Sensitizing Horse to the Whip

[RhythmNCruise]

A little update. I haven’t ridden in a week, mostly thanks to the weather, and also thanks to work. Today my guy had his first chiropractic and acupuncture adjustment/session. He went from thinking the vet was trying to murder him to very quickly deciding she’s the best person he’s ever met! He had a lot of things working against him, mainly his SI joint and pelvic area being totally out of whack, and then his back muscles tight and spasms because of trying to compensate for that.

When I think about how hard this horse tries for me under saddle, and how he never pins an ear or makes a fuss, and how he’s been working so well lately, even given all that he’s had going on that HAD to be uncomfortable at best, and likely painful…man. I’ve had back trouble myself, and I know how miserable it can be.

Anyway, he gets 4 days off from any riding. I can longe (no saddle or anything) and work with him in hand. She said backing him up (minimum of 10 steps at a time) is really good for strengthening his weak lower back area, so I can do that.

I’m happy I had it done, and will definitely do more as he needs. I’ve also been giving him a half tube of Ulcergard the past two days, and I think I’ll go ahead and give him a whole syringe this evening and another one tomorrow. I don’t know that he has ulcers, but I figured it won’t hurt. I haven’t seen his manure lately (not sure which is his in the pasture), but I’m hoping it’s firming up a little. I have noticed that the gas/flatulence seems to be decreasing a little…more normal for him.

He was pretty nervous/wary of things when the vet first started working on him today, but that’s as much being in the barn as anything. Maybe having such a nice experience in the barn will help him. I also had noticed that he rests his back feet a LOT when he’s in the barn…even when he’s kind of uptight. So maybe standing on the concrete is/was physically uncomfortable to him? No idea. He never rested his hind legs much back at my place, but it was a soft dirt/sand floor with a rubber mat at the cross-ties. I’m also wondering if spooking was just exacerbating the back spasms (bless his heart)?

Anyway! That’s all the news that’s fit to print! Once this blasted rain gets out of here (it’s rained all week), I’ll start hand-walking and backing and lightly longeing. And about Monday I may longe with the saddle, and Tuesday I’ll climb aboard again…just in time for our working equitation clinic next weekend! Oh boy!

[SuzieQNutter]

Come and join us in the reriders thread. You don’t have to be a rerider or a hunter. It is just us talking about our horses. You don’t have to read back just introduce yourself and your horse. I think you will love that thread.

[Dr_Doolittle]

@RhythmNCruise

A little update. I haven’t ridden in a week, mostly thanks to the weather, and also thanks to work. Today my guy had his first chiropractic and acupuncture adjustment/session. He went from thinking the vet was trying to murder him to very quickly deciding she’s the best person he’s ever met! He had a lot of things working against him, mainly his SI joint and pelvic area being totally out of whack, and then his back muscles tight and spasms because of trying to compensate for that.

When I think about how hard this horse tries for me under saddle, and how he never pins an ear or makes a fuss, and how he’s been working so well lately, even given all that he’s had going on that HAD to be uncomfortable at best, and likely painful…man. I’ve had back trouble myself, and I know how miserable it can be.

Anyway, he gets 4 days off from any riding. I can longe (no saddle or anything) and work with him in hand. She said backing him up (minimum of 10 steps at a time) is really good for strengthening his weak lower back area, so I can do that.

I’m happy I had it done, and will definitely do more as he needs. I’ve also been giving him a half tube of Ulcergard the past two days, and I think I’ll go ahead and give him a whole syringe this evening and another one tomorrow. I don’t know that he has ulcers, but I figured it won’t hurt. I haven’t seen his manure lately (not sure which is his in the pasture), but I’m hoping it’s firming up a little. I have noticed that the gas/flatulence seems to be decreasing a little…more normal for him.

