Scaredy Pants

Izzy is very confident and willing to try just about anything inside the barn. But as soon as we venture outside she thinks the fairgrounds is going to eat her alive. Chevy is her buddy and she always feels braver when she is around. However Chevy cant always be there. Last night I turned Izzy outside for 20 mins to burn some energy before I tried to work with her. She ran and ran calling out for her buddy or any other horse that would answer back. She worked herself up pretty bad and not so much from running around but from freezing up and screaming for someone to save her. I walked the fence of the turnout as if nothing was wrong. Eventually she trotted up to me as if to say, "hey why aren't you scared?" I would comfort her and then go back to walking and playing with the carrot stick. I wanted to make sure that I didn't act like something was wrong. If I had stood at the fence "saying easy easy its ok, you're ok" she would have knew something was up. "why is my human nervous? she must know something I don't" So by acting like the braver Alpha she found comfort with me instead of the other horses. We will work on this, until she can be confident without her buddy around. I worked with her on the ground playing the seven games inside the barn and she is doing great. I might be taking my official level one Audition...I have been putting that off for years. I was cleaning her stall that night and she decided to roll with me and the wheel barrow in the stall with her. It was cute and scary all at the same time, all I could think was please don't cast yourself or kick me in the head. She is a goofball what can I say.

I have made some slow changes to her feeding program, based on her weight, amount of work, and behaviors. Izzy shows signs of ulcers. They are very common with performance horses, stressed out horses, or stabled horses with high concentrate feeds. When we got her she was at a good weight but eating 5lbs of 14% pellets with corn oil and 8 flakes of hay a day. She also cribbed really bad while she ate so she was loosing pellets out her mouth.

(FYI....THIS WAS A SLOW CHANGE)

Now she is being fed from a ground feeder so she cant crib on the feed bucket. She is on a 12% pellet instead of the 14%. She still gets tons of hay, which she loves. Horses with ulcers should be cut of all grain or pellets, but being a TB she would not hold her weight. So I slowly lowered the amount to 4lbs then to 3.5lbs. If she continues to maintain the weight she is at now I will lower it a bit more or keep it the same, at least till the amount of work she is doing increases. Then we will bring it back up to suit her needs. She still gets corn oil about 1/8 cup a day. We put her on some supplements. *Thanks Smartpak, for helping me choose what was best for my horse* She is on Accel (vitamin & minerals), SmartGut (digestive/ulcers), Apple-a-day (electrolytes) and SmartCalm Ultra (Calming). The supplements contain pre and probiotics and I already notice a difference in her eating. And she is less sensitive about me touching her belly. She is cribbing less, drinking more water and her coat looks amazing. The calming supplement is just to take the edge off her nerves a little bit so she can focus on training...less stress can also help heal her stomach. But that one doesn't start till tomorrow, so when I see a difference I will let you know.