Glad to hear you made it through the night.
Is this horse by any chance a solid bay registered Appaloosa that came from Kansas? I knew of one with Impressive breeding who had very similar behavior and was a 1999 model who was sold in 2002 or 2003.
Nope. This is a chestnut/ sorrel horse. Two left white pasterns. Pretty sure he came from Kansas though…
Last night was actually good. Still a few fireworks going off but no sedation needed. I wonder if he feels he needs to protect mares in the neighborhood then becomes frantic when he cant’ get to them. We had a good 90 minutes pampering session yesterday. He started off very reactive, bouncing around the wash stall, looking at something in the distance… but once I started scrubbing his itchy spots his brain came back to me.
It’s like – I dunno – If I dont spend enough time with him doing cuddly/ pampering things he reverts to feral. Knocks him off with a quick curry and medium brush isn’t enough. In any event, I was thrilled he stood quietly through the fireworks. Then we had a few claps of thunder which he also hates. But I think by that time he wasn’t aware of the difference.
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People who tell you that you didn’t try hard enough usually haven’t worked with many of them for enough years or owned enough of them to end up with one that just defied all efforts or a horse they really just hated working with. if you are around enough of them over enough time, you will find a few like that.
I vote with not blaming Impressive, too many others in the mix and very early handling and training are just as big an influence. Have to remember that Impressive got popular at the time the TB influence was really increasing in the QH world and some of those old boys practiced the old rough house methods that just made the “ hotter” colts fight back. Most TBs don’t suffer fools. IMO many stock horse trainers just didn’t know how to work with the type or had to get them broke and going under saddle to sell ASAP lacking the time for a more finessed approach. So they blamed the “hot” breeding. Impressive being very heavily TB it was an easy hook to hang blame on.
They had a reputation for being tough, I never thought so, smart and ambitious though, busy minds that needed help to stay focused. I worked with a ton of Three Bars grand get (he had stood locally and was prolific), they were smart and sharp. Most branches of Impressive’s family tree go right to Three Bars so am assuming that’s the basic mental make up. The Impressives Ive been around seemed much the same.
If you understand them and take the time, they were not problematic but they didn’t fit the old stock horse mold so didn’t suit some of the old time trainers. Nothing wrong with the basic horse.
IMO mares in heat nearby would not be a positive influence. Also, having owned and worked with a fair number of horses 20 and over, age takes a toll and they suffer the same kinds of age related deterioration we do. If he seems to be getting more erratic more often, it could be age related and will not get any better as time goes on.
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What is the rest of his pedigree? Doubtful being Impressive-bred is the issue.
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How close up is impressive in his pedigree? I know he’s older but still…while I have opinions about impressive that concur with Bluey, I wonder how far back he is…
Cant recall what year Impressive was finally pulled from stud. Late 80s when he hit his 20s maybe?, Cant find it anywhere, just he passed in the early 90s but pretty sure he was pulled or retired from from stud duty before he passed But OPs horse foaled in 99 was likely at least 10 years removed, easily time for at least several generations in the young horse oriented QH world.
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Yes. Mine’s an Impressive grandson.
Ok
close enough.
I’ve known some Impressive horses that absolutely vacate their brains here and there. You might as well be luring in a marlin. There’s nothing on the other end of the line
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snort :lol:
Yeah… there were days like that when he was younger. As a 3 y.o. he would run to the point of falling over. I had a “trainer” who lunged him before attempting to ride, against my instructions and without his bridle, which I implicitly told her to always use. She was very upset that he had wiped out and went bye bye as she admitted to me what happened. I was furious and moved shortly after.
I can handle him now for lunging but it’s taken those 17 years to figure him out. You can see his posture change ever so slightly and you have to reel him in quick or just stop him dead in his tracks HARD- take his face off, for lack of a better term. But you can’t be distracted for a nanosecond some days because he may have gone bye bye on you then and its dangerous getting him back. Better to be ahead of him than playing catch up. I stopped riding him when my life went crazy and I found my mind wandering during rides about the issues going on instead of focusing on him 110%. He’s a super sensitive ride… aids are measured in ounces of pressure. Turn your head and he’ll go where you look. Weigh your outside seat bone 3 ounces and move your inside leg back 2" and you’re got canter. Tip your pelvis back and tighten your glutes and you get a beautiful halt… All these things are easy to manage when you’re 40 y.o. and already fit as a fiddle. At 56, after dealing with a geriatric parent and the ensuing drama over an insane family, I can’t ride like I used to – physically or mentally.