He was pretty nervous/wary of things when the vet first started working on him today, but that’s as much being in the barn as anything. Maybe having such a nice experience in the barn will help him. I also had noticed that he rests his back feet a LOT when he’s in the barn…even when he’s kind of uptight. So maybe standing on the concrete is/was physically uncomfortable to him? No idea. He never rested his hind legs much back at my place, but it was a soft dirt/sand floor with a rubber mat at the cross-ties. I’m also wondering if spooking was just exacerbating the back spasms (bless his heart)?

Anyway! That’s all the news that’s fit to print! Once this blasted rain gets out of here (it’s rained all week), I’ll start hand-walking and backing and lightly longeing. And about Monday I may longe with the saddle, and Tuesday I’ll climb aboard again…just in time for our working equitation clinic next weekend! Oh boy!

Very encouraging to hear, OP - thanks for the update!

Re: backing up in hand; it’s not to “strengthen weak back muscles” as much as it is to strengthen the CORE muscles. The horse will (or should) engage his LS joint (Lumbrosacral) when backing, causing him to “tuck” his butt which will engage the core stabilizer muscles. Make sure that he doesn’t back with his head up or his back hollow! You want him to have his head down, relaxed, and shift his weight OFF his shoulders before backing up.

Look up Hilary Clayton’s book “Strengthen your Horse’s Core” - lots of great stretches and strengthening exercises in there (though the booklet is kind of pricey), and most of them are carrot stretches. When done correctly and daily, it can make a big difference in strength and flexibility. A strong core protects the back! (In humans too )

I don’t know that I would START with backing 10 steps at a time, though - especially if he is that sore!

Backing up slight hills will also be very beneficial, but not right away.

If his S/I and glutes are sore, take a reasonable bit of time before really asking him to work his HQ, take it slowly and gradually build up. If longeing, make sure he isn’t running around with his head up and back hollow, lots of quiet w/t/w transitions will be best (with a stretched down neck, ideally.)

Resting the hinds; does he do in on both an equal amount? It could be as a result of his sore back and S/I and glutes, he’s shifting the weight to try to make himself more comfortable. Remember to keep him on the ulcer meds for a long enough span of time and always taper off gradually to avoid acid rebound.

[RhythmNCruise]

@Dr. Doolittle

Very encouraging to hear, OP - thanks for the update!

Re: backing up in hand; it’s not to “strengthen weak back muscles” as much as it is to strengthen the CORE muscles. The horse will (or should) engage his LS joint (Lumbrosacral) when backing, causing him to “tuck” his butt which will engage the core stabilizer muscles. Make sure that he doesn’t back with his head up or his back hollow! You want him to have his head down, relaxed, and shift his weight OFF his shoulders before backing up.

Look up Hilary Clayton’s book “Strengthen your Horse’s Core” - lots of great stretches and strengthening exercises in there (though the booklet is kind of pricey), and most of them are carrot stretches. When done correctly and daily, it can make a big difference in strength and flexibility. A strong core protects the back! (In humans too )

I don’t know that I would START with backing 10 steps at a time, though - especially if he is that sore!

Backing up slight hills will also be very beneficial, but not right away.

If his S/I and glutes are sore, take a reasonable bit of time before really asking him to work his HQ, take it slowly and gradually build up. If longeing, make sure he isn’t running around with his head up and back hollow, lots of quiet w/t/w transitions will be best (with a stretched down neck, ideally.)

Resting the hinds; does he do in on both an equal amount? It could be as a result of his sore back and S/I and glutes, he’s shifting the weight to try to make himself more comfortable. Remember to keep him on the ulcer meds for a long enough span of time and always taper off gradually to avoid acid rebound.

Well, I’m afraid we probably did everything wrong today, and I should have just left him alone in the pasture. The landscaping crew was at the farm, mowing and weed-eating, and someone was there doing some construction work on a little shed right out back of the barn. Like an idiot, I decided to bring my boy up, give him his Smart Calm Ultra (which I’m starting back at vet’s recommendation), and just planned to walk him and hand graze.

