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| So I'm gonna make her background as short as I can... This mare is 13, she was a phenomenal 1D mare, but got dangerously hot and arena sour. I let her off barrels for a year, and even then, she couldn't walk down my driveway without rearing and trying to run off. So we bred her, and well now the foal is 7 months old. Its been almost 3 years since the mare has seen barrels, and she is a dream to ride now - totally different horse than before.
My question is... how do I get her back into the arena without ruining it again? This mare is my pride and joy and I'm terrified for the day when I haul her to arena for the first time let alone run her for the first time.
How would y'all approach getting her back to running barrels again? Right now I'm working on just legging her up and getting her good and broke again. We have been doing this for about 2-3 weeks now. The plan was to essentially retrain her on the pattern at home and start hauling her like I would a colt... but then I got to thinking that if I worked her at home before I hauled her (hauled her to a place just to stand and watch), that she would anticipate where we were going and then my plan would backfire. (She's super smart and I have no doubt in my mind that she would figure out she was getting in a trailer to go run again if I hauled her after working her on the pattern at home). But.. I could be wrong. So what would y'all recommend?
Thank you for all the help! I just don't want to mess this up!!  | |
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Veteran
Posts: 264
| Did you ever do a thorough vet check? I would say almost all of my experiences with horses like that, they have a pain issue to make them that way. | |
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| Oh definitely, we tried everything. The long-term break was our last resort. (The eventual diagnosis was "she's got an attitude"). She is a cribber and gets treated for ulcers regularly because of this, but that's about the only thing wrong with her. She occasionally gets a sore hock or some ouchy front feet if she isn't wearing shoes, but other than that, she shows no pain whatsoever when looked over by a vet.
The thing that is weird to me is for the past two winters (once in early january and once in early december) she gets some weird liver problem. The first time this happened, we sent her to A&M - had almost every vet at the university look at her case, had a whole vet class taught on her, her entire abdomen shaved and ultrasounded to see what was going on, and they could not find a single thing wrong with her liver (even though she had yellow gums and was showing other signs of liver problems). She did it again the next year, and had my vet keep her for a week, and she just got better on her own. You can call the A&M vets to this day who know her case and they will say "I still have no idea what was wrong with that horse". That's about the only thing that raises some medical questions about her lol. | |
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 Veteran
Posts: 178
| If she has no medical issues, I would haul her when you feel she is ready, and as you said, treat her as a two or three year old. Tie her to the trailer, ride her around the grounds, maybe open arena or just standing around or warm up arena if you think she can handle it. Don't do more than she can handle- even if it's just standing at the trailer at first. If she starts to get frazzled, back her right off. Ride her away from any pressure until she learns to relax. Work it into her slowly. Even if she does handle an open arena, or even exhibition well, reward her with riding her out away from the pressure again. Keep it fun, no pressure, and rewarding. Also, if you're just sitting around and she seems to start to get nervy, try to do lots of flexing, bending, circles, whatever your routine is at home to keep her focused on you. I like to keep certain warm up routines at home, which I always do at the shows so my horses know what to expect: routine and consistency, which helps to keep them calmer. Treat her like a colt.
Also, I know there are some great products out there, that address just these issues, such as Oxygen Jailbreak and others. I know the Jailbreak is a "Pre-race paste for the nervous horse, horses with ulcers, and gate issues. Contains probiotics, electrolytes and an acid reducer". Just a thought to help her out.
At the end of the day, no one knows your horse like you. Just feel her out. Good luck!
Edited by joplin21 2014-12-03 9:40 PM
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| Thank you!! I will definitely look into the product once I start hauling her places. Which knowing me is going to be forever from now since I'm so scared I'm gonna mess her up lol.
Edited by achildres 2014-12-03 11:11 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 139
Location: Abbotsford B.C. Canada | I totally agree with Joplin and woiuld add a few items.
Take a look at a journal article in the Equine Vterinary Journal Vol. 35 issue no. 6 pages 554-559 where they discuss enzymes that are increased and possibly of help when looking at liver disease issues which can be used along with clinical and ultra sound abnormalities to indicate liver disease.
JUst because some are not increased does not mean there is no problem so this is tricky and you need your vets advice.
These leak out of liver cells if damage is occurring, and other things like serum increases in urea and nitrogen and glucose and bilirubin and specific things like bile acids can be looked at.
Another thing is the enzyme GGT has been considered in conjunction with weight loss , higher white cell counts and lower red cell counts as an indicator of over training .
over training related Poor performance has been considered in thoroughbreds if plasma GGT activity ais pproaching 100 u/l and there is weight loss, reduced performance ,despite continued training and "behavior" and appetite disturbances among other clinical anomalies. Serum GGT should return to normal within reference range if training intensity is decreased or training stopped.
Reduced hepatic function may be considered if mild elevations in serum bilirubin has occurred , But this should be the vets call and if substantial elevations in GGT occur or other biochemical test or clinical findings suggestive of hepatic disease should occur, they need to be thoroughly evaluated for hepatic dysfunction via serum measurement hepatic ultrasound and upon vets advice hepatic biopsy. (Equine Sports Medicine & Surgery Hinchcliff , Kaneps and Goer )
Very tricky .
The horse seems to get into a real emotional upset it seems so it would be interesting to see if she has fear of pain occurring . Can you get in touch with one of the Parrelli types who kn ows barrel horses and see if it is the thought of running or is the horse genuinely fearing being hurt.
