Lazy mare on calmer, crazy when not!

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RunawaySally

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I have an 8 year old tb x mare who is a nightmare for hacking out alone as she constantly spooks and is scared of everything. I have had her a year now and she is very well behaved in company. Due to my working hours if she is to be ridden at all she has to be ridden alone on weekdays. I had a lot of problems with her during the winter months when she would violently spook and spin around in the road. What triggered her spook could be anything from a puddle to a man behind a hedge! I have tried different calmers but the one that really works with her spookiness is Steady up advance from Feedmark. In desperation I ordered 2 large tubs in February and she has been on the recommended dose for 6 weeks. She is fed 1.5 scoops good doer and half a scoop pony cubes a day as she is indeed a good doer and could live on thin air! Her grazing is v good and I have cut down her hay in anticipation of the spring grass. My problem now is that she is so lazy and she really cannot be bothered to walk, trot or canter without me constantly nagging her with the leg and backing it up with a flick of a schooling whip to get her moving forward. Do I cut down the calmer, or feed her a higher energy food? The last thing I want is for her to revert to the violent spooks but she has become so lazy I need to do something as she really isn't a lazy horse. Any advice would be great. Thanks.
 
Just try adjusting the amount of calmer you use, that's the best way forward, you need to do a trial and error to the exact right amount to keep her calm and yet still be bothered, I would not give extra feed given what you have said.
 
I had the same with my mare she is very spooky and scared of everything, tried few calmers and while they did help with the spookiness they made her very sluggish.

I took her off them in the end as performance was suffering too much.

To get her better with riding out on her own I actually led her round in hand loads and gradually built up the time riding her so we would lead a bit ride a bit and so on... it has made a huge difference, she still looks at things but will now hack out with minimal spooking.

She's actually more scared on the yard now than when we are out!

For me personally, it has turned out better to battle the spookyness head on rather than try and rely on an additive.

Totally understand your frustration though!
 
Thanks for your help, I do lead her away from the yard and when we are far enough away I get on and she is a lot better. It's the first half a mile that's the worst! She also has a tendency to take the mickey so will cut down the calmer and see what happens!
 
Mine is the same, trembling bag of nerves on the yard and just setting off then much better once out, it seems to be a mixture of nerves and evasion as even if scared she will then napp to get away from whatever it is, blade of grass, bird, was her shadow last night. Trouble I have is that our yard is a h&s nightmare with machinery and potential dangers everywhere and my mare will back into things then kick out so I struggle to keep her bum away from everything and if I give her a whack on her bottom she takes offence and is even worse!

Good luck
 
What is actually in SteadyUp? because it depends on what the calmer is made up of, some are herbal based while others are magnesium etc, therefore they will work differently, obvioulsy the one you are using is working but pehaps not in the way that your horse now requires.
 
It's got quite a high concentration of magnesium, along with yeasts and other things. I found that NAF's Magic had absolutely no calming effect at all, and Equimins Magnesium calmer had a strong smell and she didn't eat it. She is awful when ridden in the yard, either when going out or coming back, there is a lot of farm machinery, horse boxes, etc as well as hedges with rabbits popping in and out, plus the usual farm rubbish! Her ears go right forward, her eyes bulge and she tries to stop. Rather than pushing her forward i have found it is less stressful if I stop her and let her have a good look at something as opposed to just pushing her past it, as this often results in a violent spook / spin. Otherwise, she is a lovely little horse who came over from Ireland and had obviously done very little. Compared to where we were a year ago she has improved but I do wonder if she will ever be able to just leave the yard happily in her own and at an even pace. Maybe when she's 20! Thanks for your comments x
 
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