He was a stark raving lunatic though. Could NOT tolerate being in the barn or just about anywhere. I finally took him to the round pen because I was going to let him eat his supplements (with soaked timothy pellets) in there, and he just ran and ran around like crazy (moved really well!) until he was soaking wet. Even after the landscaping crew and construction guy were long gone, he was just freaked out of his mind. Never would calm down. I tried putting him in a stall in the barn and he went bananas, running circles, pawing, trying to crawl up the wall.

My final thought, and with the BO’s blessing, was to turn him out with a different group of horses. Though I cannot imagine it’s going to make much difference. I’m also thinking to just pull him off of the TC Sr. and let him have hay cubes and his biotin and Smart Calm for a bit. Then maybe reintroduce the Essential K balancer (he was on that before when he first came).

I’m just baffled. It’s hot today, no wind, and once the landscaping crew left, there was no reason for him to be so worked up. Could the adjustment have exacerbated some things, and until his back has calmed down he’s going to be a bit on edge? I feel bad that I let him get so worked up, I wasn’t expecting it.

I’m running out of ideas. It’s so heartbreaking to have a horse that I raised and trained myself and have always trusted suddenly be so insane.

[SuzieQNutter]

Take him off grain and let him heal.

This is what I meant when I said it takes as long for him to get out of it as it took for him to get into it.

Some call it feed going to their head, meaning their brain, as you can see training is not working at the moment.

I call it being in the realm of overfed and underworked.

The trouble is you don’t know when he went into that realm. It wasn’t the first day you gave him that feed or you would have stopped it immediately.

But if it was 3 weeks or 4 weeks ago then it will be another week or so before you get his brain back to be able to train.

Hopefully he will have healed a bit by then.

[RhythmNCruise]

@SuzieQNutter

Take him off grain and let him heal.

This is what I meant when I said it takes as long for him to get out of it as it took for him to get into it.

Some call it feed going to their head, meaning their brain, as you can see training is not working at the moment.

I call it being in the realm of overfed and underworked.

The trouble is you don’t know when he went into that realm. It wasn’t the first day you gave him that feed or you would have stopped it immediately.

But if it was 3 weeks or 4 weeks ago then it will be another week or so before you get his brain back to be able to train.

Hopefully he will have healed a bit by then.

@SuzieQNutter it’s so great to come home from the barn and read this, confirming that I made the right choice tonight. First of all, he was still wound up and running around the new pasture when I got back out there, and ran (not constantly, but off and on) the entire time I was there (over 3 hours). I decided that just wasn’t working, so finally took him out and back to his old pasture. He was totally a bundle of nerves in the vicinity of the barn, like would not go anywhere near it. I finally got him over to “his side” of the farm near his pasture and he dropped his head and grazed. Whew. Happiest I’ve seen him all day. Put him back out in his pasture with his buddies and he drank a lot of water and heaved a big sigh.

We pulled him right off the TC Sr. and he’ll now be getting alfalfa cubes with the Essential K balancer. He’s also getting some biotin (just started that last week) and his Smart Calm Ultra.

I have a good mind to just leave him the hell alone, except for some fly spray, a treat or two, and a pat on the head for the next few days. I’m afraid today set his progress of being calm in the barn back a LOT. sigh

Anyway, thanks for always taking time to reply! I’m going to try to leave this thread alone now that it’s gotten so off-topic. Hard to believe when I started this thing, I was having trouble getting my horse to wake up and be responsive. Now he’s a basket case. Be careful what you wish for, I guess! Jeez.

[Dr_Doolittle]

Oh, OP - you poor thing!

Very frustrating.

I don’t think she has “suddenly dumped a bunch of high calorie, high sugar grain” into this horse , and all feed changes should obviously be gradual - but it clearly couldn’t hurt to reduce concentrates. He will still need vitamins and minerals and fat (and forage, obviously), but there MAY be something else going on too.

I don’t think the TC Senior is very high in NCS, but (as I mentioned before) an RB should fulfill all of his nutritional needs; a good idea to go back to it. Smart Calm Ultra, keep him on it.

I still wonder about his stomach issues? A full tube yesterday and today (good!), but it often takes awhile to see results if he really does have ulcers.

