Calmers horses worse than before when there stopped?

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dressagecrazy

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Just an observation really i started my TB (retired 25yo who thinks he's 3yo) on Relax Me calmer a few months back. The reason i did this is he can be a typical flighty TB & since he injured himself quite badly in December we need to keep him fairly relaxed & quiet.

I was very surprised to see the Calmer did make a differance, however i have run out thanks to the shop i bought it from not delivering & not telling me when or if i will ever get it. (Thanks Carousel Saddlery!!!!!!!! )

Horse was fine for 2 days still his lovely self, then on the 3rd day of no Calmer he turned into what i can only describe as a lunitic.
I barely escaped being run down by him whilst turning out & atm he only has 3 good legs but the rearing & frantic cantering on the spot was impresive!!
He then spent the day running up & down the fencing in his small paddock, to the point he was sweating & god forbid if anyone rode or tried to take a horse out of the fields next to him he went absolutley crazy.

Ive never had such behaviour off this horse, yes he can be flighty but nothing like this & ive owned him over 20 years.
It seems to me that by using a Calmer i have in fact made it harder for him to cope without one now!! Rod & back springs to mind!!!

3 days ago he was that bad that i resorted to a small stash of Nupafeed syringes that i bought ages ago he's having one before T/O everyday & he's now happily chilled out again (needless to say the Calmer i bought has still not arrived))..
Unfortunately i had to resort to something before he re-injured himself again & set us back.

Just wondering if anyone else has suffered an extreme reaction when a horse has come off a calmer??
 
Yes, sort of. My stablemate bought a horse which turned out to be a little, shall we say, erratic. She put her on a valerian based calmer which worked. All was fine and dandy until she decided that the mare no longer needed it and stopped giving it to her. To say all hell broke loose would be a bit of an understatement, the mare turned into a total fruit cake and was almost un manageable. It was as if she was going "cold turkey" and suffering withdrawal symptoms.

On googleing valerian I discovered that it should not be stopped suddenly but the dose gradually reduced to wean the the horse off it.
 
Im using NAF Magic and ran out a few days ago. Noticed a difference straight away. My mare is on box confinement due to a tendon tear and is being brought back into work. Was like riding a coiled spring when calmer ran out, now back on it and Im sure it works.
 
Yep.... Ran out of my first 'try out' tub of NAF Magic and my TB mare has become a real nightmare to hack out. She was bad enough before with her spooking and shying but now she's a lot worse. Off to the feed merchants again I guess!
 
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