Conference noted::equitation

    
    Talking of highly strung, my palamino mare is such a wimp! She will
    walk and behave very well until a blade of grass looks like it might
    bite her or the wind rustles a bush. We then shoot either 180 degrees
    away from the monster, or four feet directly upwards! I have mastered
    the art of staying in the saddle, although last week ended up on
    her neck in fits of laughter after she jumped at something whilst
    we were going downhill.  She used to have an aversion to bright
    blue plastic bags that farmers leave lying about, but I managed to
    de-sensitise her to those after shutting her in the yard, waving
    one about and gradually bringing it closer to her until she would
    sniff it.  Trouble is, I can't do that for everything she comes
    across.  Surprisingly, she is good in traffic and lives on a farm
    so she's used to tractors and noise, she's never been given any
    reason to be nervous since I've had her. I even (eventually) managed
    to get her past a kennel full of barking dogs.  I'm sure I ride her in
    a relaxed manner (hence landing on her neck!) so I don't think I
    pysche her up.  The latest thing was when she spied a vicious looking
    shadow of a horse creeping up beside her!  Ok, it's funny to see
    this big animal jump in the air and almost hear her saying "EEEEEEK!!"
    at a puddle, but it could be dangerous in the wrong situation. She's
    a little better when out with my friend and her pony, who is bombproof,
    But on her on she's such a baby. (She's six by the way) 
    
    Any ideas?? Or will I just have to accept it as her - take it or leave
    it?  
    
    

    
    
    That last reply was from me, Karen Pewter, not Jayne!  She did her
    note at my terminal and I forgot to go back to my account!  Just
    in case you thought she had a herd of nervous animals!
    

	Yup, I've been there! These are some of the things that
	helped me with Ray...

	1. He didn't like the stable manager at the barn he was
	   being boarded at, and she didn't like him! After I
	   brought him to my own house, he calmed down some.

	2. SOURCE!! You hear it in the ads but it's true. It does
	   change their attitude; but I have no idea why. He's now
	   more like a pet than livestock!

	3. T.E.A.M. - Tellington-Jones Equine Awareness Method. It's
	   not really a massage, but you do these little 'finger-rubs'
	   on your horse in places where he's tense, and some of those
	   places just relax him in general, e.g. ears and forehead.
	   You can get tapes on this, or sometimes this notes file
	   announced where/when there are seminars.

	4. Lots of exercise; we did 3-5 hour rides on weekends, and
	   a few times a week we went out for an hour or so.

    Sometimes, ANY hot food is too much. Good luck with her! I know
    what it's like...

    
    My QH mare was so strange. She would be an absolute Pig in the
    ring. I mean, you could do anything to her and she wouldn't move.
    In the Field she'd be better, a bit excited, but she would move
    much more freely and with more enthusiasm, I attributed this to
    being ring sour, but take her on a trail or the road and forget
    it! She would prance sideways - back and forth, back up, jump up,
    rear, buck, kickout at cars and pin her ears.  I don't know what
    her reasoning for all this was, but there was NEVER a time that
    she did not do this and walk forward quietly. The mare is now on
    a breeding lease. She's being ridden lightly and taken on some
    trails, but thankful that the person likes her this way!!!! I
    hated it.
    
    Marianne
    

    My wife and I have a mare that acted as your mare does.  We went
    to a friend who teaches here in Syracuse, N.Y. for help.
    
    He started back with the basics of leading the mare around the ring
    and being firm, but gentle.  After the mare was walking quietly,
    he had us riding her at a walk until she was quiet.
    
    After about three weeks the mare quieted down and after four weeks
    she was trotting quietly, stopping easily, and walking by the scarry
    doors and windows, in the riding ring with no problem.
    
    Beside the back to basics approach, he also believes that the rider
    must have quiet and consistent aids.  He teaches Hunt seat and wants
    his students to use a lot of seat and minimal leg and hands.  My
    mare requires very little strength in the riders hands, now that
    we have her use to the seat and leg aids.
    
    I hope this helps.  And don't be sceptical, like I was, starting
    from the basics will get your horse comfortable with you and confident
    of herself.  This should quiet her down

    I went through a similar situation with our Standardbred.  He would
    be totally uncontrollable if he was not being ridden on a regular
    basis.
    
