I have a 9 year old paso. She has been on the same property for six years. During that time she has never been off the property for any reason. She rides fine around the barn and in the pastures . Recently I have started taking my horse and another horse to places to trail ride. Well, that is starting to seem like a big mistake. She loads great, walks around the trail riding property fine but when you take her out on the trails, she is a totally different horse. I spend my time on the trails trying to slow her down, calm her down, stop her from prancing sideways, jumping everything that gets in her way and just generally being antsy and pushy. If another horse goes around the bend in the trail and takes off, she will push through the trees and brush to get there and do the same thing. In other words, my trail riding is spent with me in knots trying to control her. But the minute we are out of the trails she calms back down. There is a small pasture between the different trails and the minute we hit those to walk across them she is calm. Trails are not new to her. She was a trail horse when I bought her 4 years ago, but she has not been on them since, except for the little trails in one of the pastures where I board her. She is great on those.

I was thinking of trying Quietex. Just to calm her down some on the trails. I just want to try it for a couple of months until she gets used to trail riding in strange places. I have read your other notes on Quietex and feel that this is the answer. I feel that she is just anxious because of the new place and because it has been so long since she was off the property of home.

Am I doing this right? I don't want to harm her in any way, but I need to calm her down some until she gets used to being on unfamiliar property. If I don't calm her down she is going to hurt herself or me.

Coming home she is perfect again. Loads great and everything. It just seems to be the strange woods that get her antsy.

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated...

Thanks

I am a firm believer in taking an inexperienced (and after a 6 year layoff, your horse probably qualifies) horse out on the trails in the company of a very, very sophisticated, easy going horse. Can you find such a horse with a rider who's willing to stroll beside you?

Also, try going out just a very short distance at first--ten feet, if that's all you're both comfortable doing--then turn around, go back to the trailer, let your Paso think about it, repeat, repeat, repeat, then go a little farther. Make it a game.

I've never used any of the calming products, although I've occasionally considered taking them myself. LOL.

I know of many horses who are dead quiet in the ring and quite excited (to the point of being dangerous) on the trails. Eve's advice is excellent, as training will likely be a necessary component of treatment here. The calming agents such as Quietex rely primarily on B vitamins as a calming agent, and you certainly cannot hurt a horse with B vitamins. I would also suggest trying to feed this mare as little grain as possible, relying on fat calories for any needed extra calories over and above her forage. I won't say that Quietex and a high fat diet will make her a completely manageable trail horse, but they might help. I like the idea of the bomb proof trail companion, and I would definitely suggest keeping close to this horse until the mare seems more comfortable on trails. Then I would try moving her to the front of the line for awhile. Many horses (including my old gelding) will panic if the lead horse disappears around a turn. Although training may help this, the horse is a very social creature and some horses are always going to act up if they think they are being left behind. Hope this helps, and good luck!

Thanks to both of you. Unfortunately I cannot try the high fat diet. She is a very easy keeper and very over weight. We have cut her food down tremendously. But that is another whole story. I don't know what to do to get her to lose weight. We have tried it all.

I will try the training first. I am a firm believer in training over anything else. If that does not work I will try Quietex AND the training. That way I can teach her something too.

thanks so much !!!