lazy spooky horse , calmer ?

A

angelish

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 December 2009
Messages
3,498
Location
aboot haff an hour north of geordie land
Visit site
hi :)
iv'e never used a calmer before but am considering trying anything atm :o

i have a 16"3 irish type gelding , he can be incredibly lazy but very sharp and spooky at the same time , he can spin/drop his shoulder and sod off bucking in the blink of an eye :(

due to the weather/time of year etc this is getting worse and he very nearly had me this afternoon , i'm getting too old to bounce !
he's so bad at times i cannot even get him to walk in a straight line or use 50% of the arena as there are scary jumps stored along the side , iv'e tried hanging onto him and making him walk past (drops shoulder/spins quicker)
tried ignoring it/just going with him and he was better today but still not great

but he is lazy , will a calmer make him lazier ?
has anyone got any recomendations for a good calmer for spooky behavior if there is such a thing :(

he's not on any hard feed as such , he gets a handful of chaff with some pink powder and a little bit of oil
he's ridden 6 times a week schooling/hacking/pole work
iv'e increased his work to see if this makes a difference but it doesn't seem to have helped

any ideas ? :o
 
my welsh cob is simular especially very lazy in the school but will spook at any excuss, well she used to.
she is on magic. Has changed her as she doesn't spook like an idiot anymore but has not changed in that she isn't any more lazy or shut off then before.
I must say she is still a coward and a spooky mare in general but have noticed that since I have started jumping her she is more happy to work in the school and braver which has also helped, but I would bot be without magic.
 
thanks :)
thats sounds promising ill give it a try
i can't get him near a pole on the floor without a hissy fit atm :/
sounds similar , mine isn't the boldest he's scared of his own shadow although he's not as bad in the summer , he's still spooky but doesn't spin and isn't as reactive as he is atm
 
TBH it sounds as if his problem is not nerves, but lack of attention - to you. If you are not engaging his brain then he will be free to indulge his imagination, resulting in imaginary boggles at whatever happens to be lying around. Spookiness is often not down to the horse, it's the rider who must keep the horse focussed on the job in hand.
 
Cortez said:
TBH it sounds as if his problem is not nerves, but lack of attention - to you. If you are not engaging his brain then he will be free to indulge his imagination, resulting in imaginary boggles at whatever happens to be lying around. Spookiness is often not down to the horse, it's the rider who must keep the horse focussed on the job in hand.
Click to expand...

hi
your right some of it is lack of attention but i do feel most of it is nerves , he's looking and feeling very well atm so the spooking and nervousness is getting worse , he's not like this in the summer
he gets very tense , like a block of wood ,snorts and bounces about
he even splats about walking back and forward to his stable

i must admit he is starting to worry me, so i am getting tense now which is making it worse
i did lots of lateral work in walk today , bending and stretching trying to get him to relax and that seemed to work
we just seemed to have got into a vicious circle were he is tense and i'm now getting tense and i thought a calmer might be worth a try
 
I don't have a cage, actually, but I do deal with an inordinate number of riders whose horses are pratting about because they are not getting enough exercise. Stuffing pastes and powders into spooky, wired horses is not the answer to a simple equation: energy in = energy out. Some horses are getting too much energy even from just hay (which is exceptionally good this year after a fine summer and high sugars). Don't ask for help if you are not interested in the answers. Rude.
 
I think spooking when schooling is out of the same bag as laziness, they are both an evasion and I don't think a calmer will help but keeping the horse on the aids and listening will (or at least it helps with my horse). It may help with yours.
 
hi cinder :)
yes he's the same on the long lines and the lunge , he will spook and spin on the lunge too
he's just as high as a kite atm i think its the time of year with him , he also does it coming in from the field , he snorts and prances about/jogs
he is a stressy horse he's always box walked too and that is also worse

he is generally spooky and stressy atm not just when he is ridden
 
Cortez said:
I don't have a cage, actually, but I do deal with an inordinate number of riders whose horses are pratting about because they are not getting enough exercise. Stuffing pastes and powders into spooky, wired horses is not the answer to a simple equation: energy in = energy out. Some horses are getting too much energy even from just hay (which is exceptionally good this year after a fine summer and high sugars). Don't ask for help if you are not interested in the answers. Rude.
Click to expand...