    What worked for us was to switch his grain from charger to Trotter.
    Trotter being a pelleted feed with a lower protein content.  I beleive
    a combination of the two, lower protein and regular excercise have
    turned our hyper horese into a happy horse.
    
    Good luck........Karen

    I also forgot to sign my name and to note my normal node
    
    The name is Dave and the node is KAPRI::
    
    I hope my experiences help you.

    While the previous replies contain good advice, I have observed that,
    in some cases, the rider makes a high strung horse worse. The rider
    anticipates that the horse is going to act up, and tenses. The horse
    feels the rider tense "obviously in fear" so panics and spooks at the
    least excuse. 
    
    A great deal of calmness is required on the part of the rider.
    Sometimes the trick is to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when the horse acts up.
    After being slowly, calmly and consistently reintroduced to whatever it
    sppoked at, the horse learns that it is expending a lot of energy for
    no purpose.
    

    I had a wonderful gelding who normally was just about bullet-proof
    when it came to spooking.  However, when he was FRESH he would jump
    at shadows, blades of grass, etc.   
    
    And generally it was best to not make a fuss when he did spook.
    If I fussed then he thought, "You think this was good, then watch
    THIS!"  So I learned to just sit quietly, keep my legs on him to
    keep him from moving TOO far to the side and keep right on going.
    
    I found that lunging him for 20 minutes or so at a trot and canter (he
    was really fit) would make a leisurely trail ride a lot more enjoyable.
    Or I could take him out and plan on trotting and cantering for the
    first 20 to 30 minutes.  Then walk.  Then he was more subdued (for
    him). 

    Mary Jo

    	I had a Morgan mare who acted like these spooks. It took me
    a while to realize that ,in her case, it was a game. She wasn't
    really scared,but when things got too boring and quiet,she spooked
    at the first thing that came into view. I finally took the tack
    of making the spooky thing more boring than the ride.  When she
    spooked at something, I made her stand there and face the thing
    until she would start to fidget to get going again, then I'd ask
    her to go toward the thing until her nose bumped it. At first this
    routine took about fifteen minutes. After a few weeks of this,the
    incidents became much less frequent and took less time . After a
    few months there was no more spooking. They're all different,so
    this may not help you,but I thought I'd pass it along for what it's
    worth.
    
    	George
    

    
    i agree with the last replies, just ignore it, act like you could
    care less, and act like you didnt see it.
    
    i have a mare that gets flighty, and when shes in season she gets
    down right studdy..shes not a mean mare, just always thinking of
    things to get around other things.(shes always trying to tell me
    she found a better way to do it ;^))   anyway i'm starting my show
    season this weekend and i had three weeks to get ready.
    what i did was put her on the lunge line and work the heck out of
    her. shes now up to an hour on the lunge line and i ride her an
    hour also....that mare is goin so good...
    i think the magic is to work the playfulness/hypherness out of out
    them and get them tired...
    
    i look at it this way the money that you spend on them, giving you
    1 or two hours of work  isnt goin to kill them.
             
    	wendy.
    
    

    
    
      I too have a mare that tends to be hyper.  When I got just about
    a year ago you could lead her and that was about it.  It took me
    about 6 months to get her broke to the saddle and going on a regular
    basis.  I NEVER hit her with anything other than my hand and then
    only once to get her attention.  If you even show her a whip she
    gets very violent and will rear and kick.  To get along with her
    I have to take everything slow and easy and let her figure out whats
    going on and then she is fine.  Even now every time that I ride
    her (4-5 nights a week)  I have to lunge her for a half hour and
    then ride her at a walk for another untill she is ready to settle
    down and concentrate on the lesson.  The key with her is to stay
    relaxed and calm no matter what she does.  No screaming, hitting
    or retaliation no matter what she does.  I rode her on Tuesday and
    there were some barrels out in the arena that she wanted to spook
    at.  We went by them several times and I accted as if it was no
    big deal, just another object.  By the third time around she was
    ignoring them just like she had seen them every day.  I doubt if
    she will ever spook at them again.  If I had beat on her to get
    close to them she would have associated them beating with the barrels
    and would have been scared of them the rest of her life. 
    
