He can’t break his neck on a blocker ring, especially not in a stall.
We don’t know wtf this is, we’re hearing about it from an admitted beginner horse owner (who is a stand up person trying to do the right thing, but a beginner none-the-less).
With a horse headed towards the pink shot, simply attempting this is not a bad idea.
He is black. What kind of allergies are you thinking? We are in the northeast, and this behavior has persisted during fall, winter, and spring. During the winter there is basically nothing alive outside. He could be allergic to something in the barn, maybe, though there’s nothing particularly unusual about the barn.
I can mention the tying idea to the vet and see what she thinks, but my initial inclination is not to try it. Not because I think it’s a bad idea, but because it seems like a behavioral solution to a behavioral issue. And that’s very reasonable! But if this is, ultimately, a behavioral issue, we’ve already decided that his behavior overall is too dangerous to deal with. Or am I misunderstanding, and the stall tying would help in some other way?
I agree with @Scribbler’s characterization above that he seems to go into a blind panic. That’s how the first trainer I sent him to described it-- when he’s gone, he’s completely gone. In fact, that’s the main reason he refused to work further with the horse. He’s dealt with more dangerous behaviors under saddle (rearing + flipping, etc.), but he said that with most horses, you can communicate with them in some way. With this guy…he’s just gone.
Ulcers and Wobbler’s are the things that hit me in the face reading your description.
I had a horse that isolated himself in the field and he turned out to be a wobbler 
There were other things as well that I put down to being young and having had a tough go of life, but looking back now, no, he was telling me that he was uncomfortable.
My current horse is an ulcer victim. Although she learnt right quick that aggressive behaviour towards humans was not ever under any circumstances acceptable, we came to an agreement on certain things and I made a pact to be excessively vigilant for signs of relapses. Under the “wrong” person and with a slightly less amenable nature she could very easily have become dangerous.
Current horse is also “allergic to life” but none of her allergies have ever caused bad/potentially dangerous behaviour. Not saying it’s not a possibility, but I’d look to the “biggies” like ulcers and neck issues and any other skeletal pains before I dove down that $$ rabbit hole.
I am not sure if this is helpful at all, but I wanted to clarify the issues on the ground. Reading back, I might not have done a good job describing them.
Other than the snorting at a huge number of “scary” things (which he has done since I got him, and which his previous owner said he did with her), the only real incidents were the three I mentioned in my OP-- once being terrified to go into his stall, once slamming the trainer around the stall, and once charging someone doing night check.
But outside these incidents, people get a sense of “off”-ness around him, to the point where even people who don’t know what’s going on will look at him carefully when they walk past. It’s not ears pinned, or showing the whites of his eyes, or anything that obvious. It’s just a sense that something is wrong. And that sense has been escalating, as has his general anxiety level, to the point where my barn owner/instructor feels that euthanasia would be preferable to sending him to someone else, whether at a retirement barn or as a pasture pet.
I’m in the neurologic, neuro- muscular, vet hospital camp. Best of luck to you-I’m sorry this is happening to the two of you.
Ulcers! Your plan to do two weeks of full tubes of Ulcergard is a good one. I finally (after posting here…thread about horse that’s scared of skid steers, etc) did an Ulcergard trial with my guy and it was like night and day. I wound up doing 30 days, tapering down in the last two weeks, and thankfully he’s remained happy and calm. I raised this gelding from a yearling and know everything about him. He’s 15 years old now, and to see him, my home-raised baby that has always been so calm and cool about things, absolutely anxious out of his mind to the point I truly thought he might have a heart attack (he’d shake terribly and you could see his heart pounding)…it was heartbreaking.
I feel sure my guy’s ulcers started about 4 years ago when his last remaining pasture mate at my old farm (as in, I owned the farm) died and was buried. My dude was distraught. I sold the farm (where he was raised and spent the first 10 years of his life) and moved him to a boarding barn. He did okay there until he didn’t…BO changed feed (he was on all forage and she…without telling me…changed him to a very high carb grain and lots off it). My former easy-keeper was losing condition and starting to be a nervous wreck. He also started having diarrhea. I knew something was wrong, but for whatever reason, I didn’t follow through with ulcer treatment. Around this same time he started having back trouble too (poor fitting saddle contributed, and vet recommended also starting him on magnesium because his back would go into spasms). He would get so anxious and upset just standing in the barn that he’d lose his mind. It was so upsetting to me. He’d always been so happy-go-lucky, even as a baby.
