Herbal calmers for strong haffie?

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redriverrock

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After alot of confidence re building my daughter is know ready to start riding her pony again. My son has been riding him while she had her confidence issues and we have over the last couple of years worked on his manners and general rudeness alot...to the point where I now think he is probably as good as he is going to be. My main concern is he does 'feed' off a lack of confidence from his rider which could cause a set back when daughter starts riding him again. She handles him everyday, has been lunging him etc but the time has come for her to get back on.
She was getting on really well with him, doing lots of jumping and general hooning around until we had a bit of an argument with some alpacas and it knocked her confidence...the next day she got on him, was abit nervous and pony then started to get abit spooky, its kind of a catch 22 situation....nervous rider, results in nervous pony results in rider get even more nervous.
So my question is should I sedate pony for a while just to get over the first few rides or would it be easier to dope the daughter up :)
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Ah ok! I would say perhaps but it doesn't seem like the kind of situation where one would help.

Can she just have a lunge lesson? Or walk round on the lead rein? Like have a lesson perhaps?
 
She's having lessons on another pony and will be having lessons on her own pony when she is ready...which is pretty much now. The problem isnt really her riding as she is more than capable of riding him well, it's more the initial nerves of getting back on which will then set the pony off. I just want something to break the cycle for a few days until she feels more comfortable. I have suggested some lunge lessons but she isnt keen for some reason, though I might get her instructor to persuade her.
 
Both magnesium (Uk pasture is said to be low in magnesium) and brewer's yeast are said to have a calming effect so worth a try as they will do more good than harm. I buy mine from Feedmark.
 
marmalade76 said:
Both magnesium (Uk pasture is said to be low in magnesium) and brewer's yeast are said to have a calming effect so worth a try as they will do more good than harm. I buy mine from Feedmark.
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Thanks for that...do you feed both or one and how long does it take to have an effect.
 
I don't mean this to sound harsh or be harsh in any way, but haffy's are strong willed very intelligent horses and will always try to get the upper hand with an unsure leader.
I would be considering whether he is the right pony for your daughter, perhaps a more confidence giving horse would be a better option.
I've had my haffy 5 years and he has put me through the wringer many a time, I've lost my confidence many many times. It would be a shame for your daughter to loose her's to the point of no return.
 
I have a Haflinger that is very strong and I lost my confidence earlier in the year when he bolted as I got on. I had lessons when I got back on. Started off on the lead rein just walking around and practising halting. Then went onto the lunge to trot and canter and then let loose to trot.

Please don't give your pony any calmers of sedatives. Your daughter needs to build her confidence up completely before she gets on, and then the first time take it very steadily with her instructor. Maybe just have her get on and off for the first couple of times. Then a bit of walk etc.

Haffies are strong and cheeky. Could he be a bit much for your daughter?

Can I ask what your Haffie is crossed with? He is lovely x
 
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I have used steady up and it's good. Think loads of time/ small steps for them don't rush. This is not going to be an instant fix. Strong intelligent ponies who are bossy enough to sense weakness
 
I feed both but not for their calming effects and I have no idea how long they take to work. The pack will tell you how much to feed, for a 14.2 it's only a small amount of mag and a 25 ml scoop of BY.
 
Rhodders said:
I don't mean this to sound harsh or be harsh in any way, but haffy's are strong willed very intelligent horses and will always try to get the upper hand with an unsure leader.
I would be considering whether he is the right pony for your daughter, perhaps a more confidence giving horse would be a better option.
I've had my haffy 5 years and he has put me through the wringer many a time, I've lost my confidence many many times. It would be a shame for your daughter to loose her's to the point of no return.
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I knew at some point someone would say this! I take your point and she will never ever be forced into anything but what you need to bear in mind is she was riding him with no issues as a complete novice for a year and making great progress. She handles him everyday, lunges him and does lots of in hand work with him going around courses, walking over tarpaulin etc and they are both completly fine.
There is no real reason for her to be nervous except for her vivid imagination!
 
redriverrock said:
I knew at some point someone would say this! I take your point and she will never ever be forced into anything but what you need to bear in mind is she was riding him with no issues as a complete novice for a year and making great progress. She handles him everyday, lunges him and does lots of in hand work with him going around courses, walking over tarpaulin etc and they are both completly fine.
There is no real reason for her to be nervous except for her vivid imagination!
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Then maybe try some rescue remedy for your daughter (the kids version) if the pony is not at fault? Or tell her you have given him something to calm him. Nothing like the placebo effect :D x
 
HaffiesRock said:
I have a Haflinger that is very strong and I lost my confidence earlier in the year when he bolted as I got on. I had lessons when I got back on. Started off on the lead rein just walking around and practising halting. Then went onto the lunge to trot and canter and then let loose to trot.

