Is Your Horse High on Spring Grass?



Cruz Bay's mom, Kelly at age 25

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that Cruz and I were supposed to attend a bomb-proofing clinic last weekend, which was to be the ultimate proof of how well the CoolStance was working.

Thankfully, it snowed and the event is now set for May 7^th.

Spring Has Sprung and So Has Cruz

I say ‘thankfully’ because, after the remarkable way he calmed down since being on CoolStance, the spring grass has shot up and so have Cruz's spookiness levels! He declines to listen to yours truly and every riding session is currently a ‘back to basics’ ordeal.

It took a few bad rides for me to put two and two together and come up with four. But I did finally make the connection between his being on more lush pasture and his new, bolshy attitude. He’s gone from virtually no NSC starch in his diet to way too much from the grass. (Although the CoolStance is keeping him from being borderline dangerous, which is what he was last year before I changed his feed.) 

What to Do?

So last night I researched online to see what I could do to mitigate the effects of the grass, until its high sugar levels die down again and I get my pre-spring horse back. I found some really useful information on an Australian website.

If your horse is being a butthead ‘cos of the new spring grass you may find this helpful:

http://www.naturalhorseworld.com/Articles-Nutrition.htm#magnesium

The article recommends chelated magnesium. I have noticed that Cruz is showing a new interest in his mineral block, which tells me he’s missing something in his diet. So I actually went so far as to order the site's chelated magnesium product, called Alleviate.

Since it’s not going to arrive from the Antipodes any time soon, I researched chelated magnesium products closer to home and found SmartPak’s Quiessence.

Since no expense is ever spared when it comes to the horse, I ordered a month’s supply based on the product’s 37 testimonials. Most of them were very positive re: calming effects - among other good results like loss of excess fat (not a problem with Cruz!).

If you Google ‘chelated magnesium for horses’ you’ll find other products out there, too. I just happen to like SmartPak as I use their SmartFlex joint supplement with great success on our twenty year old Irish Draft cross C.D. as well as Cruz.

So I’m hoping that chelated magnesium will give me back my well-behaved CoolStance horse in time for his first competition on 1^st May and that bomb proofing clinic the following weekend!

I shall keep you updated.

Update: I have been giving Cruz Quiessence in the spring for four years now, and highly recommend it. It really does counteract the effects of the sugar in the spring grass for him and keeps him on an even keel through those dangerous months. Not to mention fending off the dangers of laminitis aka founder.

Overcoming My Horse's Fear (and Mine!): Final Part: Completing the Cure

Part I and Part II explored why my horse and I are afraid, and the first steps I need to take to overcome the problem. But there are other methods I can adopt.

Besides changing my attitude, here some more practical things I'm doing to help Cruz and me work through our fear.

Desensitization

If you’ve read my previous blog on desensitizing Cruz, you’ll already know that I’m throwing nerf balls at him: opening and shutting umbrellas next to him, holding them over his head and waving seven balloons round his body and between his ears. He is coping magnificently – if not actually happily! – with this.

At the end of this month we’re going to a Rick Pelicano bomb proofing clinic. It’ll be with eleven other horses, so I hope to (a) get through it with flying colors and (b) have lots of photos to prove I did!

Change of Nutrition

I’ve changed his feed to CoolStance, which is a starch reduced feed deriving ‘cool’ energy for horses through coconut oil and fiber. It seems to be having a very positive effect on him: he is much less spooky and anxious after only a short time on the feed.

Reintroduction of Cruz to Other Horses in the Ring

I’ll be taking Cruz to a local “horse whisperer” who trains difficult horses. He’ll help me build up Cruz’s confidence around other horses in the ring.

I’ve also extended an open invitation to my riding friends to bring their horses to ride with us.

Yesterday a friend brought her horse and rode with me in my arena. Cruz gave one small sideways shy, but quickly got over it and concentrated on his job. When another friend brought Cruz's stable mate in as a second horse, I rode Cruz between both animals as they walked towards me. Cruz coped well.

Next time we'll do the same thing in trot and canter. I expect to report good results!

Why Bother Doing This Myself?

Why don’t I just hand Cruz over to a professional and be done with it?

Because I’m his Mum! I bred him - from a mare who was a complete basket case when she first came to me, and ended up being the best and most reliable horse I’ve ever owned to date.

With TLC, professional guidance and determination/grit/guts I hope to turn this talented, athletic gelding into the horse that he was born to be.

Overcoming My Horse's Fear (and Mine!): Part II: Where Do We Go From Here?

You now know where our fears originated (see previous post) but what can I do to remove them?

Stop Anticipating Bad Stuff!

Every time I mount Cruz now – and I mean every time – visions of him rearing/bucking/bolting go through my head. I have to remind myself that he has never done any of those things without cause, and certainly not while being mounted! He is not a rearer/bucker/bolter. I take a deep breath and remind myself to act like a confident leader.

Be Cruz’s Comfort Zone

As I wrote in a previous blog about spooking I need to take charge and ride Cruz with quiet but determined purpose. Whether he pretends to be afraid or is truly worried, it’s my job to steer him through that anxiety/naughtiness.

I must be careful not to increase or cause fear in him by anticipating a bad reaction. Instead I have to ride as if I expect everything to turn out well. If I do this, Cruz will worry less and concentrate on his job.

Dwell on Victories, Not Defeats!

There have been many occasions when Cruz has acted up yet I’ve managed to ride him through it and perform a good test.

This includes our last show of the 2010 season, when he panicked and bolted in the warm-up because an empty trailer rattled noisily past. He followed this with a series of half-rears round the dressage arena because he suddenly developed separation anxiety from Double Clover, my husband's horse who was competing at the same show.

