# Tranquilizer to Trailer Claustrophobic Mare



## enc0410 (Jul 16, 2014)

Does anyone have experience with tranquilizing horses, especially to shows? My guess is I wouldn't be able to go to one day tie to trailer shows, which is fine. I prefer shows with multiple days and camping. My plan would be to arrive the night before to leave time for it to wear off. It's not really a training issue, she really is claustrophoboic or something. Sometimes she gets scared going through doorways and into her stall. I got a her as a semi-rescue horse in the spring of 2010 at age 10. She was a little underweight and the woman who owned the boarding stable was afraid of her and handled her poorly, despite having several other horses that were well cared for and handled normally. I don't know much about her past. She was bred by a top arabian breeder in our area, supposedly sent to a trainer, and then ended up at this boarding place because before they could sell her, the breeder had health problems and got out of horses. She was their last baby. Somewhere along the lines she was abused. When I first got her she would slam herself against the back wall of her stall when you came in the barn door (not the stall door). I have not worked with her as regularly as I would have liked to due to college, but she is basically a normal horse now. She walk, trot, canters under saddle, isn't afraid of being touched, etc. The issue is the trailer. I worked with her regularly a couple summers ago and got her to the point where I could get her all the way in the trailer, but I would not have felt comfortable closing her in. I have a lot of experience with trailer training. I have tried literallly everything and talked to knowledgable professionals, so that is not the issue. Long story short I finally asked the vet for some tranquilizer, which is something I have been putting off. When I first got her, she had to be tranqued to trailer and was still a little spunky to get on the trailer. She rode fine once inside. I have a two horse straight load with ramp. It's pretty roomy height wise, has a middle divider for her to lean against, and is very safe.


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## alexischristina (Jun 30, 2009)

A few things stick out to me that tell me she doesn't need to be drugged just yet. 

1) you worked with her in the past and got her to the point where she was ok walking into the trailer.

2) you said you haven't had as much time to work with her as you'd like. 

3) when you did get her in a trailer (albeit while she was tranqued) she was calmer once inside. 

It sounds to me like you need to seriously put hard work and time into getting this horse okay with trailering, if you got her close to ok before you should be able to get her to that point again.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## LittleBayMare (Jun 2, 2014)

alexischristina said:


> A few things stick out to me that tell me she doesn't need to be drugged just yet.
> 
> 1) you worked with her in the past and got her to the point where she was ok walking into the trailer.
> 
> ...


^^This. Drugging should be you last resort and it doesn't look like you're there yet. Short cuts will only make it worse.


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## enc0410 (Jul 16, 2014)

I am at my last resort. I guess I wasn't detailed enough. She flies out of the trailer in a panic and/or sits down and whams her head up as hard/fast as she can. I use two head bumpers. She is definately claustrophobic or something. I figured I would get the classic "work with her more" answers so that's fine, but that really isn't the problem. I would never be able to show her even on her best trailer days without tranq because I would never be able to get her back in to leave the show. I have had professionals work with her also and they tell me to get rid of her or "send her to canada" (for slaughter). She is a completely different horse now for every way but the claustrophobic thing. She sometimes even freaks out going into her stall. When it happens, I usually end up blindfolding her and backing her into her stall. She is one of the most bizarre horses I have ever owned. We think she had really agressive arabian style halter training. I know another lady with a half arabian with the same sensitive personality that does the same sit down thing. I think its a mixture of abuse/agressive training in her past. She is so smart and remembers everything. I teach her cute weird tricks and she picks them up in 10 minutes or so. I taught her to nod yes or no w certain questions. I also had to teach her how to eat treats out of my hand and play with her jolly ball hanging in her stall. Now, she will play with her jolly ball on command. When I first got her I thought she had braindamage. I guess no one ever showed her. lol.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

enc0410 said:


