Ace and I went out for a little hack together and very shortly came across a herd of about a dozen red female deer and a nice stag. Ace was rattled, as many horses seem to be when they see deer. Nowhere near as bad as Scooby used to get, but it did make him jog a bit. It was also VERY windy and he was understandably and forgiveably twitchy. He decided that the damp patches on the road where we had earlier had rain were exceptionally dangerous. Happily, he is just like Radar and nothing like Jazz, and when told that my opinion was that they were safe, he was brave enough to give it a go and step over them.
We also met a fence building team who had a fairly meaty tractor with five or six foot high wheels, with a huge post-driver arm and a mass of hydraulic tubing on the back. He was very happy to stroll right up to it and have a good gawp at the machinery. He's a fairly brave boy at heart, just new to this "hacking out" thing.
I did a few tight right circles as a test and got no reaction from him whatsoever. He also seemed, although bothered by the wind, less "brittle" in some almost undefinable way in his attitude. I'm pretty sure we have the right answer to the recent behavious difficulties and I am looking forward to working with him when he is no longer in pain, he should be fantastic if he has been stressed ever since before I bought him and yet behaved so well until recently.
C
What a good boy! Gotta love a horse willing to put his trust into his rider in those "dangerous" situations.
ReplyDeleteLove the brave reaction to the machinery, though!
And, of course, all the positive news about his tummy. This could be the start of something big!!
His trust in your opinion bodes very well for the future.
ReplyDeleteI know you always do loads of research on supplements, what made you decide on Settlex? Just wondering because I am working with a horse who is showing lots of signs of having ulcers including being very girthy and not happy on the right rein, owner won't scope and is a bit sceptical about supplements generally. I can't find an ingredients list for Settlex on the net so not sure what is in it.
ReplyDeleteHe was perfect today in a high wind practising a test for tomorrow (more on that later) for the first time ever. I think we can assume that we found the cause and fixed it :-)))) I am SO relieved.
ReplyDeleteTracey I saw a posting on Horse and Hound Online from someone who said that they got fantastic results with a weaver with Settlex and it was a lot cheaper than Coligone, so it seemed worth a try. I haven't seen Jazz weave since he went on it. Omeprazole makes him do it a lot, lot less, but it does not cut it out altogether. From Ace's reaction to it too, I would say that it works, though I also have Ace on a maintenance omeprazole dose. Can you persuade your client to try ONE day of 12 tablets of ranitidine from Tesco (£1.38) split into two lots of 6. Every horse I have tried it on has changed behaviour clearly in 24 hours.
That should convince her!
Settlex ingredients are on the tub, I'll check later, just off out now for a constitutional with the old cripple :-)
C
Humph - Grace is not that thrilled with my opinion - but she will follow a duck anywhere ;-(
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