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Hyper Horse!?

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Hyper Horse!?
  • Ok, so i have a OTTB mare and she has been great and i absolutely love riding her and running barrels on her, but a while back she had a hoof problem(nothing serious) and i wasnt able to ride her for about 4 to 5 weeks. Well in that time she bottled up A LOT of energy. I rode her a few times after she healed up and took her to a practice playday and she bucked me for the first time ever! So i was wondering what ya'll do to help get energy out of the ocasional " Hyper Horse". (She has also been cut back on feed since she is in a new lush pasture.)
  • *que the music*  ....baby they were born to run.... [':)']
     
    Too bad you can't take her to a special place and breeze her a bit.  She'd love it and it would wear her out.  But I'm not suggesting letting her out just anywhere.
     
    Cool that you barrel race her.  How tall is she and how does she do?
  • Haha ya she loves to run no doubt about it. Well she is bay and stands 15.2 hands high. So far our fastest barrel time is only and 18.91 and we ran that at our very fist playday,and she is improving. She loves running barrels, after i ran her at the show you could feel her like shaking because she was so pumped. She's an awsome horse but she gets an extra burst of energy sometimes and she might do some silly things when she has it.
     
    here are some pictures of her!
    http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa216/sarahs_2011/
  • The best thing to do when you have a hyper horse. Dont run them to death. A lot of people say "run them, case them...etc" I find this does not work with a lot of horses. What I do is a lot of canter and trot loung work, such as jog over polls jumping over things. Just do ground manner, with speed added. With this it gets their mind thinking, getting their mind out of running and doing what you would like them to do. My arab was the same way. I did this with him after being stalled up for 2 weeks from steping a skrew. When I was able to ride him, I started ground work. Did lots of trot in hand, turn on forhand, hocks, yeld the hindend, jump polls and so much more. By the end of it, he was looking to stop and get back on the job ahead.
  • Yeah, running them to death wouldn't be a good idea, I agree.  OTTB's were bred for running and it's in them.  A nice controlled hand-gallop in a place reserved especially for running.  Not where you'd normally want to do other stuff. 
  • I have longed her twice now for around 10 or 15 minutes each time. Yesterday was the first day i started longeing her and she would kick out and jump around and be silly and the more she did it the longer she would have to go before i would stop and let her rest. I lunged her again this evening and she only kicked out once and was more responsive to my cues. I also make her move her hind end and shoulder to keep her thinking. I think tomorrow i will saddle up and do a lot of trotting to get her a little tired, but i will most definately do some ground work first to take the edge off.
     
    Thanks for the responses. I love talking to people about horses, they are my favorite subject to talk about!
     
    ':D'
  • When you are working with her and she starts to be silly and trys to kick you. Dont let her get away with that. I have seen people with horses that they let them get away with and they get worse in their habits. Running her some times when she does somthing wrong will work. However its not a turn way to fix it. The best thing to do is right when she starts to go nuts step in front of her drive line fast. Make her turn the other way fast, on her hocks. Make it rush, flick the whip, make it mean something to her. After a few times she will get tired of have to turn and hussle her feet. You will have to make her turn into the fence if you would like her to turn on her hocks.
  • okay. I have seen people do that and for some reason i didnt think about that but i will try that now when or if she acts up.
  • Regarding the bucking and kicking out, this is just my opinion but I don't allow it when my horse is wearing any tack. I know some people say they longe their horse(s) to "blow off steam". I don't. I longe to work on control. I do not care if my horse bucks and runs and kicks when he is turned loose in the arena or round pen (arena tho' mostly). However, he is not even wearing a halter. When I put any tack on him, including a halter, I am in control. It's a respect issue.

    You got some other good advice up there so I'm not going to add anything to that.
  • Hey as far as the kicking goes you need to get that under control and fast she is starting a bad habit and it will get worse  if she is not corrected. More than likely she does not respect you or she is testing you to see what she can get away with.

    Now I don't know what kind of feed you are feeding her I had a horse that got hyper from the feed we were feeding legends I think malasis sugar was the cause we changed to strategy.
  • Ladybug, your mare and mine could just about be sisters!  Same color, almost same height, body is almost exactly the same!  My mare has a white star on her forehead, but otherwise, they look so similar...it was like looking at pics of my own horse...also an OTTB.  [':)']

    I have had the same kind of pent-up energy issues with my mare all the time I've had her, and even though she's 20 now, I still have to be aware of it.  You've gotten so much good advice already that I feel like I'm just saying the same things...I never get on without at least a quick trip to the round pen (or lunge line), and I work on respect every single time I interact with her (that helped with the kicking out, which mine used to do as well).  I found feed made a difference too...she was better on grass hay but I had a harder time keeping weight on in the winters as she got older.  She's on a mix of alfalfa and grass now, and we live in a much warmer climate, so that helps.  Most grain type feed makes her hot, but I had reasonable luck with Strategy Healthy Edge.

    Honestly I found over the years the best best best thing for her, no matter what I was feeding her, was lots of exercise that involved thinking...whether that was on the ground or in the saddle.  Mindless speed did nothing but wind her up.  That might not be the case for you, but that's my experience.  I'm not meaning barrels here, I'm talking about just running and running trying to wear her out.  It just never worked for me.  She never wore out and just got more and more pumped up.  Once I get her doing something, then we are in business.