Need a Calmer that will really work !

[gemstoneflyer]

Hi everyone, basically this is my mare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrMzCRyHvQE&feature=c4-overview&list=UUWECVoBuAc9mI2kt4cZzLmw

Shes is a 15hh Belgium warmblood 13 years. I bought her at the beginning of the year knowing that she was feisty and hot headed, however I didn't realise how difficult it would be to get her to chill out. I don't know any of her previous history however I have sent her for schooling and the person I sent her to thinks she has been pretty badly beaten.

She is a lovely mare to handle and has the nicest nature but as soon as you get on her back she just turns into a psycho, she will not relax, you can school her for hours and she will just work herself into a frenzy. Hacking is no different either, she will be alright for the first 5-10 mins but you can tell that she is tense as soon as you get on her back, and by the end of the hack you are cantering down the road side ways.

She has had her back and teeth done about 2 months ago so there should be no problems there.

She is such a lovely mare with so much talent but I am quickly running out with options as she just will not relax .

I really want to compete her BS and have been trying for the past 6 months however we have only ever managed 1 double clear at BN. She just seems to blow her head when she sees jumps and you can't get her back, which leads to her galloping round the arena and leaping everywhere. (Video above shows this)

Any help would be great

 

[Cortez]

Nothing particularly wrong with the mare, just looks like you are overhorsed. Tight standing martingale ain't gonna help you here; some professional input would be in order.

 

[gemstoneflyer]

I have had horses like her before been riding since I was little and my dad trained racehorses. I had her sent away for schooling like previously said and they recommended a calmer for her just don't know which one to get ... That's the whole point of the thread, I'm not looking for advice on how to ride my horse.

 

[mulberrymill]

Having a particularly spooky and anxious horse myself and tried every calmer on the market, this weekend I tried Bachs Rescue Remedy, not believing for one minute it would have any effect. Wrong. He was toooo docile, never known him like it. Tonight went for a hack on the stubble and met a scary tractor and he didnt flinch. Yesterday he had 4 drops before we left for the show and another 4 when we arrived which was about 2 hours before his class. Tonight he just had 2 drops before we went out. Dont know if it works for all, or even if it will continue to work for him, but at £6 for a small bottle, it is a cheap experiment.

 

[gemstoneflyer]

Thank you sounds like it is worth a try

 

[Micky]

Rethink your feed for her, take her off cereal/hard feeds and keep her on chop and a good supplement to start with, then find a good instructor to take you and her back to basics re jumping. My daughter had a horse who loved jumping but was a bit too eager and eventually, anxious and would tank around the jumps. We took him once a week to a lady who taught her and horse to calmly jump around a menage and schooled etc. The difference was astonishing ( after a month) and she gained more confidence as did the horse gain trust and listening power from her! Good luck

 

[AliceCrail]

I swear by Equine America's Magnitude.It is about £20 for 6 months supply and I was amazed at the difference.
On a different note, my mare has a very similar jumping style, do you find the sheepskin noseband works? As I was thinking of trying it for my mare.

 

[fuzzle]

Believe you and me i have tried everything the best calmer id the one which was recommended to me by my vets it is equistro equillizer or if its really hot try the eqistro forte, eqistro forte is £60.00 3 months supply which works out cheap!! think that is animed which sells it at that price!! the equilizer is £27 month but it will take 10 days to get into the system, forte is a liquid and you should notice a big diffrence in 3- 4 days!! good luck hunxx

 

[Beth889]

Pure magnesium. Works really well.

 

[JillA]

Pure magnesium. Works really well.

It does - but only if the problem is caused by a magnesium deficiency in the first place (a lot of the land in this country is short of Mg). You will know if she if she is behaving as though she is permanently running on adrenaline, spooking at things no sane horse ought to find scary, or things she has seen hundreds of times before. Cheap and easy to check though - just get a couple of weeks supply of Magnesium Oxide for about £5, if it is going to work it will do in that time scale.

 

[Beth889]

I thought magnesium oxide is different to pure magnesium. Something about the imbalance of something.

