Is this medical or a one off??

A

Ali2012

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I lunged and then rode my horse this evening, as I normally do.

Then one of the other horses left the yard to go ride on the field and she started to have a strop, napping and stopping in the middle of the arena thinking we had finished. So i decided to walk out on to the field to cool her down. As i got to the gate to leave the yard she had a strop and walked back on to the yard. We got on to the field after an argument and we started walking around and she was just napping towards her field mates the whole time, pulling with her head (down to the ground) and just generally stressing herself out more and more. At one point it felt as though she was going to roll, so i hopped off and she then got on her knees but got back up again, so i led her back on the yard and stopped to tell one of the more experienced women and she started to paw the concrete as though she was going to rol again! I got her to the menage and we untacked her and her head had gone really heavy, we sponged her sweaty bits off with water and she started shivering so i then walked her off, put a sweat rug over her and walked her 30 mins. By then she was alert, head up, wanting to eat and absolutely fine!??

I put her back out in the field, took her headcollar off and she galloped off to see her friends as though nothing had happened??:confused:

Is it possible that she just stressed herself out and with a combination of having a workout and the heat just made herself ill?? She has never done this before and is a healthy horse.

I feel terrible, like it was my fault for working her :(
 
Sounds as though she worked herself up into a terrible state. She may have started a mild colic from getting so stressed out, silly girl! I think I'd stick to an easy wind down and turn out routine for a bit so she doesn't remember the panic and start to do it every time.
 
You 'd be amazed what sort of a hissy fit some horses will work themselves into when they feel like it! Mares do tend to be a bit more prone to hysterics (aren't we ladies???). It could be that your horse was coming into season which can make their brains go completely inside out for no good reason. I wouldn't worry about it and just chalk it up to experience. I see you are in Alty - which yard are you on?
 
I'm on a small yard in Bowdon, are you local to Altrincham?

I am inclined to think she stressed herself out more than anything and just got hot and bothered.

I'm not doing anything with her today, just letting her do her own thing as we are off to Delamere tomorrow :)
 
What you describe does sound like she was colicking to me. I'd keep an eye out, could have been a stress causing mild colic or mild colic causing bad behaviour.
 
Magnetic Sparrow said:
What you describe does sound like she was colicking to me. I'd keep an eye out, could have been a stress causing mild colic or mild colic causing bad behaviour.
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The bad behaviour only occurred after she saw our usual hacking buddy leave the yard, as soon as they went off the yard she started the napping and refusing to work, which she has done before, so i don't think it was mild colic causing bad behaviour, but possibly the other way around or she might have just got herself hot and bothered :confused:
 
I'm not deliberately trying to worry you, it's just I have had a horse capable of stressing itself into a colic, and have known another one that did that regularly.

Hopefully it was a one-off mareish strop, that would also be a perfectly reasonable explanation of what happened.
 
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