     I forgot to mention that she is a 4 y.o. TB and was abused before
    I got her.  They used to beat her when she wanted to stop and look
    at things before going on.  She is very head shy and it sometimes
    takes an hour to put her halter on when she is in the stall.  I
    have times when I wounder if all this is worth it but I know that
    if I give up and just sell her she could end up at the killers.
    Can't let that happen as she is really a very nice girl if you let
    her think first instead of react.
    
    Pat
    

    I had a mare like that and finally bit the bullet sold her (to
    someone who was looking for that kind of mare), and got myself
    something more suited to me and my needs.
    
    I wanted a pleasure horse; a pleasure she wasn't.

    
    Thanks for your ideas.  I am going to try lunging my mare for a
    while before I next take her out, but I am a bit worried because
    she gets bored so easily.  And when she's bored she starts playing
    up. Still, I'll give it a go. With regard to .13, I have never beaten
    her up, but have used a crop gently to reinforce aids when necessary.
    However, recently she played up, was being downright stubborn
    and would not do as she was told so I used the whip on her shoulder
    harder than I usually do.  This made her even worse and I could
    see she was getting ready for a full blown fight. I decided not
    to use the crop again and we eventually got home.  Maybe she was
    ill treated before I got her, but she has had almost a year of love
    and care so she should be getting over her past now. Anyway, I'll
    battle on and keep you posted!
    
              
    

    RE.12
    
    Hi Pat,
    
    I watched my neighbor go through the same thing as you are. There
    is HOPE! This girl has a 16.2 hand Appy and was very high strung
    when she bought him 3 years ago. The first year was very hard and
    I could not bring a lunge whip into my field without this horse
    going crazy. (Our fences join) Her second year was a lot better
    and this year the horse isn't the same at all. When she rides in
    the field she can lay back (not wise) on him as he walks around.
    They are the best of friends now and she can get him to do almost
    anything. He does not shy as much and will proceed on when asked.
    
    This horse used to be a rodeo horse and by the looks of the scares
    I would say he was whiped!
    
    I wish you the best of LUCK Pat, An abused horse is hard to calm
    down but IT CAN BE DONE!

I have a high strung Appaloosa gelding. In my case, it is a combination
of a nutty horse and operator error. The horse is extremely athletic, and
very willing, but sometimes he'd get into a mood where he'd be
fidgety and jumpy, throwing his head back, and finally just put his head 
down and RUN like there was no tommorrow (we were clocked at 40+ mph on 
one of these escapades). Not a good situation for an extremely inexperienced
rider like myself. So, without much hesitation, I took myself and
the horse to a pro for straightening out. 

She used a two pronged approach. For the horse, she made sure that the horse 
understood the basic cues that we were using. She did a lot of ground
work in a lunging ring, then progressed to riding in the lunging ring,
then to larger and larger rings. Meanwhile, for me, she started putting
me on my horse in the lunging ring and spent hours getting me to stop
given inconsistent and/or conflicting cues. (This instruction, incidently,
was included as part of the horse's training fee.) She worked me on my
horse and on one of her well trained horses to get me to understand
what to do, and how to do it.

The result is that the horse is more confident because he now understands 
what I am asking, and I am more confident because I have learned to look
and listen to the horse and anticipate problems before they occur. Now
the horse is back at home and doing very well. We still have progress to 
make (for instance, we still have not cantered outside of a ring). But, 
he is much more confident in himself and in me. 

I imagine if I was showing, I would probably have gotten another horse
because it has taken alot of time to get him turned around. But, I use
him only for pleasure riding and, well, I like him. To me, it is well
worth the investment of my time and energy to get him turned around.
I guess it makes us both feel like we've accomplished something! 

/ed

    Just an update for note number 584.
    
    My 'highly strung' mare Shadow has had a very nasty accident!!!
    
    She got her hind legs caught in some barbed wire and tore the
    tendons in both legs.  The vet recommeded that she be put down but
    a tendon specialist said it may not be necessary.  He suggested
    we give a week or so to see if she improved.  The good news is that
    she has.  It has taken a lot of work, changing bandages twice a
    day, washing with salt water and re-bandaging etc.  When the accident
    first happened her back legs kept collapsing, but now with VERY
    good support from the bandages she walks very normal.  (In fact
    you'd never know anything was wrong with her.) Without the bandages
    she is very unsteady. Her fetlocks keep wanting to fall forward.
    
