Horse first 'relax me' calmer....

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saddlesore

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I've been feeding my tense/nervous/generally worried sort this calmer for about 9 months ago and it has made a huge difference to him and allowed him to be safely placed in 'learning' situations that he previously could not have coped with.

So what's my problem you ask? ;)

Whilst he can still be a little tense/spooky out hacking , he has become increasingly lazy in the school - to the point that my instructor now schools him in spurs and carries a whip! This used to be the horse that would have a fit if you did up girth/adjusted stirrups etc!

I was wondering if it was worth coming off the calmer - and if so how do I do that? should it be reduced gradually? Over how long? I've heard stories of horses having adverse effects to coming off this particular calmer :(

Can I please have your thoughts?
 
io is on it and has been far less stressy :) i havent noticed him being any slower though. I think with any of these things you want to very gradually reduce it. I would drop the dose by 1/2 a scoop for a week and see if things improve and then repeat until you get your required levl of power. Good Luck :)
 
Somebody recommended this for my slightly mad 6 yr old, as a one off situation calmer. I haven't personally used it yet due to lack of time/effort of taking her anywhere else yet, but they told me just to feed it the night before competion/difficult task and the morning of event.

Like I said I haven't done this but it was at a dressage test and she said her horse gets very nervous out and about, just like mine and her boy didn't put a hoof out of line the whole time he was there.

So perhaps if just reducing it gradually doesn't get the desired effect, you could give that a go? I know it's designed to be fed regularly but it seemed to work for her! Xx
 
hey :)

give them a call there really friendly and will advise you what to do.

....also how long did it take for you to see a result ? my boy has started to become less stressy but not 100% yet, but am very hopful
 
saddlesore said:
I he has become increasingly lazy in the school - to the point that my instructor now schools him in spurs and carries a whip! This used to be the horse that would have a fit if you did up girth/adjusted stirrups etc!Can I please have your thoughts?
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Could he be bored with schooling? just a thought, maybe try different things or shorten the lessons? try taking him to different venues for schooling with different instructors ... that may work.
 
you could try reducing the does of calmer you give and see if he's just growing up a bit, and might manage on a lower dose.

otherwise I would suggest he'd bored with the schooling, try doing soemthing different for a week or two!
 
Thanks guys. I probably didn't explain myself very well, but he is slow schooling in all situations - ie in the school/field/sj/xc lol. He is also a lazy boy hacking, he just also happens to be a bit tense/spooky :rolleyes:

I think his work is pretty varied tbh, what do you think? Typical week:

Mon: Day off
Tue: 'School' by instructor, but this could be virtually anything inc xc in the field and she tends to do something different each week.
Wed: Hack in company
Thur: Lunge/long line, followed by short 30 min solo hack
Fri: Lesson. Again this varies, and has largely been in the field all summer!
Sat: Hack in company
Sun: Hack in company

He gets fat very easily so has to do a reasonable amount of work. Do you think, based on this, that it is likely to be boredom or perhaps just him growing up?

Can't remeber who asked how long it took to work :o but I started to notice a real difference by the end of my first tub (750g one) so I guess around about 4 weeks. x
 
I would agree that it seems he may just be growing up and becomming more settled with his routine and workload/feeding/turnout balance, you should be pleased with yourself that your hard work and training is seems to be paying off.

Try reducing the dosage gradually and see what effects that will have, will be a trial and error thing to start with, to get a better dossage now for him, but as long as you do everything gradually you should allow his body to adapt without too much adverse effects.
 
Thanks guys :) Started cutting it back a sma amount from today and will continue to decrease over the next couple of weeks. Would be great if he didn't need it any more as whilst its brilliant, it is expensive!
 
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