Please don't give your pony any calmers of sedatives. Your daughter needs to build her confidence up completely before she gets on, and then the first time take it very steadily with her instructor. Maybe just have her get on and off for the first couple of times. Then a bit of walk etc.

Haffies are strong and cheeky. Could he be a bit much for your daughter?

Can I ask what your Haffie is crossed with? He is lovely x
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Hi, he is crossed with a dwb and his name is Shrek!
She has been having lots of lessons over the last year and has built up a good rapport with her instructor who she trusts totally which I think will be a big help. She has had a sit on him and a couple of strides in walk with me stood at the side whch was a major break through! We have a weeks holiday booked at the riding instructors yard in august so we will be taking all 3 horses with us and Im hoping this will really help...I sometimes think she is better with other people teaching her as she just seems to argue with me!
 
redriverrock said:
I knew at some point someone would say this! I take your point and she will never ever be forced into anything but what you need to bear in mind is she was riding him with no issues as a complete novice for a year and making great progress. She handles him everyday, lunges him and does lots of in hand work with him going around courses, walking over tarpaulin etc and they are both completly fine.
There is no real reason for her to be nervous except for her vivid imagination!
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Then hopefully it's just a temporary blip for her, kids are way more resilient than us adults :D
 
Rhodders said:
Then hopefully it's just a temporary blip for her, kids are way more resilient than us adults :D
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Your probably right and she has such a vivid imagination at times! I think Im going to take a back seat and let her instructor work it out with her as she tends to just have a teenage strop with me:rolleyes:
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I will...would love to see them both back having fun with each other like they used to...the photo of her on him with all his pink on :eek: is a photo we know use to help her remember how much fun they did have. We will be taking lots more soon Im sure
 
until we had a bit of an argument with some alpacas and it knocked her confidence...
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The problem is not the pony, it's the horse eating alpacas. Trust me, my mare has spent the last three years trying to convince me that alpacas are really, really dangerous and should be avoided at all cost. Sadly for her, I'm deaf to her protests.

Here's the lovely beasts that terrorize my ponies.

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I helped ease the problem by walking her back and forth past their field in-hand until she got bored and was sensible. I was then able to ride past them with less drama.

Would you be able to do some in-hand work with your daughter and her pony to get them both more confident around the alpacas?
 
redriverrock said:
After alot of confidence re building my daughter is know ready to start riding her pony again. My son has been riding him while she had her confidence issues and we have over the last couple of years worked on his manners and general rudeness alot...to the point where I now think he is probably as good as he is going to be. My main concern is he does 'feed' off a lack of confidence from his rider which could cause a set back when daughter starts riding him again. She handles him everyday, has been lunging him etc but the time has come for her to get back on.
She was getting on really well with him, doing lots of jumping and general hooning around until we had a bit of an argument with some alpacas and it knocked her confidence...the next day she got on him, was abit nervous and pony then started to get abit spooky, its kind of a catch 22 situation....nervous rider, results in nervous pony results in rider get even more nervous.
So my question is should I sedate pony for a while just to get over the first few rides or would it be easier to dope the daughter up :)

Ermmmm........ no she's not if you are talking about calmers ect.:confused:

It might not make sense to you, or the pony, or the world but she seems to be telling you she is not.

From what I gather she rides other ponies, has an instructor she trusts?
What's wrong with leaving it at that?

The most should be a bit of a lead rein walk, no pressure, preferable after he's been ridden by someone else.
And certainly no "look at how good, how much fun, you had before". Those times are gone, it's time to move on. She may have been scared witless worried all the time but covered it well.