I am encouraged by the video of my two rides that day. Although I felt terrified inside, I was determined to make my talented bay do the tests! Onlookers remarked on how calm I appeared throughout – and I hope I fooled Cruz, too.

He tried to duck out a couple of times, then buckled down to work (albeit resentfully) and we missed first place (to my friend on my husband’s horse!) by half a point, with marks in the mid-60s.

So: I need to stop focusing on the bad times and remind myself that I’m perfectly capable of riding Cruz through his fears as long as I don’t allow myself to be afraid.

Next: Completing the Cure

Results of the New Feed Plus the Desensitization Process

In addition to changing Cruz Bay’s feed, (see previous post) I’ve also set about desensitizing my big bay. I purchased a copy of Rick Pelicano’s book Bombproof Your Horse and began using some of his techniques.

A set of twelve nerf balls from Walmart began my sessions. At first I showed one to Cruz in his stall then bounced it gently off his neck and gave him a treat. I continued to throw them at his neck, his back, his rump.....you get the picture.

Cruz's eyes bulged and he shied away, but then understood the balls weren’t going to hurt him and allowed them to come at him.

Eventually my son could throw them at him while I was mounted - still offering treats, of course!

Now part of my after-ride routine is to throw nerf balls at him in his stall – from the front, on his head, from behind. He doesn’t enjoy it, but he lets me do it. I can now throw four or five at him before giving him a treat.

He's also learning not to be afraid of umbrellas. I open and close two different sizes and colors of umbrella on either side of him, and hold them over his head. Treats are liberally dispensed and he is being very brave.

In the arena I’ve placed a tarp, which he walks over with no problem now.

Is the Combination Working?
Yesterday I took Cruz down to my arena to ride. I deliberately had a friend drag a noisy chain behind my tractor in the field next to the sand school, with the front bucket raised menacingly high in the air.

The tractor came very close while I was leading him down to the arena. He saw it and raised his head, ready to take off. I offered him a treat and his fear immediately subsided. That has never happened before!

The tractor came full frontal towards us and close to the boundary fence many times while I rode in the arena. A cyclist came past on the other side. But Cruz remained unperturbed by any of it. He listened to me, and performed his walk work in shoulder-in, renvers, tranvers and half-pass as though nothing else were going on.

Conclusion
The feed and the desensitization seem to be working. For the first time in three years I am hopeful that Cruz can become a confident horse who trusts me.

And I have just received information that Rick Pelicano is giving a bombproofing clinic in March at the farm next to me. What a stroke of luck!

I’ve signed up for it so watch this space.

New Year's Resolution: Create a Calm Horse!

The Mistake
This year I'm going to turn Cruz Bay, my three-quarters Thoroughbred gelding, into a calm horse. I only have myself to blame for my ten year old's problem: he’s terrified of other horses in the warm-up arena at shows.

The year 2007 was a wonderfully successful dressage season for us. We won all our local schooling shows at Training Level, and when I moved up to First Level we won those classes, too.

Then I made a huge mistake in 2008 by taking him to a massive licensed show at the New Jersey Horse Park for our first competition of the season. I didn’t realize that all dressage levels - including Grand Prix - warm up together in one not-so-large ring.

Cruz became anxious about the high-stepping horse traffic as soon as I entered that arena.
Within seconds he was pinned against the boundary fence with a huge black horse cantering diagonally towards him in half-pass. He panicked and reared vertically. I stayed on for the rear, but he landed with such a thud that I was unseated and lifted up into the air. I fell with a thump onto the ground.

Upshot: me hobbling around with two canes, terrified of Cruz, and Cruz with a deep phobia of other horses.

In the last three years I’ve annually - with a lot of hard work - managed to persuade him that the other horses in the warm-up are not out to get him. He has never had a horse actually run into him, yet that seems not to impress him.

Every year something happens to upset him in the warm-up. Another horse acts up or a loud trailer/car drives by and he becomes a basket case again.

The Mission

So, this year will be devoted to getting Cruz over his anxiety. Until I get past this stumbling block, we shan’t be able to compete at the higher levels in licensed shows.

The First Strategy - Change of Feed
Cruz has been on Ultium for the last three years, but now I was looking for something to calm him down while still providing the energy and nutrients he needs.

After researching the internet and reading horse owners’ feedback on various feeds, I became interested in an Australian product called CoolStance

It is made from coconut, and is low on non-structural carbohydrates (NSC). High NSC diets increase the horse’s blood glucose levels which in turn increase the horse’s blood insulin levels. One of the many negative effects of this is hyperactivity.

In a low NSC diet, the horse’s necessary calories have to come from fat and fiber. CoolStance is ‘packed with ‘cool’ energy from coconut oil and fibre from copra meal.’ Online you will find some bad press about copra, but the makers of CoolStance are fastidious about their preparation process.

CoolStance has been fed to horses for over 20 years. The less than 2% starch doesn’t cause hot or fizzy behavior, and the coconut oil is easily digested and absorbed by the horse.

According to the information from http://stanceequine.com ‘CoolStance and hay will provide the required amounts of minerals and vitamins’ for most horses.

I contacted the only person selling this feed on the east coast, Paul Christy, at paul@stanceglobal.com (Tel: 610-247-7584). He visited me from his home in Pennsylvania and left three bags of CoolStance for me to try. I immediately started feeding Cruz with it.

Here are some testimonials

P.S. No, I’m not a paid representative: I’m simply trying out a new feed for my hot horse!

Next: Working to desensitize Cruz, and the results of the new feed