Spooky irrational horses

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Louby

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Has anyone 'cured' a totally irrational horse.
My boy is terrified of push bikes one minute then doesnt bother the next. Our last dressage test was ruined by the judge ringing the bell!!, he freaked. The test before it was the oh so scary xc jump, then 2 boys on bikes, then a man stood at the end of the arena. My friend reckons hes half asleep and then jumps when he sees things at the last minute. He isnt scared of 'normal' spooky things like shopping trolleys dumped on the bridleway (nice
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), plastic bags but scared of things that are quite normal, like a blanket on the fence, people stood there and of course bikes.
He has got a really annoying tongue habit where he draws his tongue back almost constantly, contact and no contact and he sort of goes into a trance when he does it so we think hes that mesmarised he isnt aware of whats going on arround him. Tried allsorts to cure it but with no success.
 
If u find an answer id love to know!!
my horse is the same, except he doesnt just spook, he spins at the speed of light then bolts. Have ended up in hospital. no idea why, just some days hes a nightmare. 90% of the time tho he is superstar. Also have tried all known calmers on the market, none of which have worked with him!
 
thought might not be, welsh would def be scared of the shopping trolleys on the bridleway too.

have you had his eyesight checked?
 
is he worse for example where he knows well and things change or is he just as bad or worse away from home?
 
Hes probably worse away from home.
I mentioned it to the vet a while ago who reckoned hes fine and its just him (knows him well as a drama queen!) but think I will get his eyes checked when his teeth are done.
Hes perfected a spin as well
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but thankfully doesnt bolt as well.
A bike flew towards us last weekend after a few others passing without any reaction from him. He was messing with his tongue at the time, his ears were back a bit and I just knew he hadnt seen the bike even though Im pushing him forward and like, hey look you wally, then suddenley he saw it at the last minute and spun the other way. The poor biker was scared to death.
 
Thanks for all your replies.
He gets a handful of Hifi, just started Topspec antilami (had no lite) and literally a handful of pasture mix with garlic and cortavet. Hes always been irrational but cant tolerate sugarbeet or cool mix, sends him loopy. There is loads of grass at the moment so that cant help.
What do you feed please? He is overweight at the mo though.
 
I think its worth an eye check, mine is better away from home, he is worse at home if things change on usual hacking routes etc. unattended bicycles etc v scary. Actually tends to be anything that could kill him is fine, things that can't are really scary.

He's welsh so round and gets fed nothing at the mo and limited grass. In winter he gets hifi and nuts (sugar beet occasionally but rationed as can make him worse) we have used calmers on my mums sprightly arabxtb. Only thing that made any diff was valerian based ones but he sounds like he isn't paying attention and then spotting something last minute. It sounds like the tongue thing may have become a bit of a stereotype, ie something repetitive and soothing which sends him a bit trancey. Have you tried everything tack wise to try and prevent him doing it. Does he do it schooling and hacking and jumping etc?
 
How old is he? My Welsh Cob is like that - has had me off a few times! I worry about doing fast work with him as he can spook so fast, I'm not sure I'd stay on in a fast canter / gallop.

He is settling down though (age 9...).
 
Does he need to be given any hard feed this time of year? Personally, unles they need supplements, are doing excessive workloads or are a very poor doer I wouldn't want to be feeding hard feed in the summer.

As for spooking - are you pre-empting (ie thinking "hmm, he''s not going to like that") it or does he take you by surprise?

Some horse are just more spooky than others - my sister's is similar, not scared of usual horse-scaring objects, but a dock leaf 'hidden' in a hedge...... terrifying!!

Not sure what the 'cure' is, maybe not reacting too much to the spook. Remaining calm and riding firmly but you may well already be doing that. The magnesium suggestion may be worth a try though.

It's tricky isn't it, mine horse is spooky and I swear he just likes to give himself an adrenalin rush as he's not really actually scared of anything (put it in the field he'd be into it like a shot!). However, he's not malicious/dangerous and pretty much does everything i want/ask so it's one quirk i tend to put up with.
 