me rude ?
you assumed without reading my post that my horse is stuffed with food and not given enough exercise
i am sorry if you didn't intend to come across as rude/blunt yourself but that is the way it looked in your post
 
My friend had good success adding magnesium to their horses diet. The mare was quite stressy but not particularly spooky and she did appear to be more relaxed after being on magnesium. Does your horse settle eventually when being worked? Could it be worth working the horse until it's tired even if it's on the lunge and then getting on to ride? Could maybe try poles on the ground too to try and distract him from whatever is scary!
 
oldie48 said:
I think spooking when schooling is out of the same bag as laziness, they are both an evasion and I don't think a calmer will help but keeping the horse on the aids and listening will (or at least it helps with my horse). It may help with yours.
Click to expand...

thank you
i have my trainer coming tomorrow so will see if she can give us some extra exercises to do :)
 
Cinder said:
My friend had good success adding magnesium to their horses diet. The mare was quite stressy but not particularly spooky and she did appear to be more relaxed after being on magnesium. Does your horse settle eventually when being worked? Could it be worth working the horse until it's tired even if it's on the lunge and then getting on to ride? Could maybe try poles on the ground too to try and distract him from whatever is scary!
Click to expand...

he does settle a little after about 20mins but is still spooky and won't go along one side of the arena (where the jumps are kept on other side of fence)
i lunged him over some poles on tuesday and after about 5 mins spooking and spinning he did trot over them happily with much snorting

that seems to have made him more spooky along the fence line as the jumps were then not there the next day
i could do a lot more pole work though , i only get them out once a week
 
angelish said:
me rude ?
you assumed without reading my post that my horse is stuffed with food and not given enough exercise
i am sorry if you didn't intend to come across as rude/blunt yourself but that is the way it looked in your post
Click to expand...

Yes, your description would indicate a horse which has too much energy (energy in does not equal energy out), which is happening a lot at the moment - I see a lot of riders whose horses are becoming too much for them because they are not getting enough exercise. The solution to this is best achieved by increasing the exercise and/or cutting the feed. Feeding calmers, IME, does not work. I do not ever intend to be offensive; I do intend to offer practical advice.
 
Cortez said:
Yes, your description would indicate a horse which has too much energy (energy in does not equal energy out), which is happening a lot at the moment - I see a lot of riders whose horses are becoming too much for them because they are not getting enough exercise. The solution to this is best achieved by increasing the exercise and/or cutting the feed. Feeding calmers, IME, does not work. I do not ever intend to be offensive; I do intend to offer practical advice.
Click to expand...

thank you
i apologies for taking your tx the wrong way maybe i am too sensitive

this was my first thought (too much food etc) and so i took everything off him (apart from the chaff and vit sup) and increased his exercise last week including taking him for a good hack/canter and adding more canter into his schooling

he is turned out every day and i normally finish work around 2 so is ridden every day , our hay has been checked and has very little nutritional value but i will cut down his hay too
i will get up early this week and lunge him in the morning before work and see if that makes any difference although i am a little concerned its just going to get him fitter
 
angelish said:
thank you
i apologies for taking your tx the wrong way maybe i am too sensitive

this was my first thought (too much food etc) and so i took everything off him (apart from the chaff and vit sup) and increased his exercise last week including taking him for a good hack/canter and adding more canter into his schooling

he is turned out every day and i normally finish work around 2 so is ridden every day , our hay has been checked and has very little nutritional value but i will cut down his hay too
i will get up early this week and lunge him in the morning before work and see if that makes any difference although i am a little concerned its just going to get him fitter
Click to expand...

That is always the trade-off with increasing the work rate: fit horses, especially if of a Thoroughbred persuasion, tend to get even fitter and more reactive, which is why being able to free school or turn out is so useful. However, I also think that part of your particular problem is that he's simply ignoring you, so perhaps ask your instructor for some exercises that will engage his brain a bit more (for instance, shoulder-in past anything he thinks is particularly spooky). Lots of transitions are also good. What is NOT good is being too afraid to do more than walk (which a lot of people resort too); a good forward trot or canter will engage the horse a lot more and give him less time to invent things to spook at. Good luck; we're all in the same boat at the moment!
 
