Help please, very disheartened

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Kacey88

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My horse is usually very laid back, spooks very, very rarely and is a pleasure to work with. However, over the past 2/3 weeks her personality has changed and today she acted like this:

Grand when I was tacking her up/handling her. As soon as I got up she was spooking, looking at things that normally wouldn't bother her at all. She also seems scared of things in the distance, that I can't see. Had one major spook, I stayed on. Then she started shaking her head, a lot. I didn't feel safe anymore and as we were in an open field I dismounted. She continued to shake her head. Coming out the field she nearly flattened me because something caught her eye. She's not giving off any other signs of being in season. Its was windy out.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm getting the dentist out. Last week her feed was increased slightly, but she was getting spookier before this. Now I'm cutting it right down! I'm scared to bring her out now and have nowhere other than a big field to ride her. :(
 
There's another thread on here entitled "Is the grass growing at the moment". It might be coincidence, or...

:D
 
I find my tb gets highly sprung in winter and defiantly more spooky. Because the turn out becomes restricted. I find that if I lunge prior to riding, it gets him in the right frame of mind for work and gets rid of the edge he often has. I have to act much more confident on him as he looks for it more from me. Try yawning if you start to feel scared, it makes you take in more oxygen and slow you heart rate down and releases endorphins to calm you down. A calm you will no doubt rub off on her :)
 
If she's spooking all of a sudden it could be that her vision is impaired, which will frighten any horse. Could be an ulcer. If it's just sudden high spirits, less grub + more work (lunge before riding?) should do the trick.
 
Cortez said:
If she's spooking all of a sudden it could be that her vision is impaired, which will frighten any horse. Could be an ulcer. If it's just sudden high spirits, less grub + more work (lunge before riding?) should do the trick.
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Never thought of impaired vision. I'm going to decrease her feed and see how she is then. Only increased it because she could really do with gaining condition. She acts up much more when I try to lunge her, but I suppose it can only last as long as her energy does.
 
What about cutting out all feed & just ad lid hay/haylage?

Do you have someone experienced that could ride her out a couple of times for you? Failing this sometimes just having someone walking along with you can help enormously.

The trouble is that once you start to feel nervous she will sense it & wonder what is around that is so frightening.

Our mares have both come into season within the last week & one of them has been behaving very oddly, using anything as an excuse to be a bit silly or naughty!

Best of luck, i hope it resolves itself soon.
 
was she recently clipped? or kept in more than usuall? how did u change her feed was it to a more sugary or high energy feed? have you been rididng her less recently? has anyone esle done her other than you in the past few weeks? :)
 
is the head shaking normal? might need to check her ears? We had a ponio at the yard that had a problem with her ears, she nearly knocked us out handling her with all the head shaking.

Feed could be the problem, have you changed anything else in her routine? she hasnt been attacked in her field?

Try lunging her or free schooling her before you take her out as she could just be fresh, Spot is well on his toes when he's feeling fresh, even leaves blowing across the road are going to kill him!! lol! :D
 
How much work is she getting at the moment??

My horse always starts getting spooky when she is not doing enough. It's an excuse to use her excess energy
 
wonderhorse11 said:
was she recently clipped? or kept in more than usuall? how did u change her feed was it to a more sugary or high energy feed? have you been rididng her less recently? has anyone esle done her other than you in the past few weeks? :)
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I was feeding her Baileys No. 4, about 3 pounds a day. Then the careline told me to up it to 6! But I thought that was a bit crazy, so I increased it to 5 pounds over about 10 days. Going back to 3 now, hopefully spring grass will fatten her up a bit. For a cob cross, she sure doesn't put weight on easily. I'm hoping its food and not that she's uncomfortable somehow. The head shaking really seemed like she doesn't just have extra energy, but that she's uncomfortable. Hopefully the dentist might have answers.
 
