Spooking Horse

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lornyevans

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Hi has anybody got any advice for my spooking horse?

My boy is a 6 year old, very low mileage, 14.3, cob type gelding. I have owned him since Oct 07. He is stabled at night, on a very small feed of Hifi, veg oil, garlic and carrots and hay.

He gets nervous for no reason on hacks alone and in company and I can feel him quivering - he tends to be focused on one spot - with no visual clue to what he is looking at. He then drops his left shoulder and spins to the right - he has had me off twice in a few weeks! He does not tend to plant his feet but will keep walking on until he spooks.

I have only just come back to riding after a 15 year break so I am having to re-learn everything!

I have tried keeping my legs on, keeping good elastic rein contact and talking in a soothing way but it does not seems to settle him - in fact I think the leg on may be winding him up more!

I am started to get a bit nervous and I don't want that to transfer to him - I am masking it for the moment - I think!

Any advice would be welcome - sorry it is such a long post!!
 
It can be due to a magnesium deficiency, which means he is running on adrenaline. Easy to check - just start him on a course of magnesium oxide, a few pounds off ebay, give around a teaspoonful a day. If it is the cause you will notice a difference in a week - it totally transformed my horse. It isn't easy to overdo it, but if you do his droppings will get runny, so you will know. If it doesn't help his temperament at least he will have good feet - the barefoot people use it for conditioning feet!
Apart from being no fun to ride, horse who can't relax isn't going to learn and isn't going to be very happy.
 
I can't believe someone has posted on here advising that "it isn't easy to overdo" magnesium. If you "overdo" magnesium you risk making your horse very ill indeed, it works by supressing the adrenalin response, but in doing so everything else controlled by that part of the brain is also slowed, including the gut, one of the risks of doing this is colic. Please only use magnesium available in one of the properly researched & balanced supplements available on the market, if you use one of these, the amount of magnesium you are feeding will be within a safe level. The reason your horse gets loose droppings is that it is also a laxative, epsom salts is magnesium!!!
 
You haven't had him that long, it might just be taking time for your bond to develop and for him to trust you out on hacks. it took me six months to get Daisy hacking calmly but we have got there. Loads of groundwork and getting them really used to the sound of your voice so that they learn to trust it and follow your vocal commands when they are scared. Daisy responds to a firm "Walk On" when she is gawping at something. She seems to know that if I'm saying it and I'm determined that it must be okay because I wouldn't hurt her.

I also read something useful that a horse relaxes when its head goes down so I got Daisy used to stretching her head and neck down when I gave the reins. Really works well provided it is safe to have long reins ie not on a busy main road. Has the plus side that I get great marks for free walk on a long rein in dressage because she loves stretching down.

Let us know how you get on
 
You'd have to give a huge amount of magnesium to cause any serious damage. A teaspoon a day as the OP recommended is not going to do any harm. There's nothing wrong with using Epsom salts - horsemen have been using it for generations.

As for this specific case as well as using a magnesium supplement I would stop feeding carrots (high sugar content and can make some horses silly) and the garlic - I don't know why but I've known a few horses made more spooky by feeding garlic.
 
try your giving your boy some rescue remedy just befire you hack out. About a dropper full on a small piece of bread. It just might take the edge off him. You cant overdos on this at all. Good luck
 
Interesting thoughts - thanks - you are right - not much to ride sometimes. But hey he is a lovely boy in every other way so worth some work
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Yup - I think you are right - patience and calmness! And it would be good on working his head down - he could have my eyes out with his ears at the moment!
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The idea of having to rely on a "properly researched and balanced" supplement sounds to me like adman speak - where did you get that from kizzywhiz?
I know loads of people using MagOx regularly for months and years (my own horse for upwards of three years to counteract a demonstrated soil deficiency which by all accounts applies to most of this country) at a fraction of the cost that the proprietory supplement manufacturers expect the rich horse owning fraternity to pay.
Sorry but it is not true that you can easily overdose magox - for one thing you would have to add enough to make a feed totally unpalatable. The appearance of loose droppings is an indicator that you have loaded the horse's system and need to reduce the dose. Lots of the less well off owners would miss out on an easy and inexpensive means of getting their horse back on an even keel if they were too worried to use MagOx - it is a cheap and reliable supplement on its own.
 
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