I recently got an ottb in June. He was about 300 pounds underweight and had a front end lameness problem. I got that sorted out thanks to my amazing farrier and he is also now an ideal weight.
The problem is he’s become incredibly spooky. Was totally bombproof when he came. Now gives me trouble with basics like brushing. Seems to be worse in the wind and with stuff he can hear. Ear plugs do help, but I hate using them. I’d rather find the root cause of the problem.
He is fed plain beet pulp, purina integrity, a bit of purina excel and a cup of flax. Out 24/7. Hay 24/7. Treated for ulcers when I got him. Gets chrio and message. I’m at a loss! Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Likely, he might have always been a spooky horse. But, when he was so underweight and lame, he didn’t have the energy nor feel good enough to be spooky. Now that you’ve got him in a better place = shazam!
Give us some more background on him.
How old is he?
Was he straight off the track when you got him?
Likely, he just needs training. Good groundwork. It’s two fold - you want to teach him to switch his focus from what might kill him (that’s how he perceives it) to listening to you. If he’s got eyes and ears on you, then that doesn’t leave much room for him to focus on anything else. Also, when they are spooking they are using the reactive part of their brain that is involved with fight-or-flight. Some horses will trigger that reaction easily and faster than others. You have to figure out how to bring him back to thinking.
Do you have a trainer available that is very good with ground work and things of this nature?
Some kind of pain that isn’t necessarily obvious can make a horse spooky as their subconscious knows they’re going to need the extra split second to escape danger if they’re to avoid being the straggler eaten by wolves. Ulcers, joint pain, hoof pain, etc could be a factor.
My horse goes through a spooky phase every fall. I attribute it to the cold nights and sunny days which turn the pasture grass more sugary. The fields are also eaten down by fall, adding to the grass’s sugary-ness.
Fall idiocy happens even to horses on hay. I think it’s also that things SOUND different in fall, and they go through some hormonal changes in fall to better deal with the cold.
OP - what sort of work/training are you do with him? Is he getting much turn out? Does he have friends/a herd to take comfort in? It could be that his life has just changed a LOT and he is having trouble adapting. TBs are often (not always) kept in smaller spaces (pens/stalls) and aren’t used to living in a herd/open space. If he is anxious in his new house, it will make him touchy/spooky overall.
Try magnesium if you haven’t already. It may not help, but it might be just the piece of the puzzle that’s missing. I’ll never have my guy off of magnesium again.
Even with magnesium supplementation right now, he’s still goofier than normal. I’m worried ulcers might be developing as he’s been on a daily Equioxx pill for a year now. He seems fine in all other ways, but the spookiness has me wondering. I also switched the magnesium brand and will be switching back to Smart Calm Ultra (which also has some other good stuff in it for helping them not be so squirrelly).
I do think fall just brings out the spookiness too. The grass is getting stressed and therefore has higher sugar. The leaves are falling. There is hunting going on in rural areas, so wildlife is moving more. The weather is hot one day, cold the next. The light is shifting. Who knows? Today, my chow hound of a horse couldn’t stay focused on eating his hay because he was at attention at his fence watching the BOs up at the riding ring. They weren’t doing anything exciting or even novel…just their vehicle was up at the ring. Why that had my doofus so entranced, I’ll never know, but he was watching them like it was his favorite suspenseful thriller movie and he just couldn’t tear himself away.
Yesterday we were riding near the fenceline along the road and about the time I asked for canter a moped came buzzing by. Nevermind the fact that we’ve ridden by this road for years and semis go whooshing by on occasion. The little moped buzzing along was grounds for a scoot and then some silly crow hopping nonsense that went on for way too long.
Tis the season, I guess. And yes…the fitter and fatter they are, the more energy they have for such antics.
Totally agree with this- spring and fall are the seasons when horses seem to be a bit more amped. My normally sane guy was quite spirited on our trail ride last week and jumped in his cross ties the other day. He’s on magnesium but mostly for metabolic issues.
I can’t help much with retraining OTTBs but I did buy a thin TWH from down south. Got him in fall and when he gained weight he became quite reactive. I ended up parting ways with him (in more ways then one…) so I do believe there’s merit in the healthier/feeling better can lead to more reactivity theory.