Ditto getting her eyes checked. A year or two ago one of the horses on my yard suddenly started behaving very spooky, when he normally was the least spooky horse on the yard. He wouldn't tie up anymore - pulling away from the wall like a monster suddenly jumped out at him. Same when he was being lead and ridden. He wasn't being naughty, he was genuinely scared. Anyhoo his owner got the vet to check him over and it turned out he had an ulcer in his eye (nothing we could see but the vet could). After treatment he was fine.
 
If you're scared she will sense it and there is more of a chance she will act up next time you take her out, (if high spirits is the problem) is there anyone else you can hack out with? Mine are both quite giddy at the moment, no doubt because I havn't been able to ride them much lately because of the snow and ice. Have cut their hard feed although they do get ad-lib haylage. Just looking at the yard i'm on, one or two people definately under-exercise, over rug and over feed!! If she has been okay until now it may be one or a combination of the above, good luck and hope you get through this!
 
Plan of action:

> Cut hard feed, lunge before riding and get dentist out

If this doesn't work:

> Vet out to check ears and eyes

It was team effort! I feel more optimistic already. Thanks everyone :)
 
Kacey88 said:
I was feeding her Baileys No. 4, about 3 pounds a day. Then the careline told me to up it to 6! But I thought that was a bit crazy, so I increased it to 5 pounds over about 10 days. Going back to 3 now, hopefully spring grass will fatten her up a bit. For a cob cross, she sure doesn't put weight on easily. I'm hoping its food and not that she's uncomfortable somehow. The head shaking really seemed like she doesn't just have extra energy, but that she's uncomfortable. Hopefully the dentist might have answers.
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yes definatley get her teeth and back checked make sure she's not lame and there is not a cut or something near the frog on her hoof that you may have missed also i'd check she's bot lame and get the saddler out just incase!
 
Have you had your horse over a winter before? If not then maybe this is normal winter behaviour for her?

My horse is spooky anyway but the cold weather makes him tenser and generally you have less time to exercise all can add up to some unusual behaviour. My horse did a little head-shaking in my lesson the other day (it always feels a little worrying) my instructor said it was typical of a horse being tense through its back and once he had loosened up he was fine.

Getting teeth etc. checked isn't a bad thing but you may well find that this passes with the weather anyway.
 
sussexbythesea said:
Have you had your horse over a winter before? If not then maybe this is normal winter behaviour for her?

My horse is spooky anyway but the cold weather makes him tenser and generally you have less time to exercise all can add up to some unusual behaviour. My horse did a little head-shaking in my lesson the other day (it always feels a little worrying) my instructor said it was typical of a horse being tense through its back and once he had loosened up he was fine.

Getting teeth etc. checked isn't a bad thing but you may well find that this passes with the weather anyway.
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I know you guys are having cold weather, but its actually quite mild in Ireland. It was windy though, which definitely doesn't help. The head shaking is very worrying!
 
I decreased Milly's hard feed and she has calmed down a lot. However, the vet came out today and said that her previous owner had attempted to take out a wolf tooth leaving some of it in her gum, which needless to say would cause a lot of discomfort. I'm surprised she was as placid as she was considering this! Its very sad to think that she went through that, but I am so glad I have sorted her out now.

Thanks again everyone.
 
haven't read the whole thread - but at this time of the year I'd be wanting to take the horse off grass for a week or two and see how the behaviour changes.

Just give hay and supplements (no grains)

It won;t do any harm, but if you have a problem brewing it may head it off at the pass.
 
Kacey88 said:
I decreased Milly's hard feed and she has calmed down a lot. However, the vet came out today and said that her previous owner had attempted to take out a wolf tooth leaving some of it in her gum, which needless to say would cause a lot of discomfort. I'm surprised she was as placid as she was considering this! Its very sad to think that she went through that, but I am so glad I have sorted her out now.

Thanks again everyone.
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You may also find that she starts to put weight on now as well, now that the tooth issue is sorted out. Nice to read a happy ending :)
 
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