My suggestion would be to cross post this in the Horse Care forum - there are a lot of really knowledgeable posters on there (calling @JB)

Best of luck to you, I know this is hard, so virtual {{hugs}} and of course Jingles.

[Dr_Doolittle]

@RhythmNCruise

@SuzieQNutter it’s so great to come home from the barn and read this, confirming that I made the right choice tonight. First of all, he was still wound up and running around the new pasture when I got back out there, and ran (not constantly, but off and on) the entire time I was there (over 3 hours). I decided that just wasn’t working, so finally took him out and back to his old pasture. He was totally a bundle of nerves in the vicinity of the barn, like would not go anywhere near it. I finally got him over to “his side” of the farm near his pasture and he dropped his head and grazed. Whew. Happiest I’ve seen him all day. Put him back out in his pasture with his buddies and he drank a lot of water and heaved a big sigh.

We pulled him right off the TC Sr. and he’ll now be getting alfalfa cubes with the Essential K balancer. He’s also getting some biotin (just started that last week) and his Smart Calm Ultra.

I have a good mind to just leave him the hell alone, except for some fly spray, a treat or two, and a pat on the head for the next few days. I’m afraid today set his progress of being calm in the barn back a LOT. sigh

Anyway, thanks for always taking time to reply! I’m going to try to leave this thread alone now that it’s gotten so off-topic. Hard to believe when I started this thing, I was having trouble getting my horse to wake up and be responsive. Now he’s a basket case. Be careful what you wish for, I guess! Jeez.

See my response - you poor thing. Hang in there, and try to be patient! You are doing literally everything you can for your boy, and something is going to “turn the trick”

[SuzieQNutter]

@RhythmNCruise

@SuzieQNutter it’s so great to come home from the barn and read this, confirming that I made the right choice tonight. First of all, he was still wound up and running around the new pasture when I got back out there, and ran (not constantly, but off and on) the entire time I was there (over 3 hours). I decided that just wasn’t working, so finally took him out and back to his old pasture. He was totally a bundle of nerves in the vicinity of the barn, like would not go anywhere near it. I finally got him over to “his side” of the farm near his pasture and he dropped his head and grazed. Whew. Happiest I’ve seen him all day. Put him back out in his pasture with his buddies and he drank a lot of water and heaved a big sigh.

We pulled him right off the TC Sr. and he’ll now be getting alfalfa cubes with the Essential K balancer. He’s also getting some biotin (just started that last week) and his Smart Calm Ultra.

I have a good mind to just leave him the hell alone, except for some fly spray, a treat or two, and a pat on the head for the next few days. I’m afraid today set his progress of being calm in the barn back a LOT. sigh

Anyway, thanks for always taking time to reply! I’m going to try to leave this thread alone now that it’s gotten so off-topic. Hard to believe when I started this thing, I was having trouble getting my horse to wake up and be responsive. Now he’s a basket case. Be careful what you wish for, I guess! Jeez.

Come and join us in the reriders thread. You don’t have to be a rerider or a hunter. It is just us talking about our horses. You don’t have to read back just introduce yourself and your horse. I think you will love that thread.

[RhythmNCruise]

I thought I’d post another quick update…though I feel like going on a ten page rant. I’m convinced that at least ONE of the issues regarding the spookiness in the barn is that the darn barn is already fairly small, and then it has tons of junk everywhere in the aisle way. A golf cart is usually parked at one end (or right in the middle, lovely), a hay cart is usually either in the washrack or somewhere in the aisle. Boxes, buckets, saddles, baskets…just tons of stuff. It’s literally hard for my horse to turn around in there without stuff getting under his feet, which just confirms to him that the place is scary (because it IS dangerous, he’s right).

Add to this that the BO, sweet as she is, just has no idea that horses might get spooked or feel claustrophobic by all of this stuff. There’s a shed behind the barn that she’s having redone, and so all of her stuff (a LOT of stuff) from that shed is now on a trailer right behind the barn. That was spooky enough, but then she covered it with a big black tarp that isn’t tied down and constantly blows/flaps in the breeze.

