Sorry another calmer thread

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tinkerbell88

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I have been using Horse First Relax Me on my mare for the last 5 months and it has had a huge effect on her. She has been much more focused, cooperative and less stressed at competitions. Until now! Over the past 10 days her behaviour has gradually been returning back to how she was before-possibly worse! I had an awful lesson on Saturday when she spent most of the lesson spooking and rearing. Last night was the worst she has ever been and I have to admit she really scared me! She is now rearing vertically, spinning round and running backwards and it took me over an hour just to trot round my arena at home without spooking and rearing. It is nothing physical, it is just panic attacks.

I took her sj today and she was again awful and I was lucky not to be eliminated as she was rearing for so long. (I won't say anymore about today as she was horrendous but when she reached the fences she jumped brilliantly, it was just everything else inbetween the fences!)

So, I don't think the calmer is working anymore so I am looking at trying another one if anyone has any suggestions. Or if anyone has had experiences of something like this happening I'd appreciate any feedback as I have no idea where to go from here.

Thanks in advance.

Big glass of white for anyone who got this far
 
I gave up using calmers with mine partly because they didnt seam to make any diffrence and also because I have had bad experiances with the paste ones and jumping, so went a bit over kill and stopped using any!
I have her on Regumate now, She was not hormonal as in good days a bad days - it was always bad lol! So didnt think of it untill a friend said to try it as she had some left and wasnt using it. She is a diffrent horse now, expensive but in her case well worth it!
Hope you get it sorted :)
 
Sorry to hear about your mare, it is so annoying when you think you have finally overcome your problems then all of a sudden you are back where you started :(

My TB x ID doesn't rear but occasionally might do a buck but is a very big spooker. I have tried many calmers on him to see which works best for him but some calmers are just so expensive!

Some good calmers
- Feel Good 30 Calmer - Day Son & Hewitt
- Steady up Advance - Feedmark
- Magnitude - Equine America

Hope this is some help to you and i hope your mare is back on track soon :D
 
Why don't you call them? The number is on the side of the tub. If it's been working for 5 months and now not has something changed ie field etc? They are really helpful and may be simply that you need to adjust the dosage.

I hope everything works out for you and you get your mare back to being a nice cooperative person again.
 
Thank you for your replies! There are just so many calmers out there it's hard to know which really do work and which don't which is why I'm asking on here :)
loveshorses-I tried the Nupafeed and Magic syringes last year and they helped for dressage but made her a bit too laid back for xc and used to take about 4 fences to get her going which is why I am now trying ones she can be on all the time. Before this year I had also given up on calmers but when she is eventing fit her tiny brain just goes on overload!
horsecrazy25-will look into the ones you have suggested, thanks!
olovio-I plan to ring them tomorrow because by the time I had finished jumping today it was too late to ring. I was wondering if I should go back to the loading dose for a week then back to normal dosage but will ask them tomorrow.
 
has she maybe come into season?

sometimes they get pain in the area where the ovaries are (like us getting PMT cramps/pain) so that could explain her behaviour.

If not Prokalm is very good!
 
No she isn't in season unfortunately as that would atleast give a reason for this behaviour. She has always had a rear and spook in her which Relax Me seemed to have pretty much stopped, so if they cannot help me when I ring tomorrow I will be buying another calmer which will hopefully have a similar effect but last longer than 5 months.

Who makes Prokalm?
 
Have you tried the Nupafeed liquid that you feed everyday? Mine is on that, and I can really tell the difference! Mine events, but doesn't need it for the actual events! He needs it for hacking. He didn't have it for a week as he wasn't at home, and has come back and you can tell he hasn't had any! He's been back on it 4 days and is just starting to calm down again! It doesn't stop him having his spark!
 
Equine America's magnitude and no more moods!! i am not a fan of calmers as a rule but i will NEVER take my mare off these again as our lives are a million times happier!! try them they are totally worth every penny!!!
 
Hi tinkerbell how bizarre my horse has done EXACTLY the same thing. He's a grade B jumper who has been on Relax me since Autumn last year and it has made a massive difference untill..... about 10 days ago. Just like your horse mine has completely reverted to previous wired behaviour. So much so that retired last weekend as had no steering or brakes.
The only explanation that I can think of is perhaps the high level of sugar in the grass is cancelling out the relax me. Our grass was very slow to come through this year and is suddenly green and growing in the warmer weather. You'll probably tell me that yours doesn't get much grass!!! Just a thought - be interested to follow the replies on here though
 
my horse has been on this for 2 1/2 years - how many scoops do you give ??

