average 6 days a week. We usually turn out every day but this winter has been a continual monsoon so sometimes he has only been out every 2nd or 3rd day however he does go on the walker if he isnt out hopefully this will change soon as the fields are starting to dry out at last. He is fed Allen and Page Calm and Condition with Alpha A Oil , Top Spec balancer and micronized linseed as he can lose condition easily.
We have tried lots of calmers over the years NAF Magic, Relax me, Nupafeed, Top Spec Calmer, Anxikalm, Oxyshot are the ones I remember. Hes now on Cool, Calm and Collected but Im not sure its really helping. I have heard some good reports on Zylkene and wondered if anyone has any experience using it dont even know if we can use it for competitions and it is quite expensive. Part of me thinks that as a horse whos always been out and about hes really struggling to adapt to not having been out for so long and this is resulting in current behaviour. Also the stress of his accident may have affected him but until we get him more settled and focussed we cant take him out.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to give as full a picture as possible in the hope of someone being able to help. Any thoughts would be very, very gratefully received.
Horse in question is a 14yo gelding whos always been a stressy, hot headed type especially when jumping, however he seems to be getting worse lately, even at home. Hes capable of producing good work when hes focussed but is often too wired to let this happen. He has evented to 2* but an horrible accident last year meant hes not been eventing since 2010 as he had a lot of 2011 off. Recently he has been increasingly spooky and when we took him to a jumping clinic he was ridiculously tense and rushed his fences (a tendancy he has always had to a certain extent). He went nicely at a dressage competition but the atmosphere there was very calm. Before we can think about getting him back to eventing we need to get him more settled.
As far as management/diet is concerned he is ridden on average 6 days a week. We usually turn out every day but this winter has been a continual monsoon so sometimes he has only been out every 2nd or 3rd day however he does go on the walker if he isnt out hopefully this will change soon as the fields are starting to dry out at last. He is fed Allen and Page Calm and Condition with Alpha A Oil , Top Spec balancer and micronized linseed as he can lose condition easily.
We have tried lots of calmers over the years NAF Magic, Relax me, Nupafeed, Top Spec Calmer, Anxikalm, Oxyshot are the ones I remember. Hes now on Cool, Calm and Collected but Im not sure its really helping. I have heard some good reports on Zylkene and wondered if anyone has any experience using it dont even know if we can use it for competitions and it is quite expensive. Part of me thinks that as a horse whos always been out and about hes really struggling to adapt to not having been out for so long and this is resulting in current behaviour. Also the stress of his accident may have affected him but until we get him more settled and focussed we cant take him out.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to give as full a picture as possible in the hope of someone being able to help. Any thoughts would be very, very gratefully received.