> I am at my last resort. I guess I wasn't detailed enough. She flies out of the trailer in a panic and/or sits down and whams her head up as hard/fast as she can. I use two head bumpers. She is definately claustrophobic or something. I figured I would get the classic "work with her more" answers so that's fine, but that really isn't the problem. I would never be able to show her even on her best trailer days without tranq because I would never be able to get her back in to leave the show. I have had professionals work with her also and they tell me to get rid of her or "send her to canada" (for slaughter). She is a completely different horse now for every way but the claustrophobic thing. She sometimes even freaks out going into her stall. When it happens, I usually end up blindfolding her and backing her into her stall. She is one of the most bizarre horses I have ever owned. We think she had really agressive arabian style halter training. I know another lady with a half arabian with the same sensitive personality that does the same sit down thing. I think its a mixture of abuse/agressive training in her past. She is so smart and remembers everything. I teach her cute weird tricks and she picks them up in 10 minutes or so. I taught her to nod yes or no w certain questions. I also had to teach her how to eat treats out of my hand and play with her jolly ball hanging in her stall. Now, she will play with her jolly ball on command. When I first got her I thought she had braindamage. I guess no one ever showed her. lol.


You can not show her if you tranq her to get her to the show. They type of shows you're talking about will be drug testing and the withdrawal time of tranquilizers is longer than the 12 hours (night before) you're talking about doing to get the horse to the show. 

Keep working with the horse. Get her in the trailer and keep working on making her stand. I don't care if she's comfortable or happy, just get her in and shut the door. Take her for a ride, 5 miles or so, just short and bring her home. Do that as often as you possibly can and eventually she will quit being silly about the trailer. If she doesn't, then folks who told you to move her along were correct.


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## LittleBayMare (Jun 2, 2014)

enc0410 said:


> I have had professionals work with her also and they tell me to get rid of her or "send her to canada" (for slaughter).


What sort of "professionals" would suggest sending a horse to slaughter just for this?! :evil: :evil: :evil: 
If you really feel like a tranquilizer is necessary, then I would consult with you vet on the best course of action. Maybe tranq her just enough to get her in and keep her in for a while but keep it low enough that it wears off while she's still in there so she'll come out gradually and see it's ok? I obviously don't know your horse so maybe a full dose tranq is the only way to go, but I would at least explore the option of weaning her off of it if think that's possible. But, once again, I really would recommend keeping your vet in the loop. Good luck. I hope you find a solution that works.


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

I have owned three horses out of ~35 horses over the past almost 30years that required tranquilizing. My Vet(s) sold me Ace Promozine, in powdered form. I would hesitate to recommend using it or something like it bc you had to keep the horse calm for one hour after injesting it or else their adrenaline would kick in and kick OUT the drug--back to square one.
Injecting it might work, but then again, do you know how and where to give an intervenous shot? I have only given intramuscular ones.
It is better and safer to retrain your mare to trailer. Clinton Anderson's method is easy to learn and to apply. Look into it. =D


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## enc0410 (Jul 16, 2014)

The shows I am planning to go to do NOT drug test. It is a non-A rated Arabian/Saddlebred/Morgan curcuit. They do 3 day shows. I always go the night before anyways. I have shown A rated AHA and USDF. So I know quite a bit what I am doing. I am not new to showing by any stretch. She is dangerous in the trailer to herself and me. I do not have anyone else to help, as I go to shows by myself. I would have to be able to leave her in the trailer to put the ramp up. My other horses stand in the trailer, I close the back and then I tie them. There is no way I could ever leave her and have her stay in and it is extremely dangerous to tie a horse with a ramp down. I have NEVER closed her in except when she was tranqued. Believe me its not that I haven't tried. Also I have tried to rehome her, but can't ever find anyone who knows what they're doing and wants her. She would make an excellent lesson horse if she had a home that she never had to be trailered anywhere.


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## enc0410 (Jul 16, 2014)

My vet already gave me three half CC doses of Romazadan (spelling ?). He also said that if I thought that was too much I could use less. I just haven't tried it yet. I want to do it on a weekend. There's no way to get tranquilizer without a prescription.


