Horse First Relax Me - don't want to speak too soon but...!!!

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Christmas Crumpet

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I've had new horse since end of May and his behaviour out hacking has left a lot to be desired. He's always on edge and spooky and won't trot forwards because he is too concerned about what may be going on all around him so I have ears stuffed up my nose and generally its very boring.

Decided to give Relax Me a try having read good things about it on here. Well... its like I've got a different horse. We are only on Day 6 but Mon & last night I actually had a lovely ride with a very relaxed horse who wasn't concerned about the traffic, was quite happy to trot along on a loose rein etc and visibly felt far happier. He is still spooking at stuff albeit very half heartedly (almost like he feels he has to make the point that there is something scary round the corner) but generally its absolutely minor. I can't honestly believe it. Fingers crossed he carries on like this because its such a relief to know I'm not going to get killed out exercising.

Has anyone noticed a difference once they went down to the maintenance level i.e. behaviour crept up again or are they generally ok?

I was a total sceptic but thought I might as well try. Do they do a human one?!!!!
 
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I use relax me on my horse, as with out it he is a total pain, he's an rescue horse so don't know really what went on with him. He's 16hh and is generally on 1/2 a scoop a day at maintance, which goes up and down depending on what I'm doing with him. Ie if going to teach him something new that I think he would stress about or hacking on our own ill give him a full scoop the day before and the morning of. If its something really big then you can give up to 4 scoops so saving that one for shows. Works a treat, before using it there were a lot of tears and no one else on the yard would do him for me, now he is a poppet. And the yard girls are starting to come round to liking him. I did find that the herbal calmers had no effect on him at all though, so defo sticking with horse first.
 
It helped my mare who was a nightmare to hack too. I only kept her in it for a few months and then gradually reduced the dose before taking her of it completely.
 
If it's learned behaviour, can a horse unlearn so become less spooky? Mine is currently very on his toes about everything and tries to jump behind me (protect me, mummy!) at unexpected things eg small child walking out of driveway. I could do without this really!
 
I think the calmer has just calmed him slightly and taken the edge off him so he is less inclined to spook and scare himself. Might be worth a try.

I am going to do the big scary ride this evening and if we can do that ok, we've nailed it!!!
 
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