Loading - relax a stressy gelding. Confidence EQ worth trying?

[kittyb]

Hi all

My 17yr old warmblood is a bit stressy about loading, especially away from home. He is fine once travelling but he likes to worry about things and can get himself in a tizzy when loading if he thinks anything is at all fishy.

Do any of you have any recommendations for things that may calm him?

I have a new trailer arriving and want to make sure he gets on with it and has positive experiences. Last time I introduced him to a new method of transport he had a little whoopsy on the ramp and then refused to get in it for a year so I want to make sure he sees the new trailer as something positive. It is the same model as he is used to but is likely to still look and smell strange to him.

I have tried various magnesium and other calmers but they don't help.

He hates syringes and is very suspicious of anything I put in his food.

He is generally very excitable and quite stallion like in his behavior and tends to overthink everything in his life bless him

I was thinking of trying Confidence EQ - does anyone have experience using it? It sounds like it might suit him but it is super expensive!

Thanks

 

[impresario08]

What is it?

 

[stencilface]

I'll watch this with interest as next week I have to pre sedate a needle shy mule before he gets sedated to have wolf teeth removed. I've suggested a dart gun, but the vet just laughed

 

[Merlod]

I bought a couple to trial. My gelding loads fine, but travels badly (had a fall in a previous trailer) bought a slant load and now he doesn't scrabble and can balance wonderfully but can still get a bit stressy on the journey. I ended up buying a box because he has not sweated up once since using them. It may just be a placebo and maybe he has got over his anxiety by travelling lots in the new trailer, but certainly worth a shot and makes me feel better!

 

[Birker2020]

Hi all

My 17yr old warmblood is a bit stressy about loading, especially away from home. He is fine once travelling but he likes to worry about things and can get himself in a tizzy when loading if he thinks anything is at all fishy.

Do any of you have any recommendations for things that may calm him?

I have a new trailer arriving and want to make sure he gets on with it and has positive experiences. Last time I introduced him to a new method of transport he had a little whoopsy on the ramp and then refused to get in it for a year so I want to make sure he sees the new trailer as something positive. It is the same model as he is used to but is likely to still look and smell strange to him.

I have tried various magnesium and other calmers but they don't help.

He hates syringes and is very suspicious of anything I put in his food.

He is generally very excitable and quite stallion like in his behavior and tends to overthink everything in his life bless him

I was thinking of trying Confidence EQ - does anyone have experience using it? It sounds like it might suit him but it is super expensive!

Thanks

It sounds like your problem is with the loading side of things rather than the stress of travel. I can't recommend the dually halter enough. My horse ended up going to the Monty Roberts demo at Solihull Riding Club in Feb 2012 as he was a nightmare to load following a fright at a show centre with a pig! I think he was convinced the pig was coming home with us, he was shaking like a leaf in the trailer when 45 mins later I managed to load him! up to that point for 7.5 years he'd practically run on the trailer. Now he loads within seconds sometimes without the dually on at all. And he's used to pigs too, as our yard has them, thank goodness!

Other things I did were to put a talk show radio station on, on a portable radio in his trailer, and I have also given him more ventilation and hug his net a little lower for him. The dually is a very good piece of kit.

Also make your partition as large as possible as he will want to spread his legs to keep his balance. My Rice Richardson is set as 3/4 - 1/4 so he has a lot of room to spread out!