So basically my daughter’s mare sees dead people…… Before I begin Im talking about my daughters horse but I am also a trainer of over 26 years just so you don’t think I’m just a
mom on a rant. But really I’m a trainer that is looking for advice!
Bought my daughter this beautiful WB mare almost 3 years ago. Now mind you she was green to showing never really had been off the farm she was born and raised on. We bring her home and she was pretty spooky off the bat. So I thought well we need to give her time to settle in big change for her. Treated for ulcers first. Did a power pack of ulcer guard and put her sulcrifate.
Still not much change.
She also started acting like the bit was shocking her. So I had vet out to check her teeth mouth etc. He did in fact find a splinter wolf tooth. So basically it was a tooth that never developed and it was like a splinter under her gum. We removed. I’d been in touch with the lady we bought her from letting her know our struggles. So I sent her back for 2-3 months for training. I would drive my daughter 4 hours on the weekends to get a lesson. The mare was decent there. Spooky but not as much as before.
Brought her home she was ok. Started showing some 2’ stuff just to get her experience (Mind you I bought her to be a children’s and then jr hunter)
But the spook never really went away.
So fast forward to fall I still researching trying to figure out. She’s a bit moody and she screams in her stall and kicks like a dinosaur. Not as horses would go by the stall but literally for no reason.
So I had vet back out check her all over we decided regumate to help maybe it’s hormonal. so go though the winter into the spring start showing, the mare is doing better has her spooks but betterish. So we move up to 2.6 going well that’s going well. Then July hits and she is off her rocker spooky again at jumps at everything she genuinely terrified. So I think ulcers so do another round of ulcer guard on her. She still was still on regumate.
Call vet back out I want to make sure I’m not missing something. Do a full exam on her. Not sore, not lame, isnt presenting ulcers I’m baffled vets baffled. But I told him about how she carries on in the stall. And he walked her up to a gelding in the barn and immediately squealed. He said she blowing through the regumate take her off of it. Put her into a hard cycle and then let’s see how she is. So we did. And for almost a week she was so much better.
So we thought has to be hormones so after that week she was good, she started seeing dead people on the regular. So then had my other vet came and I had her check her all over and flex her and then ultrasound. (I just wanted a second look again to make sure I didn’t miss something). We waited until she was being her most extra self then she came to ultra sound. She was in heat and she had a follicles at about 35. So we waited a week and rechecked to see if she ovulated them. Came back following week they were still there. At first check they were a 35 2nd check one of the 2 was at 55. She couldn’t ovulate the follicle. So we gave her a dose of estrumate to put her in a hard cycle to try to get her to release the follicle. Checked a week later it was gone and she was soooo much better again. Now on both ultrasounds the left side had some weird things going on with the follicle which given her behavior spooky issues and her dinosaur roaring she wanted to test for GCT (Granulosa-theca cell tumors). So I was like well go for it. And honestly I was hoping for it because atleast I’d maybe have a reason. Test came back normal.
My daughter is bewildered at this point. She feels like her last junior year will slip away before she can accomplish her goals. Any one that has ridden a spooky horse knows how hard it is and how defeated you feel. She was at her whits end. Mind you she 16-17 at this time. So I try to stay positive but it was ruining riding for her. It wasn’t fun. How can I can fix everyone else’s horse? I can fix all the other riders but I can’t fix my own daughter’s dang horse? I felt like a failure. I Would text the seller when things got bad. But I also didn’t want to look bad ( I know that’s stupid). So I told my daughter take a break from riding her. She has ponies that she can ride and we have a shit ton of horses here. But nothing that was supposed to be as competitive as this mare is. I subsequently at that time had a lot of young green ones in the barn.
In November she took a break from her. So now she doesn’t have a GCT, got rid of the sticky follicle, it’s winter she shoulddddd be better. So I call a friend. He’s a horse whisperer trainer, backs horses kind of guy. And I say I want you to work with my mare to try to boost her confidence. Confidence is really what I felt like she needed. She’s never comfortable in her own skin really. He started working with her 3-5 days a week. In Feb/March my daughter asked to ride her which I was happy to hear! She had been pretty good. Looks at stuff doesn’t react. Things are going pretty well. Take her to her first show in April. Schooling started out terrible but ended ok. Show was ok she was just really worried the ring. Talked to my friend, told him how she was and we still had work to do.
Then last couple weeks she’s a spooky A hole again. Looking at jumps that have been in my ring forever, spooking at nothing. She was just riding her last week and I have a 2’ roll top the horse has jumped. Stopped at it like it was going to eat her. She isn’t stopping like she doesn’t like to jump. She stops like she is terrified. Same thing happened over a little white gate. Looked at it hard but did go over it.
I go back to my friend and I’m told him what is going on and we are frustrated and want him to work on more things with her. Now i want to preface this guy is not mean whatsoever he is not like some of the people that claim to be a horse whisperer and beat them into submission. He’s so calm and chill I enjoy watching his process and I’ve learned a lot from that. And I make my daughter work with him and her mare directly.
So now this week I’m just stressed I had chiro out last week ( a new person bc my other took a sabbatical). And she agreed she’s tense not comfortable in her own skin seems scared. However nothing sore or out of place. I told her about her heats etc. she recommended I do a lymes and epm test so guess what I’m getting done next week.
I called my vet today and we talked for about 45 minutes just of other possibilities besides hormones. But we still circled back to hormones or some issue with her repro organs.
Looking back she started ancting more spooky in when April rolled around. I guess the dead are walking around again it coincides with her cycle.
Last week she wasn’t really paying attention neighing back to the barn spooking at nothing. So we are gonna ultrasound her next week and see what’s going on in there again and give her another overall evaluation.
I can never get a video of her acting a fool in the stall but last night one of my employees did. They stayed in bc supposed to storm and she was going buck wild in her stall squeeling, kicking and no one was around. We can only hear it. Which makes me think her cycle maybe painful.
Sorry this post is so long I just want anyone who reads it to see everything I’ve done so far. But I’ll take advice any and all. Oh and she is on positude calmakazi and ulcer erasure. Not sure it’s doing anything. It does work on another mare I have. I would post a video but since I’m new it won’t let me
