Yesterday was Ollie's lesson day. Toby has thrown a shoe so he's out of commission until it's repaired (a day or two).
Not every day is a great day with an OTTB. Ollie was a total nightmare. He was nice and quiet in the cross ties. Nothing raised any alarms while tacking him up. Then we went to the outdoor arena. He kept trying to out walk me so I made several halts on the way out. He wouldn't stand still for mounting and then when Betsy FINALLY got on him he wanted to zoom. We thought he was just a little full of it. But she couldn't get him to settle down at all. Eventually, he had worked himself into a lather, was cantering sideways and almost got himself to the point where he was not going to listen because he was in such a tizzy. Thankfully he didn't reach that point.
As soon as Betsy got him to stop, she dismounted and we checked to see what the problem was. We took off the saddle, felt down his spine and we couldn't find anything. We looked at him and said "Tell us what the problem is buddy!" He was washed out and he hadn't done hardly anything. Sadly, he didn't say a word to us...
SO - we are concluding it's the saddle. My old Albion saddle which I had padded up a ton. Looks like we will be doing lots of ground work until my new saddle arrives.
Also, I'm changing Ollie's feed to a low sugar, low starch feed with higher protein and fat (to keep weight on him). Hopefully this will help him focus and he can be more receptive to learning.
A blog to share the experience of retraining two off-track thoroughbred racehorses and their owner as they both learn dressage
Try B-1 crumbles or brewer's yeast. My vet recommended it to me when I was having problems like that with my guy. After two weeks of the loading dose of brewer's yeast, I could tell the difference. I had laughed about trying to supplement to overcome 300 years of breeding, and the vet agreed, but he said that B-1 is like Focus Factor for horses, and he was right.
ReplyDeleteWe'd go to new places and my horse would exit the trailer in full panic mode. With the B-1, he was still sure he was going to die until he saw his hay bag and then he was too busy eating to be bothered with being in a new place.
We had issues with some of our riding and schooling lessons like the one you had with Ollie, which is why I suggest this. I recommend Traileze brand brewer's yeast. It comes in 15# buckets and is fresh (it will clump, but is easily unclumped ;o) I special ordered it through a feed store and that makes it cheaper per serving.
B-1 - we'll give it a whirl once the feed change is made and he's on the one feed. Right now he is being weaned onto it. You know I'll keep you posted!!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wish I could mind-meld with mine and just get a glimpse inside the world from their perspective.
ReplyDeleteOther times, I worry just what I would uncover in there.
Putting B-1 on the list of ideas, though. You just never know!