What about selling the pony and getting something she can build a new relationship with?
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OMG they are proper scarey :eek: To be fair to the pony he hacks out regularly with an adult novice rider and me on my TB and he couldnt care less about the alpacas which we hack past at least 3 times a week...it was just the first time he had seen them and he was like 'what the hell are they' and then daughter was like aaagggghhhh and I was like 'kick him on' and she was like 'no get me off'
we couldnt have dealt with it worse if we had tried :confused: Hence a whole year of lessons and getting daughter to learn to deal with situations abit better :rolleyes:
 
Aarrghimpossiblepony said:
redriverrock said:
After alot of confidence re building my daughter is know ready to start riding her pony again. My son has been riding him while she had her confidence issues and we have over the last couple of years worked on his manners and general rudeness alot...to the point where I now think he is probably as good as he is going to be. My main concern is he does 'feed' off a lack of confidence from his rider which could cause a set back when daughter starts riding him again. She handles him everyday, has been lunging him etc but the time has come for her to get back on.
She was getting on really well with him, doing lots of jumping and general hooning around until we had a bit of an argument with some alpacas and it knocked her confidence...the next day she got on him, was abit nervous and pony then started to get abit spooky, its kind of a catch 22 situation....nervous rider, results in nervous pony results in rider get even more nervous.
So my question is should I sedate pony for a while just to get over the first few rides or would it be easier to dope the daughter up :)

Ermmmm........ no she's not if you are talking about calmers ect.:confused:

It might not make sense to you, or the pony, or the world but she seems to be telling you she is not.

From what I gather she rides other ponies, has an instructor she trusts?
What's wrong with leaving it at that?

The most should be a bit of a lead rein walk, no pressure, preferable after he's been ridden by someone else.
And certainly no "look at how good, how much fun, you had before". Those times are gone, it's time to move on. She may have been scared witless worried all the time but covered it well.

What about selling the pony and getting something she can build a new relationship with?
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Not going to get into an arguement re what my daughter wants/is feeling...she is adamant she wants to get back on this pony, have lessons with him and re build there relationship. As for being scared witless and hiding it...if that was the case she would not of rode him, believe me she is not shy when it comes to telling me what she wants :rolleyes:
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My daughter has previously lost confidence and is now back to normal again on her pony, I had some great advice on here about basically not rushing her and taking things at her own pace and for quite some time that meant just walking and trotting in the school, I also helped out with riding him a couple of times a week so daughter could see he was going fine. Before I knew it she was back to jumping, hacking, and playing gymkhana games with her friends. I did add some magnesium to his Feed more so for her than him and I've heard such good things about it that I've carried on feeding it so would definately recommend it. Probably takes about 2-4 weeks to start making a difference.
 
shannonandtay said:
My daughter has previously lost confidence and is now back to normal again on her pony, I had some great advice on here about basically not rushing her and taking things at her own pace and for quite some time that meant just walking and trotting in the school, I also helped out with riding him a couple of times a week so daughter could see he was going fine. Before I knew it she was back to jumping, hacking, and playing gymkhana games with her friends. I did add some magnesium to his Feed more so for her than him and I've heard such good things about it that I've carried on feeding it so would definately recommend it. Probably takes about 2-4 weeks to start making a difference.
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Thankyou for that...was starting to feel alone! Re rushing her...she has had no pressure at all from anyone and has actually had more than a year away from riding her pony...it is her that wants to try again. She has been very lucky to beable to keep him while she works through her confidence issues and her brother has kept in full time work and a lady has been hacking him out with me so we have carried on his education. I hope I havent come across as some pushy pony club mother because I am nothing like that!
 
Oh no of course not, I was exactly the same, just that if at first she just wants to plod round in the school then that's definately a step forward and it's amazing how quickly that confidence starts to come back once things start going well. Our boy has a bit of a nervous streak which will always be there but I do think the magnesium has taken the edge off of that so I'd say it's worth a try also my daughter felt better that we were giving him something which in turn helped her confidence, if I'm making any sense :D
 
shannonandtay said:
Oh no of course not, I was exactly the same, just that if at first she just wants to plod round in the school then that's definately a step forward and it's amazing how quickly that confidence starts to come back once things start going well. Our boy has a bit of a nervous streak which will always be there but I do think the magnesium has taken the edge off of that so I'd say it's worth a try also my daughter felt better that we were giving him something which in turn helped her confidence, if I'm making any sense :D
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Your making total sense and if the magnesium works then no harm in it! Plodding around the school will be great...in fact Shrek does plodding around the school very well ;)
 
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