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Discussion on Behavior issues coming off stall rest
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Member:
carol459
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 4:23 pm:
Hi -- Nearly 3 weeks ago, I acquired a 6 yo paint gelding who is just coming off almost 4 months stall rest for a deep cut in the underarm area at his right elbow. The cut is nearly completely healed up and our vet has said he can be turned out now and I can start to recondition him with lunging and turn-outs. Unfortunately, he's gone from sweet and gentle a couple months ago to anxious and hard to handle. He's had turn-out time twice, and he bucks and runs hard and breaks open the cut. He won't let me hand-walk him for long; he becomes very agitated and tries to square off (face me) and pull away. He is also anxious when cross-tied, doesn't like grooming and doesn't want me to pick up his feet. Has anyone been through this type of behavior after stall rest before? Do I need to have this boy retrained? He's nearly 7, and before the injury I was told he was a "dead broke" bombproof ranch horse. Now I'm not so sure. I've called the vet to ask if he can continue turn-outs with such "gusto" and I'm also calling my trainer to evaluate his behavior. His diet has been alfalfa and oat hay, all good quality. I would sure love to hear any advice you folks may have.
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Member:
dres
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 4:48 pm:
Have you thought about ulcers? Stall rest can be very stressful then now able to have turn out .. maybe he has tummy issues???
On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them with spots..
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Member:
stevens
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 5:15 pm:
Carol,
I'm a firm believer in better living through chemistry. I laid up a warmblood who also was bombproof. After stall rest he exploded one day while I was walking him and I ended up with 3 broken ribs. Sedate the sucker; you'll both be safer.
Good luck.
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Member:
carol459
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 5:18 pm:
I thought that ulcers would affect his appetite, and he eats great, no problem. He was just relocated, though, a few weeks ago, and suffered a mild gas/impaction colic nearly two weeks ago, shortly after coming to his new home. All that on top of stall rest. So he's certainly had reason for stress.
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Member:
ekaufman
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 5:18 pm:
Hi Carol,
It could be medical or it could be just the stress of confinement. It could also be be a lack of ground manners-- broke to ranchwork doesn't mean broke to handwalk.
I've personally found that many horses that are bombproof in heavy work are not even butterfly-proof in light work/no work. When a horse is in heavy work, he's looking for a chance to stand still. That may be more a function of hard work than temperament, and that same horse can be almost unrideable after layup.
There isn't enough info. here to guess what you're dealing with. You may need to confine him until the cut can handle more activity, and then start figuring out what he's really like in his new environment. Are you able to call his former owners to find out what he knows and how he lived before he came to you?
Good luck with him.
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Member:
carol459
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 5:39 pm:
Chris -- thanks for the suggestion. I have a call into my vet, and I'll ask her about meds. ELK, I bought this horse from a lady who sells for others on consignment. She knew that he came from a ranch and was used, at least, for roping. Her initial evaluation was that he was bombproof and safe for any rider. Then he injured himself and she could only go on his disposition as a patient, which was excellent. I'm going to have a trainer out next week to see if he needs new or re-training.
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Member:
carol459
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 6:03 pm:
By the way, Chris, how did it work out with your warmblood? Did he get back to his old bombproof self, and how long did it take?
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Member:
stevens
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 8:31 pm:
Carol, as soon as I could get on my horse instead of hand walking, things improved. He only unloaded me twice  . As elk points out, many horses don't have great ground manners and while my guy was and is very sweet, he did not have outstanding ground manners. elk is also right on about a horse in work being less likely to act up. If he can't work physically, you can work on keeping his mind occupied at least.
IMO, once they've been cooped up and already have a ton of pent up energy it's going to be very very hard to instill good ground manners, hence my suggestion for sedation.
One thing I did was to make sure as many elements were on my side as possible. I took off work early to get to the barn while it was still light and not as crowded. I tried to get him out in the hottest part of the day. If he gave me a wild eye look, he got sedated or just left alone. I also worked on teaching him tricks and other things to keep his mind occupied.
They're all individuals.
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Member:
juliem
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 11:33 pm:
Replace the alfalfa hay with grass hay. Some horses get "hot" on alfalfa and especially when confined to a stall are better off with grass hay. Many times the change is sort of dramatic.
