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Member
Posts: 8
| I have recently taken on a blown up barrel horse who had turned out a lot worse than I was expecting. I can’t even ride her around without her being tense with her head up in the air just wanting to go fast. She does this in the arena, on the trail, pasture etc. when I lunge her she is relaxed and moves out slowly and calmly. Her saddle fits and she isn’t sore anywhere. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. | |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
 
| Get her scoped for ulcers. See if she needs mare or calming supplements. Raspberry leaves, magnesium, etc.
There's a good chance that she's never known anything but go fast, so it'll take quite a bit of time to get that out of her. Some won't ever come out of it, but will at least be more controlled. Will she stand with you on her? Just take time to stand there and talk and pet her to make her realize you aren't scary and aren't going to ask for anything. Get off, repeat. Then move to walking around, and so on. | |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| I had a mare like this, the girl kept her in a stall 24/7 except for the 30 minutes she rode her. Not only that, she was on alfalfa hay and Omelene 200. When she rode her it was running the pattern over and over. The mare had no mouth left and was mean as h**l in her stall.
I bought her and turned her out on a crappy grass pasture, but she had room to move, took her off of the alfalfa and grain and fed her grass hay and some local pelleted feed. I waited a week before I ever got on her. She had lost the mean attitude but she thought she was supposed to do nothing but run. She was a naturally hot little mare so at first we went back to a snaffle and I'll tell you now, my arms hurt from all the circling and pulling I had to do to keep her under control. I didn't ask for any speed but a walk for a long time, maybe a month. When she rode at a walk for 5 minutes I got off and gave her a cookie and I led her home. For about a week this was our routine, then the next week she did even better and by the end of that month we were loping, although she was still strong on the bit and we did a LOT of circling for speed control because pulling just allowed her to run. And this mare was not going to lope down and certainly this was not a smart idea in the South Texas summer heat and humidity. She went back to the barrel pattern and I was able to get her to lope through with out fighting me, though she never flat foot walked a pattern, she would walk it at her pace.
It is just going to take a lot of patience and forgetting about barrels for a while. A grain free diet wouldn't hurt, if you are not already on one. Also, this mare was always cocked on go, didn't matter if you were working cattle, trail riding, schooling or at a race. Just be VERY flexible with him and let him tell you when he is ready to progress. | |
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 A Barrel Of Monkeys
Posts: 12972
Location: Texas | She's expecting pressure every time she's ridden. Yes, calming supplements and ulcer meds. Lots of slow riding. And if you must, go to Ace or Chlorpromezine for awhile so she'll learn she won't be pressured everytime you get on. | |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I got one of these tense and anxious every time you got on him, poor guy he was just a bundle of nerves, it took a long time for him to relax, I hardly ever road him in the arena if we did he'll get nervous so I just did alot of ground time like brushing him alot never threw a saddle on him for awhile and when I did ride him it was just pasture riding with alot of trying to just get him to relax.. I put a different bit on him and did alot of puttering around, it took a really long time for him to finally relax I also put him on a B1 supplement to help him some. Now you can get on him and go have a relaxing ride, I still dont run him on barrels cause I really have gotton out of them myself, I'm pretty sure if someone started to run him again he would be the tense and nervous horse that come to me once again. He just had to much pressure put on him for many years running barrels and it finally got to him because that's all they ever did with him, so it was run run run. | |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 966
Location: Loco,Ok | When you lunge her she's fine. When get on changes. On line nothing in her mouth. No one is pulling on her head. When get on. She goes back to running off basically. She's been in a trap bind for so long. All those want is out of the trap. Have a bigger bit mabey have head tied down. And your pulling,get braced up against her. She braces up against you. Stiff and anxious. It's hard to explain. Your going to have to give her relief.40 yrs of experience. | |
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