I have never found it not to work either !! I would call them and also Tantallon my horse does not really go out so your theory could be right x
 
Blue Chip Karma and Equine Americas So Kalm both contain magnesium and L-Tryptophan which I've found to work really well. Although the Relax me people have bad opinions of using L-Tryptophan but I ran it past my vet and he's happy for me to use the So Kalm Plus supplement.
 
I used Equifeast's Cool, Calm and Collected on my young horse that used to rear a lot, worked wonders with him. The loading dose is very large, but once its gone down to normal it is about £40 a month. Made a massive difference in my horse, i did wonder if he had just grown out of his naughtyness so i took him off it once and he turned into a nutter again within a week! Fab stuff :D
 
Equimins Serenity, guaranteed or you money back, I wouldn't be without it with Mack, in fact I probably wouldn't even be here without it :D its around £35.00 a tub now but worth every penny.

However Top Spec to one, which has worked very well for a TB on our yard that is out competing, the owner couldn't believe how well it's worked, but she's never tried any others before.
 
My OH has a horse who was sharp & gets extra high if he gets too much sugar & he's on a low sugar diet & a magnesium calmer. That was working really well until recently when, like yours, all his bad behaviours started reappearing (spinning, rearing, spooking, generally being a monster).

We racked our brains to try & find out why & eventually found out that a new livery was going round the yard giving all the horses handfuls of sugary treats. A quiet word & a DO NOT FEED sign on the door & the nice horse we'd got used to having was returned to us, so is it worth asking round if anybody might be feeding your horse stuff she shouldn't have?
 
Thanks for so many replies! Lots of calmers for me to look into. I'm really disappointed the Relax Me isn't working anymore because it had made such a huge difference to her so I'm now back to square 1 again.
Interesting about the sugar though because for the past month I have been giving her a small amount of Kwikbeet in her feed to make her eat the Relax me as she doesn't like the taste. Apart from that nothing in her lifestyle has changed and she is only out at grass for about 6-7 hours a day as anymore than that and she paces the field to come in.

I am just in from riding other peoples' horses for a quick lunch then will be ringing Horse First asap to see what they say before riding madam again to see what she is like today.

The calmers I tried before(about 4 years ago now) were Cool Calm and Collected and So Kalm and neither seemed to make any difference to her. I also work in a dressage yard where the rider was sponsored by Nupafeed so it was widely used on the younger/more stressy horses and I never saw any difference in any horse whilst on it so I am a little apprehensive to pay so much for a product I haven't seen work.

Will let you know what Horse First have to say.
Thanks again for all of the replies :)
 
Ok so have just spoken to the people at Horse First who say that she might have built up a resistance to it and they have advised that I give her 5 days back on the loading dose and then ring them again to let them know if there has been any change. They also said that for shows etc they should have the loading dose for 3 feeds beforehand which I do but even that hasn't worked for the last couple of weeks. If there has been an improvement by next week on the loading dose then they said she may just need a higher maintenance dose than they advise on the box.
I will follow thier advice but if there is no improvement then I will be buying another calmer to try something different. Horses are never simple!

Hope this helps you too tantallon!
 
what else do you feed i only feed mollichaff and something called coolstance its fab plus the calmer of course - he eats the calmer as the coolstance is made of coconut oil xx
 
My youngster is a bit of a nightmare to travel so I did some investigation in to calmers. A bit different to your mare though as he doesn't need it to be ridden, but I didn't want anything to adversly affect his ridden performance.
I have however tried ProKalm (I think it's by Science Supplements) and that seems to have worked the best, I give it him about 1 1/2 hours before travel and it seems to work well, and I have now worked out the correct amount to give him - I didn't want to give him too much to affect his ridden performance when he gets to a competition. I got a trial pack from ebay.
 
Tinks81 said:
what else do you feed i only feed mollichaff and something called coolstance its fab plus the calmer of course - he eats the calmer as the coolstance is made of coconut oil xx
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She is fed on Honeychop, conditioning cubes and oats, now with the kwikbeet. She is mega fussy though and I struggle to get her to eat any supplements. I have seen the coolstance stuff before I think, is it supposed to help with weight gain and needs soaking?
 
tinkerbell88 said:
I will follow thier advice but if there is no improvement then I will be buying another calmer to try something different. Horses are never simple!

Hope this helps you too tantallon!
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Hi Tinkerbell - thanks for that I have put mine back on the loading dose plus a bit extra. Rode him tonight and he's like a horribly coiled spring just waiting to explode so hoping Horse First's advice works otherwise I too will be looking at alternative calmers.
Let us know how you get on
 
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