Sedatives

[miss martinrajus]

On Friday i am leaving my barnslashhellhole :) but i have two horses this time. raja supposedly will try and run away and panic when moved. but thats what my over-exaggerating instructer, hereby refered to as banshee. I'm not sure if he really is like that or not, but what I do know is that he doesn't like the trailer. He'll rear if you pressure him to much. I'd like to maybe sedate him, my mom bought some quitex, just for the first night. I'm not sure if its safe. what do you all here think? marty will have no problem most likely because he is very 'portable'. throw him some hay and he looks like hes lived there all his life. I've only owned Raja for a few months and he's relatively calm. hes really calm under saddle and has only spooked maybe once because people were riding quads in the woods. grr. other than that, the only thing you can count on him being afraid of is canter main and tail spray, wormer, and trailers. so there. tell me, why dont you.

[Manda]

From what I've heard, quietex is safe. I think you have to start using it a day or two before you load him into a trailer though, so it actually has a chance to have an effect on him.

[iheartmyboys]

i think quietex is as safe as that stuff comes. but yeah- do it a day or so in advance, also. just read the tube- itll tell ya :D

[kckatt]

I dont know a lot about that kind of stuff, but I do know when my horse had his teeth done they sadated(sp?) him. The vet told us NOT to let him eat ANYTHING intill after he was fulling awake(about an hour or so). If he did he the food could get caught in his throat and suficate him. :(

[Comanchegurl14]

I wouldn't know, I just do it the old fashioned way, my hands, feet, halter, a very long rope and several people standing behind the horse with whips. My experience is that if you don't get him over the problem...it'll always be there, you'll ALWAYS have to take the time to give them sedatives. Maybe this time you can do that, but perhaps you should try and get him used to trailers. My other experience is that the only time when a horse is truly SCARED of a trailer is when they have been mistreated or very spooky in the first place. If you take your time and let the horse sniff the edges and walk him around the outside he might get used to them enough to get someone to help you load him the first couple of times and then you'll be able to load him pretty easily. My suggestion is go ahead and use a sedative this time, then work with him in your spare time on loading and not being afraid of trailers. You always want help the first couple of times though in case he needs some extra push from behind. It doesn't take too long, the first day I spent about 20 to 30 minutes with my horse getting him to load and unload easily. Then from then on it took less and less time till gradually all I had to do was about once a month go up load and unload once or twice to refresh his memory. :) This will really help if you practice this and help him understand that there is nothing to be scared of.
~Rachelle~

[Casper2002]

Hi My name is Penny. I am new to canterculture, but I have used quitex quite abit for horse shows and stuff and it works great most of the time but some horses have had a opposite affect to it, and it made them more excited so I would try it before you try to trailer him, and see what happens.