 

[orionstar]

There are two main deficiencies in the soil in the UK that calmers work on magnesium and calcium, so what works for one horse may not work for another and it can vary from one field to the next and from one bail of haylage to the next. I had my mare on horse first relax me after her op and she was on stable rest, which worked because she was magnesium deficient. I now feed altec lifeforce and it's made a big difference to her stress levels.

 

[JillA]

There are two main deficiencies in the soil in the UK that calmers work on magnesium and calcium, so what works for one horse may not work for another and it can vary from one field to the next and from one bail of haylage to the next.

The problem is the balance between the two - too much calcium impedes the uptake of magnesium, so it may not be a difference field to field (a good sample is taken in small amounts from everywhere and from several bales to get an average) but differences in uptake and utilising.
My land has the worst of all worlds - low Mag and high calcium, and I think due to over applications of nitrogen over the years a lot of grazing land is similar, yet of many many horses on it over the years only mine has exhibited the symptoms of deficiency.
Calcium is important for skeletal maintenance but too much needs rebalancing. Interestingly my home grown haylage does not show a significant magnesium deficiency even though the soil does, but it is easy and cheap to add mag ox (magnesium is a metal, you wouldn't get it fed without it being oxidised) and any excess is excreted so no harm done.
As I understand it Altec Lifeforce is aimed at dealing with micotoxins?

 

[dianchi]

It will probably be a case of trying many types and see what works, for me the Cool calm and collected and global herbs TB calmer the ones that worked.
However my mare went like yours does when I got her, gag bits actually make them worse as it lifts their head, which you are then stopping with a standing- I actually found that a driving snaffle was the answer with an elasticated standing so that she could stretch and then didn't fight me as much!
Also the other thing that helped was bigger fences- that way she needed to listen as we couldn't mess about over them!
Good luck!

 

[Micky]

So you haven't rethought her feed then? What are you feeding her? I understand some horses are hotter headed than others but this is the first port of call!!!!

 

[martlin]

You might manage to settle her a bit with calmers and diet overhaul, but trust me, Cortez is right, no amount of fancy additives will solve the problem.

 

[noblesteed]

best calmer I found for mine was Topspec calmer, it has magnesium but also other stuff to aid digestion. But he never really settled on a competition yard, so I moved him so he could get more turnout and he was a lot better. I also dropped his feed right down and cut out molasses completely. Different horse, though he still gets excited when we're out he is controllable. BUT he was tense when stabled as well as when ridden - you say yours is fine on the ground? Therefore will calmers actually help if it's only when ridden?
We've moved yards since then. What I didn't take into account was the forage. On the competition yard he had only haylage. At the second yard he had hay. Third yard back to haylage again and within a month his system was upset and showing up in his feet. Back onto hay and he's been fine ever since. In hindsight I think his problem at the competition yard was due to the haylage. So it could be something dietary in your mare????

 

[chestnut cob]

What are you feeding her? That's the first place to start. If she's full of sugar/starch then she will be hot headed.

Calmer-wise, I feed MagOx to mine which seems to give him a few seconds to just think about things before over-reacting as a default. He is much better on it and I do notice a difference when I reduce or remove it from his diet. I've heard really good things about Equifeast.

How did the pro get on with riding her? How did they find her?

 

[asbo]

Just started my little mare on Magic liquid after an incident when she spooked and took off, rider came off and fractured her spine, resulting 2 weeks in hospital and a back brace to wear. Since starting her on the magic she does seem a little better, time will tell I guess.

 

[RachelBristol]

More work and less hard feed. I have always had hot headed horses, and the first thing I do is cut out the hard feed, and feed a good quality hay or haylage ad lib, then I start working them, and I work them on hills and over distance, once they are lacking energy do I start putting hard feed back in, but my 17hh Eventer for example (who is a real hot head given a chance) is on half a scoop of pony nuts and as much seed hay as he can manage. Weight is perfect as is fitness, and no hot headiness unless he isnt worked for a day. I would recommend going back to the age old saying of feed for the work done.

 

[TarrSteps]

Was she jumping successfully when you got her? If so, what classes?