Anyway, he started to improve once I convinced the BO to make some drastic feed changes and once I got a great trimmer who also realized that part of his back issues were coming from poor angles in his hind feet. I also got a new saddle that he preferred. All of these things helped, but he was still more of a handful than he’d ever been. Oh, and put him in a stall?? Forget it. He’d run circles nonstop with his eyes bugged out, absolutely out of his mind.
Moved him to an adjacent farm that was just a better set-up for him (smaller, better feeding program, better one-on-one care) and he settled down quite a bit. He still had his moments. I distinctly remember the BO telling me he was freaking out in his stall one day because of some work that was being done in the field out behind his stall. She said he was crazy and she was scared to go into the stall with him. There were a few times like that. But those times became fewer and farther between for the most part…just never completely gone.
Oh, and while at that barn, I started him on Equioxx for some hock arthritis. What a double-edged sword that turned out to be. Helped him feel better in some areas, totally aggravated the issue in his gut that I hadn’t realized was as bad as it was.
Moved him to my current barn and the first night he was there was the most out of his mind with terror I’d ever seen the poor horse. For at least a month, everyone at the new barn assumed he was some sort of nutcase (can’t blame them) and I kept promising that he wasn’t. There is a lot of heavy machinery working on this farm (very old farm with new owner who has the resources to do a lot of improvements and owns the machinery to do it). My horse was beyond terrified of the machines. As in, run to the back of the pasture and stand there and tremble. He was inconsolable. I tried doing groundwork, I tried being patient, being tough, you name it. There was no getting through to him.
I finally posted here about it and someone said ulcers. I listened and started the Ulcergard trial and BINGO! Within days he was already so much better. By the end of 30 days, he’s as close to his old self as he’s been since we left our old home years ago. Now, if a parade of huge dump trucks come down the lane by his pasture with the backs raised dumping gravel all along? He’s gone snort and run. He’s a horse. But literally ALL of the heavy equipment on the farm is now parked right by his pasture and he ignores it. I can ride around it and he ignores it. If it’s working nearby, he ignores it. I’m not kidding you when I say this is nothing short of miraculous given the amount of anxiety and frantic fear he had over this stuff prior to the Ulcergard treatment. Of course, he’s also getting acclimated, but I don’t think that was ever going to happen with the gut pain.
Sorry about the long story, but I want you to know that ulcers can absolutely cause what you’re seeing. And I don’t know how much magnesium he’s on, but 10,000mg is a good amount to help horses that might show deficiency and have trouble relaxing their muscles. My guy would cramp up and go into spasms over his back when he’d get nervous and it was like he was being attacked by whatever had spooked him…it was so upsetting to see. Add to that the fact that his belly was also painful, and the poor guy truly thought the things that scared him were hurting/trying to kill him.
I can’t remember if you said what he eats, but some alfalfa in there will help his tummy, and stay away from high-carb grains/feed. Keep hay or grass in front of him as much as possible, and if there’s a way to leave him out instead of forcing him to stay in a stall, that might help too. It’s possible that his new lifestyle is totally different than what he was used to, and that could cause and exacerbate the ulcers.
I truly hope you have the same outcome I did with the Ulcergard trial. It was such a relief to me to see my horse relieved of what had most likely been years of pain.
In case he’s still Mag deficient, you’ll want to space out when you feed his food with Mag supplementation and when you give the omeprazole.
I would also recommend scoping for ulcers. I’d go to the best vet hospital I could with a fair but not extreme budget. Explain the behavior. Have a scope done. Have a very thorough top to bottom lameness and neurological exam. I’d also pull blood for Lyme disease and epm. If nothing major that is easily fixed is found if euthanize with no regrets. You are a very kind owner to have tried so much already.
