Can calmers make horses lazy?

[saddlesore]

Ok, maybe an odd post but please bear with me! Having been having issues with my now 5yo for around the past year with his behaviour escalating to the point that I had lost all my confidence and no longer rode him/wanted to keep him. He was incredibly nervous of everything and would get progressively more upset by things until he started 'bolting' off. He never went too far but would accelerate into gallop for no discernable reason from any pace in any circumstances. I had elected to get him reschooled and sold and whilst this was happening I had heard about horse first relax me. It was described as being suitable for nervous neds rather than sharp ones if that makes sense and it has literally changed him He is no longer for sale and he is giving me my confidence back! However he can be very lazy (always had lazy tendencies) and I was wondering if it might be the calmer? I don't really want to take him off it as he is doing so so well, but wish he would wake up a bit in the school!

Any thoughts? (sorry for essay )

 

[spacefaer]

in a word - yes!

I had a Belgian WB a couple of years ago and used every calmer on the market - I always said that they made him the horse he should've been - if he hadn't been so nervous/wound up by strange situations

I managed to "fill him up" with Nupafeed once, so he stood at the top of the drive and wouldn't move - normally I couldn't even put my leg on without an explosion!

If you want a little more spark, can you reduce the amount of RelaxMe a little, finetune it as it were?

I love the RelaxMe for one of ours - turns the volume down on him without losing his personality

 

[saddlesore]

Thanks for your reply! Guess I'll play around with the dosage - my concern was that I read somewhere that horses can have 'withdrawal symptoms' when you wean them off this particular calmer (read that after I started him on it lol) and don't think my poor nerves can cope with more trauma!