D has a split personailty, hes a nightmare, went out on saturday he freaked at everything. Spent most of the time going up ways, side ways, down ways, left ways etc bucking rearing going backwards and even at one point fell down a ditch, had to get off several times to get him past things. Did exactly the same route on sunday and didnt bat an eye, had a fantastic ride, am coming to terms with the fact that, that is how he is. Pain i know but had him for a year now and nothing has changed!
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good luck with yours, hope you have more sucess than me!
 
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Does he need to be given any hard feed this time of year? Personally, unles they need supplements, are doing excessive workloads or are a very poor doer I wouldn't want to be feeding hard feed in the summer.

As for spooking - are you pre-empting (ie thinking "hmm, he''s not going to like that") it or does he take you by surprise?

Some horse are just more spooky than others - my sister's is similar, not scared of usual horse-scaring objects, but a dock leaf 'hidden' in a hedge...... terrifying!!

Not sure what the 'cure' is, maybe not reacting too much to the spook. Remaining calm and riding firmly but you may well already be doing that. The magnesium suggestion may be worth a try though.

It's tricky isn't it, mine horse is spooky and I swear he just likes to give himself an adrenalin rush as he's not really actually scared of anything (put it in the field he'd be into it like a shot!). However, he's not malicious/dangerous and pretty much does everything i want/ask so it's one quirk i tend to put up with.

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I would ditto ALL of this......I found I was making my spooky/sharp lad worse by pre-empting it and tensing....when I ride the other 2 I dont get like that because they are practically bombproof so that has helped me relax and in turn he seems to spook less.....and when he does it doesnt bother me anymore. I give him Magnitude calmer which deffo works.....he's not getting any hard feed right now so he hasn't been getting the supplement and he's definately sharper again......
 
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My advice would be to restrict his grass intake and get him to gradually loose weight over the next 3 months. Take him off hard feed completely. Get his eyes checked out. Hack him out at least 3 hours per day 7 days per week.

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I agree with the reducing of feed and grass but do you have any other ideas of exercise as 3 hours a day 7 days a weeks isnt always possible. Do you know of anything more realistic? Alot of people who have this problem (me included, though mine isnt over weight) dont have 3 hours to hack every day as we work full time. By the time you've got home at the end of the day, done your chores, sorted out the other animals/children etc, that would mean (for me) setting off for riding at about 7pm and not getting home till 10pm and frankly when your up at 5/5.30 every day to do every thing before work, the last thing i want to be doing is going to bed at midnight! sorry for the rant but you obviously dont work.
 
[ QUOTE ]
My advice would be to restrict his grass intake and get him to gradually loose weight over the next 3 months. Take him off hard feed completely. Get his eyes checked out. Hack him out at least 3 hours per day 7 days per week.

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Who said anything about needing to lose weight??
 
My horse is like this, Honestly he is very sharp for an Irish draught. He has got miles better though lately. As I just keep him travelling forwards rather than letting him dawdle at his own pace , as this is when he is most likely to spook.

He is a poor doer so I have to feed him up, but honestly when he was on nothing it didnt made the slightest bit of difference to if he was worse or any better.
He used to spook and spin, but now he just jumps or his head shoots up to see what it was. So I dont mind. His eyesight is fab its just him being soft.

Weirdly but gladly though take him on the roads and he is fab.
 
Louby, mine is on the winergy equilibrium senior. i went for that one because it is only 3.5% starch. Just a half scoop in the summer. She is also on magnitude. It is pure magnesium. Sonetimes the grass doesn't provide enough nutrients and magnesium is a major one. I get the america equine one from www.supplementsolutions.co.uk.
It might even be worth having a chat with the girl, she is really helpful and seems to know her stuff.
It is always worth a try. I don't know what the starch content will be of what you are feeding at the moment, your lami one will probably be low. There are some of the so called calming/non heating feeds which claim low starch are actually around 15% so compared with the winergy one, that is quite high. The customer services at winergy are great too for advice. My feed place didn't stock it but have no problem holding acouple of bags for me, so i am sure you will get it ok if you decide to give it a go.
Good luck, be good to hear how you get on.
 
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