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## enc0410 (Jul 16, 2014)

I have used natural horsemanship. The mare doesn't get tired... She round pens and joins up nicely, but would rather kill herself with the trailer. I also did at one point try having someone else behind her with a whip just gently tapping her etc. and the rope behind the butt. etc. She is scared of being double teamed which makes sense with the overly aggressive arabian halter training theory I have about her. (They use two people)


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## enc0410 (Jul 16, 2014)

What he gave me is for a shot in the muscle. He also said it would kick in in about 10 minutes, but to wait an hour or so to do anything with her..


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

You didn't apply the exercise of "sending" (pushing the horse to go past a scary place) over and over and over again until the only place she gets to rest is beside the scary place (at first), and then eventually inside.
It really works. Certainly your mare wasn't always frightened of a horse trailer or you wouldn't have her where she is today. I am sure that she travelled there in a horse trailer.
DH retrained his KMH to load quietly using this exercise, and now he goes right in, with his lead over his back.
I will tell you that you REALLY need to secure everything inside your trailer before your start, even remove partitions, if possible, certainly close or tape anything metal that sticks out, so you give your mare no excuses to be afraid of yet something else inside the trailer.
Natural Horsemanship is not whispering sweet nothings into your horse's ear. It stems from the idea that you are the dominant member of the two party relationship, you expect your horse to move when you say so, but you will not beat the dickens out of your horse to achieve an end.
A horse is a prey animal, even modest humans are predators, so you must understand that reacting keeps a horse alive. A horse has to be trained to think, and then to obey bc she chooses to do so.
You might try this exercise a number of times next the gate in your arena. In this case you want her to stop PAST the gate--all horses are interested in exiting--and get a handle on how to use it.
This is a training problem, not a fear problem. She has forgotten WHY she is afraid, just reacting to the fear stimuli.


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## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

I always find it interesting how people will spend countless hours training their horse to show in a specific event...... but then want to take shortcuts to just get their horse on the darned trailer to get to the show. 

Tranquilizers are a short cut. 

Natural horsemanship is not about "making a horse tired". It is about teaching the horse that you are the one in charge, and if I tell you to put your feet into the trailer, you are going to obey without hesitation because you trust me not to put you into harm's way. 

If your horse's fear is taking over her brain, you have not accomplished anything with natural horsemanship, or being the "leader" in your group of two. 

You are talking about how SMART your horse is. Sounds like she is so smart, she's figured out how to not have to go into that trailer if she doesn't want to. ;-)

Yes, there are those rare few basketcase horses in the world that literally just need to be put down. But those are few and far between. If you are telling me in one breath that your horse would make a fantastic lesson horse ... yet in the next breath saying that you don't feel safe inside the trailer with her ..... that's a huge disconnect. And a TRAINING problem.

Take the time to train your horse to load into the trailer. 

I second looking into Clinton Anderson's methods because I feel he explains things very clearly. 

I wrote up a big long post a while back. You should read it. 
http://www.horseforum.com/horse-training/trailer-loading-101-a-205770/


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

I know of a lady who always drugs her horse because he is "dangerous" to trailer, when in fact he is a bit of a bully and she's terrified of him. 

It sounds like you should be able to work with your horse thru the issue you are having. You've been able to achieve a lot in the time you've had her, which makes me believe you could definitely work with her on trailering. You will be way better off spending the time with training, than using a chemical fix. I would hold off showing until she can trailer though, to not put pressure on yourself and her. Take the time, and work with her every time you can make it to the barn. You're obviously very knowledgeable because of the results you've already had.


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## squirrelfood (Mar 29, 2014)

Park your trailer in a round pen or small paddock, attached to your truck, if you won't need it for a while, or well and truly blocked up if you can't. Put a bucket of water up next to the "business end" of the trailer, and her food on the ramp (you did say ramp?). Leave her with it til she eats that food. Put the next batch of food just inside the trailer, along with the bucket of water. When she handles all that, progressively move food and water farther in, til she's eating from the manger. Let her live with eating and drinking in there for at least a couple weeks. Then repeat about once a week to keep her "fresh" with it. I have done this with horses that would rather kill themselves than load. They end up using the trailer as their favorite lounging area in time.