Yesterday I decided to try to work on his barn issues, and that’s when the BO decides to vacuum out the shed behind the barn, making all sorts of racket right there next to the horrible pile of junk under the black tarp.

My poor guy can’t get a break. He is quiet as a lamb coming in from the pasture, until we start going towards the barn. He used to just start getting taller and wide-eyed and then snorty, but yesterday he seriously tried to turn around and go back to the pasture a couple of times (not like wheeling, but just turning his head and saying “I’d rather not, let’s go back to the pasture”).

We worked with him for quite a while and got him to walk through the barn calmly and even stand and eat treats off of the black tarp (once the vacuum was off), but he was never 100% relaxed about any of it.

I’m about to the point that I don’t think I’m even going to take him in the barn anymore. I’ll just take him to the round pen, tie him up in there to groom and tack up (it’s a good solid, tall round pen), and forget the dang barn. I’m tired of torturing him with it, especially when I DON’T BLAME HIM for being nervous in there. Every time he goes in there something freaky happens.

At the very least, I’ll separate “barn training” and “riding” by not making the barn part of the pre-ride equation. That’s just setting him up for failure right off the bat.

Sigh Oh, and apparently he doesn’t want alfalfa cubes and ration balancer, he wants his pasture mate’s 22% NSC oat-filled grain. Imagine that. So he’s back on TC Senior for now, but the BO wants to try him on the pelleted version of the Seniority feed, which is still 18% NSC, but has no oats or grain of any kind at least.

Sigh again I’m trying. Lord knows I’m trying. After 30+ years of riding and working at boarding barns, and 20 years of keeping horses how I wanted on my own place, this is a real challenge. And it all just starting going wrong in April. I mean, he was never 100% reliable in the barn. He’s always been weird in there. But he could be tied/cross-tied and there were no major incidents. Now it’s all I can do to get him near the place without him coming completely unglued.

Frustration. Sigh

[SuzieQNutter]

I agree. If he is fine in the round yard tack him there.

If he is fine in his paddock tack him there. He does not need to be tied to be tacked in his paddock. Instead teach him to stand still untied.

As he omes into work that is equal to his feed and you are getting better results every day, then you can start asking questions like going to the barn.

[RhythmNCruise]

@SuzieQNutter

I agree. If he is fine in the round yard tack him there.

If he is fine in his paddock tack him there. He does not need to be tied to be tacked in his paddock. Instead teach him to stand still untied.

As he omes into work that is equal to his feed and you are getting better results every day, then you can start asking questions like going to the barn.

Thank you SuzieQ, you always make me feel better. And I’m sorry I haven’t joined in on that other thread yet. It’s a little intimidating since it’s been going for so long.

Today I went to the barn briefly, visited him in the pasture to give him his Ulcergard and a few treats. I ran my fingers down his back and over his normal “ouchy” places and he showed no signs of tenderness. No sinking and flinching away from my hands. So that’s encouraging!

We have rain in the forecast for the next few days and I’m swamped with work, so he’s going to get extra time to relax and hopefully his magnesium/calming supplement can start kicking in.

[SuzieQNutter]

@RhythmNCruise

Thank you SuzieQ, you always make me feel better. And I’m sorry I haven’t joined in on that other thread yet. It’s a little intimidating since it’s been going for so long.

Today I went to the barn briefly, visited him in the pasture to give him his Ulcergard and a few treats. I ran my fingers down his back and over his normal “ouchy” places and he showed no signs of tenderness. No sinking and flinching away from my hands. So that’s encouraging!

We have rain in the forecast for the next few days and I’m swamped with work, so he’s going to get extra time to relax and hopefully his magnesium/calming supplement can start kicking in.

LOL don’t worry about the length. Most of us have not been there since the beginning. Please do not feel intimidated. It is about our own horses like this thread and a very positive safe place.

As I said you do not need to read back. Maybe 3 pages or so if you want to read about Stars coming back into work and what is happening to others on the thread now.

I promise we do not bite.