You know the story.
Mr. Cowboy bought Quiet Dobbin for his children.
And some short period of time later………..
Quiet Dobbin turned out to be………..
Crazy Bobbin
Now.
There are lots of tricks besides sedation I’ve seen employed to…….shall we say……….take the edge off…….
I saw a trainer ride the absolute hair off a sale horse a couple hours before a showing. He made sure to put the horse back in the pasture and leave the property so that when he arrived “minutes after” the potential buyer they wouldn’t guess the horse had already had his legs ridden off.
Apparently giving a bunch of vaccines the day before a showing is another tactic.
A lot of horses are a bit lethargic the day after vaccines and when I was pre-purchasing a horse in 8 degree weather, my veterinarian suggested this was going on. The horse had a 103 temperature and a sore neck. I had made it clear to the seller I was going to drug test him, and the vet (having some knowledge of this trainer) thought the “vaccine trick” was likely.
Then there’s the horse that I thought was sweet, quiet, super easy going,………..
he could totally take a joke………… I was PROUD of my find and even bragged that I bought this horse for his AMAZING BRAIN.
THEN IT HAPPENED………..
I went out to the cross country field (where we had ridden EVERY DAY for a couple of weeks) and he had what I can only call a nervous break down.
When we rounded the corner and he saw the first jump he became so agitated his legs were shaking and every vein on his body was popping out. He went into full on MELT DOWN. I had to dismount, and I was so astonished by this reaction I thought he was having some kind of cardiac event. I even took this photo.
I’ll save you the suspense. It did NOT go well with that horse.
His answer to everything was 100 miles per hour with his nose on his chest. Notice I’m not even using a bit……….I tried for months…… to get that quiet level headed horse back.
To this day, he is the HOTTEST horse I’ve ever ridden. I gave it my best shot for about 8 months and finally decided that there was no future for Bad Eventer with that crazy freaking horse.
When I had reached the end of the road……… I called the previous owner and said, “HOW THE HELL DID YOU EVER EVENT THIS HORSE??????!!!!!!!”
His matter of fact reply, “Oh that’s easy. Reserpine.”
Unfortunately, long acting sedatives are rather ubiquitous these days. My vet nearly BEGGED me to let him give Big Dummy Red Head reserpine when I was rehabbing him after surgery………..
to treat “the lameness between his ears”. He was sure the crazy horse was going to kill me.
And I can’t really blame him for trying.
However, I staunchly refused…………… as my experience riding horses coming off long acting sedatives has been…………………. universally bad.
I strongly believe these horses are worse for it because they experience scary things without their normal fight or flight response.
That means these horses CAN’T GET NERVOUS. And when they see the same thing in the future, like say……a cross country course that they’ve seen every day……… and the adrenalin starts pumping for the first time…….. they don’t know how to cope with that feeling…………..
Ever drink too much caffeine and all of a sudden find your heart racing?? It’s pretty unsettling. If you’re 1000 lbs and all instincts……. & all of a sudden your heart starts racing when it hasn’t before………….you can imagine how that might end……………
Now don’t get me wrong. I think a lot of people buy a horse that’s fantastic “in a program”.
The horse is ridden every day, sometimes twice…… They get the lovely pony home, feed him a ton, give him a week off and then find the fire breathing dragon hiding in there when Quiet Dobbin isn’t ridden every day.
I’ve met a lot of people that swear their horse was drugged when they bought them……….. when I think it’s more likely they just took the horse out of a program that worked for it.
The first month….. you’re riding the horse you bought……………..
The second month…… you’re riding the horse YOU have created…………….. and if you’re Bad Eventer………that might be a problem.
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And if the reserpine just wore off……………………..that’s when we’re ALL in trouble.
I had a young horse – approximately 2 to 2 1/2 years of age. He was 3/4th thoroughbred, 1/4 percheron. He came p lame – had bone chips in his stifle. We opted for surgery and he had to spend nearly 2 months in a stall. This was really hard on him and he was insane when we tried to hand walk him. He kicked me so hard I couldn't get up. He tried to kill me in his stall (my mom had to beat him off of me, that is how bad it was). So we opted to tranq him. He was absolutely perfect after that and went on to take me to First level dressage. He still acted normal – all normal flight responses, never freaked out. It could have been that 1/4 percheron in him that kept him calm, but who knows? I wouldn't hesitate to use a long-term tranq again for rehab purposes, but I would never want to use it on a horse long-term. I've seen the consequences of that.
Using sedation while they stand in a stall is a bit different than competing them on sedation….. which is what I'm talking about.
Isnt it illegal to show on these long term sedatives? I mean, those people were setting you up to get fined/kicked out of the sport! I used a long term sedative once and my horse ended up with photosensitivity, which I found out after the fact is a potential side effect (along with lots of other horrible neuro side effects!). I will never use them again in that way (for rehab purposes) – you're 100% right, they're NEVER the answer. I'm ok with short term sedatives as needed. For my last rehab, I'd ace him as needed, some days he was calm and fine and some days he wasn't, those were the ace days 😛
Very true, especially the last bit! I sold a horse that was pretty laid back and an all around gentleman. I'd never had a single problem with him so I didn't think twice about selling him to someone who was inexperienced but said they had experienced friends who'd help them out. Several weeks after the sale the calls started, and kept getting worse. About four months later (possibly more) they threatened to sue me if I didn't take him back because he was 'dangerous and crazy' and would lie down or buck when they tried to ride him. I finally gave in and took him back to stop the harassing calls. It took me about 10 minutes to get the horse to calm down and then I hopped up on him. I had no problem getting him to do sharp turns, back up and canter on a loose rein. Clearly dangerous horse here! I wish they'd have stayed to see it because I bet their next horse turned out just the same way. Some people really don't understand that they could be the problem and not the horse… Although there are plenty of dishonest sellers too.