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Post by flower007 on Mar 14, 2012 14:57:31 GMT
I hope I have posted this in the correct section....
I am wanting to find out more about throughbreds and the links to stress. eg. Racehorses in their stables weaving. Any information will help about horses getting stressed, thanks.
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gbik
Newbie
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Post by gbik on Mar 14, 2012 15:04:24 GMT
TBs get stressed for all kinds of reasons! And some of them never get stressed... The love and thrive on routine, if you cant provide a routine or break with your normal one then you can easily end up with a stressed out TB. They can get attached to field or stable companions and changes in this can stress them out. Being stabled too much often causes them to stress...likewise I have come across some agrophobic ones that stress being in the field in particular in bad weather. The reasons are endless..can you be a bit more specific..?  |
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Post by tbmare on Mar 14, 2012 15:24:23 GMT
Stress realated to weaving cribbbing etc is not just seen in tbs.. i have 5 over the yrs and never had one that weaved. etc.. but i have an anglo that can go off the rails at the slightest ting...
a lot of it is down to stable managment of any breed.
plus there is a lot of stigma that goes with the tbs too.
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Post by flower007 on Mar 14, 2012 19:00:07 GMT
Thank you for you posts so far...just wondering about racehorses and why you often see them stressed out in the environment they live in. X
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Post by FF on Mar 14, 2012 19:36:44 GMT
Stabled to much is generally the reason most of the time but obviously not all the time. My ex racer will only stand in a stable to eat his tea and then he wants out. If you don't put him out he'll try and climb out so he live out 24/7.
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Post by sageandonion on Mar 14, 2012 19:56:02 GMT
Do you want this for a project or something? The very best people to speak to are one of the organisations that rehabilitate and rehome ex racehorses. They can tell you first hand exactly why, how this manifests and what steps can be taken to bring stress levels down.
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pn.x
Full Member
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Post by pn.x on Mar 14, 2012 20:37:55 GMT
i have throughbred and he HAS to be kept in a routine, if something changes eg, feed times, feed, turning out times, haylage anything.. he will be the first to let you know he's not happy! he does weave in his stable but hasnt done it for a while now i found he weaved when he had seen the other horses being turned out! so i my opinion i would say routine is KEY! mine is very playful and loves to be turned out with others but as for the riding side of it he has to do all this alone he's much better to hack alone than in company. :-)
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dazycutter
Happy to help
The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his Tongue.
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Post by dazycutter on Mar 15, 2012 18:39:46 GMT
because they are blood horses and have more of a brain ....
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snowflake
Happy to help....a lot
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Post by snowflake on Mar 15, 2012 20:12:11 GMT
They are very highly strung animals! Ex-racer trainers/show teams are particularly useful if your doing this for research, we got chatting to one trainer at a show one day just out of interest & found it very interesting - also helped rather much with our TB SP!
Modified because of spelling.
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Post by piaffe on Mar 15, 2012 20:19:36 GMT
my lad is officially an Anglo but is 75% tb. He loves routine. Even to the fact that if I leave at night with out giving him and apple he will start to box walk. I put it down to him being very very clever! But I agree routine is the key with them !!!
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Post by iceandaslice on Mar 15, 2012 20:42:51 GMT
Mostly because of their lifestyle ie stuck in four walls 24/7 only taken out for exercise ( not all but most flat horses national hunt horse tend to get turned outmore ), although we presently have a yearling that is so highly strung the slightest thing sets her off in the stable & out in the paddock, she has been like this all her short life she is also a bully?, we also have a very sweet mare 8yrs old was viceless until she went into training & got her head caught in the horsewalker, since being home ( 5 yrs ) she has cribbed! Most have hang ups and most are man made this said get a good one & you won't get anything better but this goes with all horses!!
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Post by sharon100 on Mar 16, 2012 18:18:01 GMT
don't most of them weave because there in all the time, so they transfer the weight from one leg to the other (which makes them weave with their head and neck) so that they keep their legs moving? They will get stressed because they are not living naturally. They are fed more concentrates to forage, which means they are stood doing nothing for longer periods, which isn't natural, so they show stereotypic behaviour like weaving and wind sucking.
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Post by nici on Mar 16, 2012 23:38:44 GMT
because they are blood horses and have more of a brain .... I don't believe for one moment that they are cleverer than native ponies, which have adapted to look after themselves in often hostile environments and need to be very clever to survive. My view is that TBs tend to be more "pampered" than many other breeds. They spend a greater proportion of their time stabled / travelling, are turned out less - and often alone because they may be very valuable and the owner is not prepared to risk a field accident. As already said they are often fed big concentrate meals and small haynets. As a result of all this they spend a large amount of time standing in their stables with nothing to do. I'd be stressed too...  |
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Post by donkeydo on Mar 17, 2012 23:24:16 GMT
We have an 8yr old tb, had him for 3yrs. he's not stressy at all. He's so laid back.
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Post by auntiebarb on Mar 17, 2012 23:37:38 GMT
My ex-chaser is a cool dude. He is only nervous when being caught in the field sometimes, which he probably has a reason for if I only knew. I used to ride out at a racing yard and those working chasers were mostly laid back unless they were on the gallops or somehow got loose in the woods. Only one mare was a vicious kicker and biter, which I assume she also had her reasons for. A couple of them were really 'take home' types. Cottage Rhythm and Hot Cross Bun I remember most fondly as softies.
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Post by GinaGeo on Mar 18, 2012 9:34:35 GMT
I think it's often started with how they're managed in racing. Little turnout, lots of cereals. This will cause habits to be developed.
Often once they're out of racing they're still fed lots of starchy, sugary feeds as they're "poor doers" and "need" it to keep the weight on them. I think sterotypically once out of racing they're over fed and under worked.
