Kelpie
Well-Known Member
I have a mare that jumps beautifully in practice at home or at clinics (SJ and XC) but when put in a show environment it all just goes to her head and she gets very worried/ can't concentrate/ as a result will refuse and/ or rush jumps. She does also worry in the dressage ring but it's easier to "manage" that (I hate to say it, but it probably actually has the result of making her paces look more extravagant!)
I've had a strategy of taking her out to low key events to try and get through this before we go out eventing. It's sort of worked in that she does manage low key events well now but as soon as we try and up the anti in terms of scale of venue, she worries again.
It may be that I just need to be more patient and keep batting away taking out to low key events until she is virtually bored there and just keep finding different venues of increasing size and I'm totally open to that as a possible solution.
However, what's on my mind is whether I ought to be thinking anything along the supplements route? I'm quite sceptical about supplements generally and of course for eventing I want a horse that has her wits about her anyway. However, I have read about some of the Equifest products being good for this sort of concentration issue, but as I say, I'm a sceptic so I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has tried this before?
I'd also dearly love to hear from anyone who has had this as a problem before and how long it has taken you to get past it? I fully expect any horse new to competition will find it all very distracting at the start but I must admit that I was hoping by now we'd be past this....... (about 5 months of fairly regular outings competing, and before that 6 months of outings to clinics/ training venues, etc.....).
Thanks ever so much for any help on this.
I've had a strategy of taking her out to low key events to try and get through this before we go out eventing. It's sort of worked in that she does manage low key events well now but as soon as we try and up the anti in terms of scale of venue, she worries again.
It may be that I just need to be more patient and keep batting away taking out to low key events until she is virtually bored there and just keep finding different venues of increasing size and I'm totally open to that as a possible solution.
However, what's on my mind is whether I ought to be thinking anything along the supplements route? I'm quite sceptical about supplements generally and of course for eventing I want a horse that has her wits about her anyway. However, I have read about some of the Equifest products being good for this sort of concentration issue, but as I say, I'm a sceptic so I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has tried this before?
I'd also dearly love to hear from anyone who has had this as a problem before and how long it has taken you to get past it? I fully expect any horse new to competition will find it all very distracting at the start but I must admit that I was hoping by now we'd be past this....... (about 5 months of fairly regular outings competing, and before that 6 months of outings to clinics/ training venues, etc.....).
Thanks ever so much for any help on this.