Cortez said:
That is always the trade-off with increasing the work rate: fit horses, especially if of a Thoroughbred persuasion, tend to get even fitter and more reactive, which is why being able to free school or turn out is so useful. However, I also think that part of your particular problem is that he's simply ignoring you, so perhaps ask your instructor for some exercises that will engage his brain a bit more (for instance, shoulder-in past anything he thinks is particularly spooky). Lots of transitions are also good. What is NOT good is being too afraid to do more than walk (which a lot of people resort too); a good forward trot or canter will engage the horse a lot more and give him less time to invent things to spook at. Good luck; we're all in the same boat at the moment!
Click to expand...

thank you :)
he is an irish draft type with maybe a touch of warmblood , he was a rescue horse so have no idea re his breeding is just a guess really but he is def not of TB type so hopefully the extra work won't fitten him too much

yes i was guilty of staying in walk for quite a while today but did move onto trot and canter eventually , he was better today so i'm not sure if the walking relaxed us both a bit before moving on
i will also try schooling him in the field this week if its dry enough as there is nothing there to make an issue out of
he is very guilty of ignoring me at times so i will try not to be as boring this week ;) thanks for your suggestions
 
Horses have a requirement for salt to keep them in balance, this is the main requirement electrolyte wise.

Salt also helps balance high potassium which comes from mainly stressed grass, high potassium affects magnesium absorption. It also help encourage the drink and flush their systems.
 
He does sound a bit like my chap! I now find with my horse that he uses spooking much less than he did because he knows it doesn't faze me at all. As he's a bit lazy, I get into canter as soon as I can to get him moving and thinking forward and if he spooks, he gets a bl....dy good kick or even a tap on his bum and I let him go forward. He's always at his silliest at home despite it being familiar territory but I use the energy i t creates to my advantage and over time he's become more in front of the leg and consequently less able to mess about. Good luck, don't let it get the better of you.
angelish said:
thank you :)
he is an irish draft type with maybe a touch of warmblood , he was a rescue horse so have no idea re his breeding is just a guess really but he is def not of TB type so hopefully the extra work won't fitten him too much

yes i was guilty of staying in walk for quite a while today but did move onto trot and canter eventually , he was better today so i'm not sure if the walking relaxed us both a bit before moving on
i will also try schooling him in the field this week if its dry enough as there is nothing there to make an issue out of
he is very guilty of ignoring me at times so i will try not to be as boring this week ;) thanks for your suggestions
Click to expand...
 
This depends entierly on how you think he will react but, my mum was riding a horse for a friend because he was behaving similarly (shying at invisible monsters, snoting at thin air etc) and the owner had lost confidence.
After a couple of rides of trying to work him through it keep his attention etc she decided he was just taking the mickey and next time he went to do it, she didn't react particularly but did give him a loud, angry verbal bolloking ;) After that when ever he tried it on she just rode him forward and growled at him and you could see him start tense to spin she'd growl and he'd change his mind. Didn't stop it entierly but helped a lot.

However if your horse is a bit of a rescue case yelling at him may just scare him more... its another option :-/
 
I am just going to share my experience with you, as it may or may not help. My mare can be incredibly spooky and lazy and it has taken me a long time to fathom her out, but i now know she is highly susceptible to diet. She actually has a condition called RER and i'm not saying your horse has this but because she has it, i am now religious about diet and monitor exactly what she has compared to her performance. So, for example, prior to Christmas she was going really well, forward, not too spooky and willing to work. All of a sudden (well it seemed to me), she became very spooky and lazy. It makes it almost impossible to ride her - people will say its training, but the level of the spooking and tension, makes it almost impossible to train them. So i reviewed what had happened and there were only 2 things that had changed - firstly her hay and secondly i had added a handful of Alfa-A to her feed (speedibeet and supplements so very low in sugar). My hay looked like it had no goodness in it but i sent it off for analysis and low and behold it came back as having high sugar content (i would never have been able to tell my looking at it!). So i started soaking the hay and also removed the Alfa-A (some horses react badly to it). Within a few days I have a foward, much less spooky horse back. So i don't know for defniite if its the hay or the Alfa A but i guess what i'm saying is that in my experience, very minor things in the diet (sugar in hay or mineral balance) have a very big influence on some horses behaviour.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top