    The wounds look very nasty indeed, as her skin has shrunk alot,
    but she is so brave and lets us clean the wounds thoroughly. It
    looks very promising so far. My only concern is how are these very
    open wounds going to dry up and heal properly whilst she needs pads,
    bandages etc for support at all times.
    
    The vet has told me if she recovers she will be O.K.  I know she
    is not in much pain and is her normal self. And basically she walks
    so well.  In the last couple of days she has stumbled but not fallon
    on her fetlocks this is a very GOOD SIGN ISN'T IT?
                                                      
    P.S I'm Jayne Chewter not Karen Pewter.
    
    Regards
    
    
    
    Jayne

    This is the first winter with my new mare (got her in June 1991) for
    the past 3 or 4 weeks she seems jittery.....spooking easily, very
    nervous when we enter the stall.
    
    I think it's because I feed sweet feed in the winter.  I believe they
    need extra calories to keep them warm.  No she's not blanketed and has
    a woolly coat.  
    
    OR...it could be because I don't ride in the really cold months, or a
    combinations of the above.
    
    Any ideas???  Should I go back to feeding pellets and cut out the sweet
    feed.  They have plenty of water and I have a heated water tank.
    
    Can't wait til spring!!!! to start riding again.
    
    Caryl

    Her jitters could be due to lots(?) of sweet feed coupled with
    less exercise. I assume she's at least getting some turn-out and/or
    lungeing? 
    
    They do need extra calories for warmth in the winter BUT we always
    increase their HAY to provide the calories. We do so for two reasons: 
    1) It gives them something to do because it takes longer to eat than grain
    and 2) I read somewhere years ago that the digestion of hay generated
    more body heat than the digestion of grain. Kinda like the old saying
    about using wood for heat warmed you several times...
    
    In fact, our horses get only timothy hay and a small ration of bran mash in
    winter. The mash is 2 coffee cans of bran & 1 coffee can of sweet feed
    plus chopped carrots. Mix w/ enough hot water to wet it down but still
    have a fluffy texture. We split that between 3 horses! They each get
    supplements mixed into it because we're in a selenuim deficient area.
    Actually,the supplements are the main reason we feed the mash at all!
    
    If the horse were jittery ALL the time, I'd suggest a Vitamin B1(aka
    Thiamine) supplement. We started using one of them a couple months ago
    for one of ours. I was skeptical but it seems to have helped. The horse
    is more relaxed and less cranky.

    She also could have been frightened by something
    while in her stall.....(someone wacked the outside wall?
    Another horse lunged at her, kicked at her...????)
    
    

    That's a good point. It could be something unrelated to feed. That's
    why I hedged before and said it could be the comob of the two. It could
    be something frightened her or made her nervous and is continuing do
    so. It might not even be something you think is scary.
    
    For example, we have a mare who is very calm around the barn.
    One day I went to get her and she was a nervous wreck. I couldn't
    figure it out...until a stray cat came walking across the
    rafters...Actually, I didn't figure it out at all the mare SHOWED me
    what the problem was. She jumped and snorted but as soon as the cat
    moved on she was fine. (We don't have any cats so I don't think she had 
    never seen one before)
    

    Thanks for the info....I'll cut down on her sweet feed.  she's somewhat
    high strung.  
    
    She's always been lively in the corrall, chasing the gelding, but this
    is definitely different....much more so.  Since I live in the woods, we
    have deer, coyote, and fox around and I have seen foxes go through the
    corrall.  Maybe this is her first encounter with them. I know we have
    a coyote in out woods cause we've seen him when we're out riding....so 
    if you see one you know there more....I really never gave this angle 
    a thought..  Plus there's more houses and the deer have moved into the
    woods and we see them alot.
    
    She has constant turn out and loves to run and play so I know she's
    getting exercise.  She keeps my gelding in line!!
    
    Caryl

    
    	I always cut down on my grain the winter - not enough
    	hard work for her to get it out of her system.
    
    	I don't want her taking it out on me when I start riding
    	again.
    
    	I usally start increasing the feed when she starts getting
    	ridden more.
    
    	My last mare I had to keep her on pellets most of the time
    	during the winter because she would get wacko with any
    	kind of sweet feed.  But when summer came and she needed the
    	extra boost I would put it in.
    
    	Best of luck.. (sounds like a great place to own a horse).
    
    Donna

    The cold weather probably has a lot to do with it.  
    
    Mary