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 - 11:47 pm:
As Chris suggests, keeping the mind busy makes hand walking more fun for both you and the horse and seems to keep them quieter while walking. My mare Libby was getting pretty bouncy, so I started playing "follow the leader" and "Simon Says" with her. I walk through and over poles laid on the ground; weave in and out of cones; stuff like that, and stop and start unexpectidly. She seems to enjoy it and it makes it less boring for me too. My old mare that I'm currently hand walking enjoys going for walks around the neighborhood with the dog and I; but I wouldn't do this with a bouncy horse!
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Member:
frances
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Posted on Friday, Feb 20, 2009 - 7:26 am:
In addition to all the above good thoughts and advice, don't forget that you've only had this boy for 3 weeks, so he probably hasn't had time to develop confidence in you to keep him safe when he's being handwalked in the great scary outdoors after a long time kept in.
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Member:
canter
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Posted on Friday, Feb 20, 2009 - 7:37 am:
Carol, my bomb proof mare was laid up on 4 mos of stall rest about 4 years ago. Normally, she is exceptionally well behaved, easy to handle and a very solid citizen. About half way through the stall rest, she became a nut case, even with me hand walking twice a day. Even one of the barn cats sneezing would send the mare straight up in the air....this from a horse who is used to working within earshot of gunfire.
I did the same thing as Chris...made sure EVERYTHING was in my favor when hand walking her, including going out to the barn at 5:30 am before anyone else was up and about. The other thing I did which kept me safe was to hand walk her using a lunge line. When she was good, I walked along side her as if it was a normal lead line. But when I saw that "I'm about to explode" look in her eye, I stepped as close to the middle of the arena (or away from obstacles) as I could and let out the lunge line as needed. If she had to explode, I was far enough away to keep safe, but I always tried to quiet her down as soon as possible. We were rehabbing a hock injury and I didn't want her bucking around on circles for very long. I also tried to keep her mind occupied with a few tricks.
It was a stressful time as I was very worried that she would reinjure the hock and end her career. Finally, got the go ahead for turn out, but I was careful to give her very light work first so she wouldn't go nuts the first time she was free. After a week of turn out and a slow start back into work, she turned back into her old self again.
Good luck!
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Member:
stek
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Posted on Friday, Feb 20, 2009 - 11:15 am:
Carol, very common problem for horses coming off stall rest. Stall rest was probably doubly hard for this guy if he was used to being used for ranch work on a daily basis (as opposed to a horse who was standing around doing nothing).
In addition to the other good advice here I second the recommendation for chemical restraint during handwalking till he gets back to his old self, and the switch to plain grass hay if possible. One of my horses gets very hot on the oat hay/alfalfa combo even when kept working and getting turnout.
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Member:
carol459
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Posted on Friday, Feb 20, 2009 - 11:46 am:
Thanks so much to all of you for the great advice. I'll work on diet and talk to our vet about sedation when he gets the wild eyed look, like he did the other day. The good news is that vet said he can be turned out in a smaller pen, so he'll be able to let off some steam. Hopefully, working with him during this time will help build his trust in me, too.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Friday, Feb 20, 2009 - 8:45 pm:
For more on taking care of horses that are having problems with stall rest see the article associated with this discussion. It gives some specific sedative recommendations. Yes you may have to do some retraining here but normally once the pent-up energy is released it should not be that hard to recover what is not lost just misplaced.
DrO
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Member:
carol459
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Posted on Saturday, Feb 21, 2009 - 11:45 am:
Thanks, Dr. O. I'll re-read the article with regard to the meds. Yesterday, he walked well for a while then reared up with no warning. We turned him out into a small pen and he bucked enough to break open the cut again. Sedation may be my best bet for a while.
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Member:
pattyb
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Posted on Sunday, Feb 22, 2009 - 1:54 pm:
Carol...I just wanted to chime in for whatever it's worth, possibly not much.
I recently had an experience with my Belgian Malinois (dog) that may help here just a little: She put a two inch gash on the inside of her left thigh while escaping from back yard to arena. $250.00 and 10 stitches later, she had to be kept on a leash until the stitches came out. The day after they did, she bolted across the yard only to rip the incision wide open....as if it had never been stitched. After throwing my hands in the air in exasperation, I just started putting an antibiotic cream on it and let her rip. It healed slower than restitching but, it healed while in motion and has never been another problem...and only a tiny scar. By healing "in motion" from the inside out, there was nothing to rip open as she ran around the yard. While this went on though, I did put the lamp shade collar on her so she wouldn't lick it. It took about a week to close but we were both much saner in the long run.
I don't know if that would work for your horse but the dog couldn't wait to rip and as soon as she did......$250.00 went down the drain. The trick was to keep it clean and soft.
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