Re: nervous horse

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Patti, some nervous horses do respond to a decrease of alfalfa in their
rations, but *usually* those horses are getting straight alfalfa, not 50/50.
You can give it a try, but I wouldn't bet the farm on the results.

As far as supplements and such, I tend to be pretty leery about 'buying a
better bucket' to solve every problem.  I have no faith whatsoever in the
tryptophan supplements such as Calm-ex or whatever the brand name is.  I
*have* heard of a few anecdotal reports that have suggested extra B
vitamins.  The B's are a stress vitamin and while a normal cecal microflora
produces sufficient quantities, as long as you don't go crazy with them,
they'll do no harm and just might help.  Brewers yeast is a good source, try
mixing in a few heaping spoonfuls.

Also go through all the other usual things to eliminate them as potential
sources of her nervousness.  I have my doubts that she has a true
nutritional deficiency, she might just need alot of wet saddle blankets.
Restrain the urge to want to start flinging supplements at her
willy-nilly---very rarely is a ration improved by the add-another-bucket
strategy. ;-)

Good luck,
Susan G
----- Original Message -----
From: <guest@endurance.net>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 5:12 PM
Subject: RC: nervous horse


> patti recoe gene@d
> I have a four 1/2 year old mare. She has started acting very jumpy on the
> trail and  has spooked and spum hard on me and dumped me. I am feeding her
> 50/50 pellets of bermuda alfalfa and about 5 pounds of orchard,timothy
> hay. (I'm thinking about putting her on only orchard timothy.) I was
> wondering if there are any herbs or vitamins that would not compromise her
> energy that I could give her. I don't want to DRUG her just take the edge
> off. I feel that it's hard to get in good conditioning time when she is
> spooking and looking for something to jump at.Sometimes she is ok. but
> then the most of the time she is stomping, jumping, spinning or anything
> else she can do for no reason. I ride her Monday, wed, Fri, on on a
> regular basis for no less than 3 hours each time. And if I have a chance
> to ride more, I do.
>
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
> Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>