Perhaps I would suggest any horse that cribs usually has ulcers even if it does not show on the outside, They may be gastric and often with right dorsal colitis Texas A and M looked at that combination. I think the horse may benefit fromn being on a low sugar and starch diet using fat for energy to a large extent . I would suggest she get 2 lbs of alfalfa cubes or hay one hour before you ride /train so if any acid splashes up which it will, it meets that little mini mat of alfalfa and gets buffered. Fat and fiber may help this horse.
sinec ether is a low grade inflammation from cribbing which pushes acid up as the horse heaves up, she needs support accodring to vets advice and I think some alfalfa in the diet as alfalfa truly buffers acid way better than straight grass hay, Also add a source of omrga three fatty acids such as a product high in the active DHS and EPA. Even milled flax. It worked great for my mare with hives and we know it helps the joints ( eg recent work feeding a marine source at colorado state reduced markers of inflammation in knee joints.
There is recent work a source of magnesium may actually calm horses so at least try two teaspoons a day of magnesium oxide and I wiould add 1 tsp of biochromium to boot.
Journal of Comaprative Exercise Physiology Dr. Nielsen Michigan State U . Needs further research but something ios up there!
The horse is quite emotional perhaps so I would also work to lower crude protein as well as sugar and starch if it is crazy high, as some of that can be made into glucose and blow the horse's mind.
Some high crude protein grass hays may have amines and nitrates that actually act as vaso constrictors and that can raise blood pressure.
Ask you feed comapny to give you a diet that matches your horses needs. They all have them now.
I also wonder if there is not more going on than you think hormonally. My mare was a mean nasty horse who lost her mind at the slightest provocation. I was given this horse when she was 15 because no one could ride her without getting dumped or some other disaster.
However since she looked like a stallion and had very strong heats I thought heck I spayed my dogs so why not her. I had her ultra sounded seemed ok and she responded a bit to regumate the previous year, so I thought something was screwed up. Down to Pilchucks in Snohomish Washington, took out her ovaries and lo and behold they looked great. However, they did a smart thing for me and biopsied them. One had a tumor inside with grannulosa tissue secreting testosterone according to the sugeon. It was not a cyst or tumor on the ourside. IO did ultra sound earlier suspecting a cyst but saw nothing. So this horse was 19 at the time (shoot me for spending the money on her) but it drove me crazy trying to figure out why everything was such a big deal to an older exerienced supposedly trained horse. Turns out maybe she had a reason.
So I think do what your colleague suggests for sure, that is great advice, and consider really cooling her out with a diet makeover and as she says advance and retreat and see how she does. I suspect she is in some physical pain in her tummy especially as liver function seems to suffer sometimes not to mention the cribbing. Discuss things with your vet and maybe do a work up with blood etc if she agrees .
Maybe Running barrels may simply have hurt her a bit and she just decided to heck with that .
It has taken me two years since my mare's operation to get her so she walks home on a loose line after a trail ride and does not spook at rocks she has been by for a hundred times. Just as an aside I found she would not cross a small ditch one foot deep full of grass until I worked her through it with advance and retreat and so on. I need more ground work for sure i was too lazy. This is a mare at 21 years of age ? The ditch did not hav water in it.
I do sympathize with you and just wanted to give you a few different angles to consider. You may be starting all over again but it sounds like she is worth it if you can get her in a good place mentally and health wise.
Coastal Rider
PS I can e-mail the articles if you do not have access to them.
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| Thank you so much!! She is eating Renew Gold right now (so 15% protein, 15% fat) with coastal hay and alfalfa hay every day, she's acting like my 13 year old gelding now... she will walk down the road (which previously used to terrify her), on a loose rein in a snaffle. Now, she will just try and prance a little bit after we trot for a good amount of time, but if I keep talking to her, she will calm down and walk without my hands on the reins at all. I seem to have wiped out all the crazy and have her on a clean slate, so now i just have to make sure I don't mess it up again! Lol.
If something happens with her liver again, I will definitely make them look deeper into it. But her blood work up was generally normal at the other times it has happened. I don't really remember exact numbers of bilirubin count or anything like that, but I do remember she was slightly anemic. This was about a year ago, so if it happens again, we will look further into it.
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 Expert
Posts: 2013
Location: Piedmont, OK | Have you ever scoped her to make sure she is not a bleeder | |
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| No i haven't! I do not know too much about them. What are the signs/symptoms? Granted it's gonna be hard for me to tell now since the last time she ran was almost 3 years ago.. | |
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 Loves to compete
Posts: 5760
 
Location: Oakdale, CA | if she was my mare I would start sorting on her if they have any nearby you........... At least in my area its really laid back the cattle are gentle and you go through a gate alot. Roping on her even the heel o matic. Get creative get her to enjoy riding again..... | |
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Expert
Posts: 2013
Location: Piedmont, OK | Not every bleeder bleeds out. I had one who was refusing the gate and would try to run off at the first barrel. He is very high strung. Treated him for ulcers and he acted a little better but not much. I ended up scoping him at a big race where there was a vet on site and his lungs were full of blood. | |
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| I don't have too many options for cattle nearby, but I would love the opportunity! And yeah we have tried the whole swinging the rope off of her... she wants nothing to do with that...
And the bleeding thing sounds like it could be a culprit!! Is there anyway she could shown signs now if she was scoped?? I would assume not...
Rode her today and noticed a clicking sound that came from her back end and it sounded like it was her spine. Didn't do that the day before... Didn't seem to bother her but it sure did bother me! | |
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