I've made stereotypes I know. But "stressy thoroughbreds" is also a stereotype. I know of some ex racers that are as cool as cucumbers. Real laid back sorts, could be labelled as practically bombproof. Others are excitable and stressy. In my experience if they're not over fed, get turned out and get worked they're fine.
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sarahp
Happy to help
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Post by sarahp on Mar 18, 2012 10:19:30 GMT
My riding teacher, who taught lots of adults on a huge variety of different mounts, reckoned that Welsh Ds are in general far more sensitive and highly strung than most TBs.
And without checking all the way back - has anyone mentioned ulcers in TBs as a result of an indoor, high concentrate lifestyle which would tend to make them appear to be more stressy?
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Post by hs on Mar 18, 2012 10:50:32 GMT
I wonder if it is partly due to their breeding as race horses and the best racehorse might not just be fast but also sensitive in order to get them to run. A very laid back horse might be less enclined to gallop so easily and therefore not be sucessful and then not bred from?
A desire to gallop or run combined with being confined most of the time and being fed high energy foods may lead to frustration or stress as they are not able to release their energy when they want to.
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Post by auntiebarb on Mar 18, 2012 11:35:54 GMT
Must admit, my super cool tb is fed on a high fibre diet and grass with a top spec balancer added, which seems to suit him very well. He is turned out as much as possible too and ridden two or three times a week, happy hacking, though we do put in a good gallop or two when they are fit enough. I received an accolade once from an equine vet that he was in fine shape for a teenager ex chaser. He didn't actually say anything about the barrel shaped appaloosa though!
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Post by flower007 on Mar 23, 2012 18:45:11 GMT
Thank you for responses received so far, they have all been helpful  |
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Post by libbigail on Mar 25, 2012 17:43:18 GMT
because they are blood horses and have more of a brain .... I don't believe for one moment that they are cleverer than native ponies, which have adapted to look after themselves in often hostile environments and need to be very clever to survive. My view is that TBs tend to be more "pampered" than many other breeds. They spend a greater proportion of their time stabled / travelling, are turned out less - and often alone because they may be very valuable and the owner is not prepared to risk a field accident. As already said they are often fed big concentrate meals and small haynets. As a result of all this they spend a large amount of time standing in their stables with nothing to do. I'd be stressed too... In my opinion that is an unfair assumption to make about TBs as a breed. If you are talking about those used for racing then yes I agree to an extent however my TB is still 'stressy' even though she isn't cooped up in a stable with a small haynet and masses of concentrates. Would say that they are not necessarily more intelligent than natives because they don't half do some bl**dy stupid things sometimes but definitely more sensitive. |
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Post by speedysally on Mar 25, 2012 21:22:59 GMT
i personally think it is how they have been handled and brought up. i have a five year old ex racehorse and when i bought her (a year after she'd been raced) she was very "full on!" used to pull me everywhere when i handled her, had the occasional buck and rear here and there but she developed a sarcoid so she had to have seven months off and in that seven months off, she was worked on the ground! after seven months had past, she knew how to "back up" and "follow up" all with just voice command, when my mum got back on her after seven months, she didn't even batter an eyelash and has behaved extremely well, so much so, my mum has even had her on the roads without a fuss...
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Post by nici on Mar 26, 2012 23:01:50 GMT
I don't believe for one moment that they are cleverer than native ponies, which have adapted to look after themselves in often hostile environments and need to be very clever to survive. My view is that TBs tend to be more "pampered" than many other breeds. They spend a greater proportion of their time stabled / travelling, are turned out less - and often alone because they may be very valuable and the owner is not prepared to risk a field accident. As already said they are often fed big concentrate meals and small haynets. As a result of all this they spend a large amount of time standing in their stables with nothing to do. I'd be stressed too... In my opinion that is an unfair assumption to make about TBs as a breed. If you are talking about those used for racing then yes I agree to an extent however my TB is still 'stressy' even though she isn't cooped up in a stable with a small haynet and masses of concentrates. Would say that they are not necessarily more intelligent than natives because they don't half do some bl**dy stupid things sometimes but definitely more sensitive. I did say that they tend tobe more pampered etc. - I accept not all of them are. As a teenager I used to ride an ex racehorse for lessons. She lived out in the Welsh hills in a mixed herd, doing lessons mainly at weekends and being ridden by her owner occasionally in between. She was very chilled out. I accept that some ponies are more stressy than others, they're all individuals. Our Welsh A mare is extremely stressy if stabled, so much so that I can't stable her alone (she'll share with her buddy perfectly happily) for fear of triggering laminitis. But turned out as she prefers, she's the most laid back of all our ponies. So for a lot of them, management definitely comes into it. And I would say that as a whole natives tend to have a more "natural" lifestyle through their whole lives than TBs. My comment on intelligence was in response to an earlier post about them being "blood horses and having more of a brain". I don't think they do, but that's a personal opinion. |
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Post by PrincessP on Mar 27, 2012 8:57:57 GMT
My TB is anything but stressy she had the most laid back nature ever, in fact anything is an effort for her. Sometimes I wish she had a bit more oomph in her step maybe she will pick up a gear down the beach this weekend  I think it is all down to how they are brought up and handled. My girl is stabled at night and out some days in other depends on weather and the mud to be honest she couldn't care less if she gets out or not. |
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Post by tysilio99 on Mar 27, 2012 10:24:33 GMT
the thoroughbreds are prone to stress due to being raced and being able to release energy therefore when limited excerise is made and they are stabled they show stereotypies for example box walking to replace the exercise they have when on the track. we retrain ex-racehorses for polo and we turn them out for 2 months after racing and they all seem really relaxed afterwards  hope this helps |
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hope this helps