In our circle of 4H friends, we seem to be in the minority in not giving our horse Quietex.
The general consensus is that because it’s all natural it’s not a drug. It allegedly takes the edge off and helps the horse relax in naturally stressful situations, like horse shows.
Marijuana is all natural too. As it matter of fact, it also takes the edge off and helps you relax in naturally stressful situations. I’m just saying…
We are leasing Shado, we don’t own him. So even if we wanted to use the stuff, it’s not our horse to be making a doping decision on. However, my gut feeling is that all natural or not, giving your horse “something” to help it relax before a horse show is doping. Delaney’s trainer, who is all knowing and all wise, is of the opinion that horses that can’t behave at shows need better training, not drugs. Delaney takes anything she says as gospel, so you know where Delaney stands.
Horse people in my readership (Jeanne and Doc?) – do you have anything to add? I’m new at all this, but I’ve been totally shocked at how common this is. Every horse show we go to we overhear somebody talking about how great the stuff is, and we’ve been encouraged by more than a couple of people to use the stuff.
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You have a good trainer.
You know the line — just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t make it right.
More training and/or different approach. A horse that’s edgy at shows may need to go to more shows, smaller shows, empty show grounds, ghost shows, etc. Or need more training of other kinds.
I once showed a horse for a summer who was so edgy, I got on HOURS before classes to “work her down” the natural way. Only trouble was, by the end of the summer, she was so fit from trotting before classes, that it took even longer to take the edge off!
This kind of thing also means that kids don’t have to take responsibility for their OWN effect on the horse. A nervous or unprepared or lower level rider may not do as good a job at creating a calm horse. That’s okay. A good trainer doesn’t want to artificially calm the horse. A good trainer wants the child to learn to cope with nerves, get more prepared, and advance in her riding so she can do a better job with the horse.
I note that the “right” things you do with horses often have later impact. My youngest child turns out to be the same temperament as that energetic horse. Many’s the night that I’ve run with him and many’s the day I’ve shot hundreds of baskets with him, so that he could manage himself to do something else. I’m sure this idea was “in me” from my horsey days. My husband recently pointed out how frequently he now goes out to shoot baskets all on his own, usually just when he is acting like he’s been shot out of a cannon. He’s absorbed a strategy that is pretty low in negative side effects – plus he still gets to feel his regular “self.”
There’s some possibility that Quietx doesn’t work, too – in which case it is sort of like when Harry fooled Ron into thinking he’d taken Felix Felices, giving him extra “luck” in the Quidditch game. In coaching kids, I’ve tended to look for more straight forward placebos — explaining to them the wonders of “fake it ’til you make it” and a lot of mind-body connection and self-talk.
These, of course, are life skills that will come in handy…
It doesn’t work. People use it, and then they assume the animal is calm, so they themselves act calm, which keeps the horse calm….. get it? Placebo.
Show horses, where does one start? You take an animal who would more naturally prefer wide open spaces and non confinement, and you lock them up in a 12 X 12 box, on sawdust, work it in an arena -they’re going to go mental. The right horse adapts and doesn’t need calming agents. Not every horse is cut out for the show ring, and no amount of training ever helps that. I’ve bred crazy a couple crazy horses – two geldings that never settled, were never able to be ridden. It happens to lesser degrees, but people won’t admit it, think they can train that aspect out of the animal. The animal isn’t happy doing what its doing. You know that when you encounter a horse that loves to show, goes out and performs. Sometimes its the rider/horse combo that isn’t right – no ammount of drug is going to make that better.
I have never used those over the counter things because they’re no more effective than giving the horse some sleepy-time tea. If I have a rowdy animal that needs calming, I use a pole syringe loaded with thorozine and knock the sucker out cold.
Excuse the typos, I just midwifed triplets, not one of which could manage to be born head first, mother and children doing fine – I’m still a little shakey. The only reason I’m still up is to keep checking to make sure mom is taking care of said babies. She seems to be.
Does a horse on Quietex crave Cheetos? This guy I know who used to use all-natural mood enhancers couldn’t live without them. They always turned my, I mean HIS, fingers orange, though.
Nah, no craving Cheetos. He just wants more grass.
Some of us always want more grass, even when it means we eat cheetos. Oh Crap! I said the thinking part again didn’t I!
The phrase “because it’s natural, it’s not a drug” is something I’ll never understand. Drug doesn’t mean it’s artificial. A drug is a chemical that changes your body. That’s all. No part of the definition says where it’s from. So St. John’s wort — that’s a drug.
And natural drugs aren’t immune to having side-effects, drug interactions, or nasty other effects, jsut like any other drug. They just haven’t been tested.
So I figure natural things either:
1) Don’t work, and it’s a waste of money.
or
2) Work, and therefore are drugs…. and I’m not so sure I trust anything that I don’t know what it’s going to interact with badly, don’t know what it will do after X years of use, and so forth.
Boy, the solution when I was showing as a kid, was lunging and more lunging. I had a jumper that was amazing, but if I didn’t take the edge off him, he’d rush every jump and spook at any leaf. OTH, 20 mins of working him through his paces on the end of a lunge line would make him the calmest thing around for the entire day.
Yeah, Meg, I’ve been on the end of that lunge line, too.
Hey, I’ll actually weigh in here in favor of Quietex. I have a REALLY nervous, insecure, bordering-on-dangerous horse who I gave Quietex yesterday before a trail ride. His general problem is that everything’s initially o.k., then something stressful happens. Like something which would not stress out my other horse. He then seems impossible to calm and his behavior becomes erratic and spooky, leading to a total lack of self-awareness.
So, anyway, Quietex. I had used it once before with a horse who had notable tension reactions when faced with trailering and it seemed to take that reaction down just enough so we could get beyond the issue. I only had to use it twice before the horse was able to get accustomed to trailering without it. So I dosed Sioux yesterday morning. He was notably more relaxed by the time we hit the trail, accepting movement near his head without the usual tall posturing and stiff carriage and actually listening to my requests. He did really well, actually. We only had one minor and short one rein stop episode and one jigging episode. He also tends to buddy sourness and while he offered some calling and minor resistance to leaving his buddy, he didn’t do nearly as badly as he has in the recent past. So I think it has its uses. I look forward to being able to go without it, but meanwhile I appreciate its qualities in giving Sioux a little more ability to cope.