I wanted to thank everyone again for their sharing their experiences. It’s been really comforting. He’s been nothing but charming these days since I first posted. With the exception of pacing his corral at night and wearing his hind feet down, he’s almost 80% normal. And that’s fine…
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You didn’t mention if he was gelded after being used for breeding (I’m assuming so, but still). Also, was he by any chance an orphan foal or a bottle baby?
Yes, gelded before he came to me at 3 y.o… so bred super young.
AFIK not an orphan (I’ve dealt with them and he’s entirely different). Likely not a bottle baby either.
Good questions though.
My father bred to Impressive twice. If he’d known how bad the first one was going to turn out to be, he wouldn’t have bred to him the second time. Impressive was extremely popular at the time and everybody wanted one. Looking back over the years that Impressive stood as a stallion, a lot depended on the mares he was bred to. He seemed to cross best on the riding mares. Halter mares produced good looking horses that you couldn’t ride. My memories are a bit fuzzy, but Impressive seemed to cross best on the Sonny Dee Bar horses, but Sonny Dee Bar was known to produce outstanding riding horses that could halter. It would be interesting to see the bottom side of your horse’s pedigreee. It may tell a lot about his behavior.
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My Impressive-bred APHA filly was an absolute doll. Super quiet and easy on the ground, exceptionally willing under saddle, never once had an “explosion.”
I’d try keeping him on Valerian root for a while, and 24/7 turnout.
I can find his papers and let you know… Will take a bit. I’ll PM you, if you accept those. Thanks! This was helpful.
Last night he lost it again for no apparent reason, unless it was 1/2 mile away – which is not uncommon for him. I just.could.NOT.
I threw him 3 flakes of hay, taped up his hind feet so he wouldn’t grind them to nubs, filled his trough and went to bed. This morning I woke up to an enormous pile of poop in one spot. So whatever it was, clearly he got over it rathe quickly and hung out most the night.
horses, horses…sigh
OP is banned?
Never mind. OP was apparently was a previously banned user back to try it again. Thanks Texarkana.
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I feel your pain, OP. I’ve written thousands of words worth of posts about my horse (not Impressive bred) and his recent intermittent insanity. I’ve owned this horse since he was a yearling (he’s now 12) and have done all of his training and riding myself. I know him inside and out and his behavior since about early March has been baffling. I’ve literally addressed every possible cause for his issues, and I think we’ve got it under control now, thank goodness, but it took a lot of changes and really thinking outside of the box.
Have you considered supplementing him with Magnesium? In my horse’s case, it seemed like if something would make him tense up, he just couldn’t get over it. Whereas something spooky in the past might get a sideways ear, a little snort, and then he’d get over it, he was now getting so uptight over things that he’d just lose his mind. This coincided with him having a very tense and sore back, so I think the two were linked. I started him on SmartCalm Ultra, which is loaded with tons of Magnesium (and some tryptophan too), and it began helping in a couple of weeks. The longer he’s on it, the better he gets. He still got freaked out by the fireworks on the fourth and wasn’t over it the next morning either. When I notice him getting more reactive, I always check his back. If it’s tense/sore, I’ll give him a little bute and I have some MagBath that I can sponge on his back and rump to help ease those muscles. He’s had a chiro adjustment and acupuncture, and the vet said his back was in bad spasms and recommended Magnesium.
I think mares can definitely make some of them goofy too. My guy has never bred a mare, and had never even been around mares for over a decade when we moved to this new place. When he started going out in the pasture with a mare, his hypervigilance and tension got off the charts when he was taken into the barn away from her.
They’re such puzzles to solve sometimes aren’t they?