Thanks for the replies. Pretty much confirmed what I already knew, but I think I needed to hear it from someone else . Started to think I was missing something.
He is on magnesium. No difference. I will do another course of omeprazole and see if there’s a difference just to be sure. He is only 4. I’ve done lots of rehabs over the year and I have seen several “perk up” after gaining weight, but I can usually peg what ones it will be and I’ve never had anything this dramatic. We shall see.
I have no indoor and I’m in Canada, so he will just be a horse over the winter. I don’t bother keeping the young ones in work. They need time to grow up!
I have a saying that seems to apply more in spring and fall - “Tired horses are good horses”.
I make a point during my rides to just canter around with little to no expectations for a set amount of time each direction - somewhere between 3-5 minutes depending on how the horse feels and their fitness. If it turns into a more forward hand gallop feeling, that’s fine as long as there’s no shenanigans. Get up in two point, soft connection, and go.
For the REALLY squirrely ones, I goose them around loose for 10 minutes - I set my clock and let them do whatever speed they want as long as it’s not a walk. My only “directive” is that they have to go in the direction I decided. I do it this way because I personally don’t allow any craziness on a lunge line.
If you can’t do either of the above, I would put him on a lunge and do something similar to #1 - a set amount of time cantering each way. Yeah, he might be sweaty and huffy at the end, but sometimes taking the edge off the spooky-iceburg involves some working time.
Yo was a plug, bombproof QH type in summer, and a spooky, silly tb in the winter.
But he got better as he matured too.
So the other suggestions, plus time will likely help.
It could be his normal personality you are seeing now that he is feeling good.
It could be seasonal changes.
It could be nutritional that would benefit from magnesium, vitamin E, or some other supplementation.
It could be ulcers coming back.
It could be pain.
One weird, uncommon thing is it could be a reaction to something in his diet like a new supplement. I have had this happen a few times where a horse starts a new supplement or feed and turns into a spooky wreck due.
Without seeing him first hand, it’s hard to say which it may be.
Nothing wrong with turning a horse out out for the winter (I am in North Dakota so I can relate … and often do the same) but there are things you can do too in the winter with poor footing if you’d like to work on them over the winter. Plenty of things can be accomplished at the basic walk.
Personally, I don’t like my horses running around willy nilly and blowing off steam in the round pen. IMO that does nothing but get them into better shape (so it slowly takes LONGER because they can go LONGER before their muscles get tired) and it also does nothing to train their mind. You can run a horse 'round and 'round the round pen for an hour if you want, but if you haven’t gotten their MIND to thinking, you’ve just wasted an entire hour. Or maybe made the situation worse but continuing to stimulate the fight-or-flight response.
Focus on training the horse’s MIND. Making their muscles tired has nothing to do if they are going to spook or not, because it’s their mind that does the spooking. Their body just reacts to what the mind tells them.
It can be as simple as taking 5 minutes with your horse, and picking one simple thing to do. For example, can you move your horse’s neck/shoulders away from you without touching them? Interesting concept, right? I jokingly call it “The Force” when you can have your horse so in tune to you, that all you have to do is put your hands up, put them toward your horse’s neck, and magically your horse moves away from you, and you haven’t even touched them. Sure, you aren’t going to get there in one session. Maybe not 10 sessions. But it’s working on something so small like that to get your horse to FOCUS their MIND on YOU, and that is how you transition your horse to the thinking side of their brain. If they are thinking, then they are not reacting (and no spook!!!).
And if they do spook (c’mon, they are a horse!) it is easier and faster for you to bring them back to that thinking side, and de-escalate the situation.
Also worth considering is what kind of hay you’re feeding. Some horses have excess energy on alfalfa with its higher protein content, while others react to higher sugar content of oat or some grass hays.
Whatever the case, be careful not to fall into the trap of lungeing him down every ride. You don’t want a super fit monster.
It occurs to me that my younger horse is negatively affected by the cold. If he got cold last night he will be anxious and spooky even in the afternoon after everything has warmed up. I can actually see it in how he moves through his shoulders at the trot, and how that changes once he has truly warmed up. I do a longe warm up on those days as it takes longer if I go straight to riding. Keeping him warmer than my other horse helps too. I just live with it and longe warm up in the between seasons when it’s too warm for blankets during the day.
. Started to think I was missing something.
