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[RC] Excitement affecting horses heart rate. - Spottedracer

One of my 50 milers is EXTREMELY affected!

She's the type of horse that'll just stand there acting VERY calm... BUT - if she's not next to her buddy, or a male vet is checking her, or a strange (calm) horse walks closely to her - her heart rate will immediately jump by 20 beats!  She's VERY submissive in the herd, so is anxious about strange horses that MIGHT beat her up. She's had very bad handling at the hands of men in the past.

OUTWARDLY - you'd think she was the calmest, most laid-back horse at VC! Until you see this pattern with a stethoscope!

This coming year, we're going to do several things differently. See if they make the difference that we think they will....
#1 - NEVER ride without my teammate.. If she gets pulled - I'll just rider-opt pull.
#2 - ONLY do VC next to buddy.
#3 - put TONS of red ribbons in her tail - though she NEVER even thinks about kicking... Maybe other riders will THINK she kicks, and not casually lead their horses into her 'personal space/comfort zone'
#4 - If there's a female vet - she'll be the ONLY one that this horse will see.
#5 - IF there's only male vets - I'll explain the situation to the OLDEST/CALMEST vet the night we check her in. Maybe get him to spend 2 minutes doing her ground exersizes (bending head, pivote, backup, and stand still allowing all hooves picked up) - this will build her trust in that particular vet... And he will be the ONLY one to do her checks....

Fortunantly, this mare's FINALLY coming around and letting my two younger kids ride her... I had actually rescued/bought her to become a schooling mount - but she came with so much mental/physical baggage - I had doubted she would ever trust anyone other than myself.... So she became an endurance mount by default.. She seems to be starting to trust more women and children. Sigh... But I'm figuring at LEAST 6-12 more months before I attempt to put anyone besides my own 'horse experienced' youngsters on her back.... She's a horse that you have to go REAL SLOW with....
- LP