I got Packenham (Paddy for short) - an ex point-to-pointer in May of 2012, after having a break from riding of about 20 years. There have been some ups and downs (mostly downs) over the past 18 months & this is our journey together from Paddy being a racehorse to hopefully eventually a riding horse!

Friday 28 March 2014

Last ditch attempt at calmers

Paddy's behaviour out on hacks has not been getting any better, he's spooking at absolutely everything even things that aren't there!! 

Now, he never used to be a spooky horse & when he was in full work in 2012 he was a joy to hack, he never used to spook and only jumped at things like birds flying out etc so I can only guess at what has changed. He's is fairly fit due to all the walking he has done, he's feeling much better since his back has been operated on and he's no longer in pain from his feet. This has left me with a horse that is a a complete numpty to hack out. 

So far I have tried a number of calmers, none of which have worked. I have also used valerian (not convinced this made a difference) and at times sedalin (1/2 - 1ml) - neither of which are competition legal and I don't want to continue with. So I contacted the people at Equifeast, who went through what I am feeding him and recommended cool calm & collected magnesium free, which I duely ordered and it arrived yesterday. 

He has to have a loading dose for the first month or so and then a maintenance dose thereafter. He had his first dose yesterday which I split over 2 feeds as it's quite a lot of powder and he ate it without thinking I was poisoning him. It may need some tweaking over time in order to get the calcium & magnesium levels correct, but I have seen some good reviews about this product and know other people who have found it has made a marked difference to their spooky horses.

I am hoping that this will work as I need to be able to hack him to stimulate his feet, and would like to be able to do it without fearing for my life every time. Currently hacking is NOT enjoyable!!

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