Good to know. Thank you.
Do you recommend a lameness exam in order to look for pain in general? Because he hasn’t exhibited any lameness under saddle-- he has lovely gaits.
Well in that case maybe focus on back and neck?
Thank you. 
I will cross my fingers for the Ulcergard treatment.
The magnesium he’s on is via a double dose of the SmartPak SmartTranquility treatment, which is a total of 4000mg. We’d put him on that initially to see if it helped with his anxiety, and even though it didn’t, we kept him on it because the bloodwork came back with a very slight magnesium deficiency. I’ll have the vet hospital do bloodwork (I’m sure they would anyway) to check on his numbers there.
Yes. Makes sense. Thanks.
I’m sorry you are in this situation.
With the history and circumstances you describe, I’d have no hesitation about putting this horse down. He’s not safe to ride or handle. Not just by you, but experienced professional riders and barn staff are getting hurt by him. You can dump a ton of money into diagnosing him, but I’m predicting he’s never going to be safe to ride or handle.
It sucks gigantically. But someone is going to get really hurt by this horse.
A good lameness vet who spends all day in and out looking at horses will see things you can’t see. Bucking very commonly has a root in lameness even if to the average horse owner or average vet the horse looks fine.
I have a retired 7 year old qh that has a fused hock due to juvenile arthritis. The average vet says he looks fine maybe a tad uneven, the lameness vet can see it and says he could be serviceable sound for walk trail rides BUT this horse has a nasty buck from pain. Before the issue when he was first broke zero buck, as he grew and the hock was more uncomfortable nasty buck so I retired him.
I am 98% of the way there. I feel like I need to do one round of thorough diagnostics to feel like I’ve done what I should before making that call. It’s not something I’m going to drag out. Although I’ve never had to do this before with a horse, I’ve spent a lot of time with rescue dogs and am familiar with the balance between risk to humans and wanting to save the animal. Euthanasia is not something I’m afraid of…I just want to make sure that all the (reasonable) boxes are checked off first.
I’d do what you are doing. Get him to the vet hospital and see what they think. You are a conscientious owner, and will feel better about putting him down if the the medical opinion agrees that he is too dangerous for people to keep handling.
Wishing you, and your horse, the best of luck.
Equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy sometimes causes deterioration in behavior. As does ulcers. I would also wonder about muscle disease like PSSM, but that usually causes exercise intolerance, of course you can’t find out that he is exercise intolerant without working him hard enough to show symptoms. Maybe Lyme disease?
It could be that something happened to him to traumatize him before you got him and he has PTSD. I know they say horses don’t get that but my rescue horse had so much fear put in him from abuse, he was just a basket case full of nerves. He was a sweet sweet horse but someone abused him so badly he just couldn’t overcome it. He would run the fence and pour sweat if someone shot off a gun… Or if he saw people moving around or horse trailers. He was okay with some things (being ridden in the woods) but totally fell apart with any stress (or just seeing people).
But it doesn’t sound like his anxiety is specific to one thing… Are any of the trainers you used good at working on trust and relaxation? Perhaps a cowboy trainer wasn’t the correct approach with this particular horse. How are the people who handle him daily interacting with him? Are they overly rough? Afraid of him and therefore using additional force?
I don’t blame you for wanting to euthanize and I’m glad you are willing to get him checked out by a vet before then.
I would ask about equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy as that is one of the main things I’ve read about that really can cause deteriorating behavior.
Best of luck to you. If they do find something at least you can feel more confident in your decision.
You should ask your vet about testing for Lyme disease. Lyme can cause all over body pain, personality changes, and the symptoms can appear intermittently. (It can cause other symptoms as well, like lameness and lethargy). It can also cause neurological changes, particularly if it goes undiagnosed and untreated for a while.
The test is relatively inexpensive; make sure the vet does the Cornell test and not some kind of a “snap” test.
It may not be Lyme, but it would be something, at the very least, to rule out before you haul to a vet clinic.
Good luck–it sounds like a frustrating experience, and kudos to you for trying to do right by the horse and by the people who work with him!
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