horses rearing

Question
I am a horse trainer and i have just had a horse come to me from the isle of wight last month.she is a half dutch warmblood cross throughbred.She is now 10 and since the age of 4 she has jumped up to b.s.j.a foxhunters level.All she has done is been jumped,schooled, and stabled.Now she has been sent to me with view to sell but she started of o.k very impatient and rears when asked to stand still,but ridable but the other day took her out for a hack down an open bridleway and she went mental,rearing,leeping forward,snatching reins,head down as if to buck,spinning round,backing into hedges or whatever was in her way.i could see no reason for this behaviour.do you think she has been instatiutionalised,and now just cant seem to manage the outside world.she has a lovely temperment from the ground and is a great looking horse which i great in the ring.do you have any ideas as to what i can do to stop this behaviour when out on a relaxing hack?

Answer
Hi Martina

If this was me with this horse, I'd get a full vetting done, check  her back, teeth, and tack, and when all possible pain related issues have been ruled out, look at what she is being fed.

To me it sounds like her hard feed is way too much for her workload.  Cut down a little, and replace with good quality hay or haylage.  Maximise turnout if at all possible.  

Also get a vet in to check her hormone levels...coming into Spring, mares start coming into season, and some can get downright dangerous.  I don't think she has been institutionalised at all...she needs time and space to adjust.  If all she's known for the past 6 years is jumping, then my advice would be to turn her into a paddock, let her rough off completely, and then in 6-12 months start working her again..or better still, let her have a foal.

She could be agoraphobic...if all her work has been done in enclosed arenas, then she may feel anxious in the open air wth no fences.  A friend of mine has a stallion who suffers from agoraphobia....but with patience and tme, he can now go out in the field without the need for human reassurance.

Do you have a quiet horse on the yard that you can hack out with her?  That would be another possible soultion to the problem.  Really, you need to work through a list of possible causes, starting with pain, fear, feed related issues, and then as you eliminate these, try the slightly more unusual possible causes.


Good luck hun, and if you need to contact me, my email is elvenkeeparabians@hotmail.co.uk  and I'll send you my phone number...then you can contact me direct if you need any more help.

Hope this is useful...

Emma xx