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## jamesqf (Oct 5, 2009)

I'll add my vote to what Corporal and others have said, and maybe elaborate a bit because I worked through a similar thing with my first horse. The question you might ask yourself is what the horse gets out of getting in the trailer. You say she's smart: well, it seems that (like my horse) she's figured out that getting in the trailer leads to bad things happening. (In Ellie's case, it was vet visits and such for the first year and more.) Once she was healthy, she figured out that the trailer instead meant we got to go out and do fun trail riding (not to mention carrots & praise), and she went quickly from basically needing to be hauled in on a rope, to where I think I could have just said "OK, go get in the trailer" and she'd have done it.

And if, in the end, you really can't train her to trailer? Why not find someone who'll ride her from their home place? And maybe let her live out in a corral or field, instead of in a stall? There is more to life than showing, you know


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

No vet I know of will give your horse Rompum for a trailer ride, I don't any vets of that sort nor do I want to.


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## 40232 (Jan 10, 2013)

Want to take the easy way out? Get the liquid form of melatonin from meijers/other store. It is a sleeping drug for humans, and doesn't show up on drug tests for horses. I believe it lasts for about a half an hour to an hour. I HATE that I know this, but I worked for a trainer that would drug her horses for lessons. 

Want to actually fix the problem? Listen to the advice others are giving you. Teach her how to be "sent" to where you point. Feed her in the trailer. Take her on short trips often. 

Personally, if a horse can't trailer, I don't feel it deserves to show without the most basic skill that it should know. I don't know how it is for others, but if you ever had to advertise this horse for sale, as soon as I saw "can't trailer" on a sale ad, I would automatically lose all interest. This horse could be the best performance horse in the world, but what will you do if your barn catches on fire/etc and she needs to be moved NOW?

Trailering is something horses NEED to know how to do. I would focus on training this first before worrying about showing.


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## updownrider (Mar 31, 2009)

enc0410 said:


> The shows I am planning to go to do NOT drug test. It is a non-A rated Arabian/Saddlebred/Morgan curcuit. They do 3 day shows. I always go the night before anyways.


Being non-A Rated may mean the shows are Regular member shows, which means the shows must follow the rules the of the USEF. So, drug test or not at these shows in the past, the Federation may this year or not. Drug testers are not present are every show. Ace is a forbidden substance and the recommended withdrawl time by the USEF for ace is 7 days. You should not show having administered it the night before.


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## Iseul (Mar 8, 2010)

Personally, I'd stop treating the horse like it was abused and treat it like any other horse. I'm willing to bet that's your sole issue. I've had horses that absolutely refused an went ballistic about stepping over or going into something for their owner because "they were abused, they're just scared" and took 10-30 minutes to do as I asked them because the horse is living in the now, albeit they do remember. If a horse respects you, it will do anything you ask of it without issue, maybe a bit of persuasion if it was actually abused/had an issue with the object/movement.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Chasin Ponies (Dec 25, 2013)

Have you tried any of the other "over the counter" concoctions like "Calm & Cool"? It may be worth a try. Didn't do a thing for the one horse I really needed something for but a lot of people swear by it.

Agree with the other poster about the so-called professionals giving you advice. Anyone who thinks a horse should be thrown away to a kill pen has no business calling themselves professional or even being around a horse.

If you do try a tranquilizer for her, use the smallest amount possible and see how it goes. When a horse goes down in a trailer it's an ugly disaster!


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## danicelia24 (Jul 16, 2013)

squirrelfood said:


> Park your trailer in a round pen or small paddock, attached to your truck, if you won't need it for a while, or well and truly blocked up if you can't. Put a bucket of water up next to the "business end" of the trailer, and her food on the ramp (you did say ramp?). Leave her with it til she eats that food. Put the next batch of food just inside the trailer, along with the bucket of water. When she handles all that, progressively move food and water farther in, til she's eating from the manger. Let her live with eating and drinking in there for at least a couple weeks. Then repeat about once a week to keep her "fresh" with it. I have done this with horses that would rather kill themselves than load. They end up using the trailer as their favorite lounging area in time.


^This. When I went down to pick up my mustang mare after I bought her It took close to 3 hours to get her in the trailer we finally had to blindfold her and put a rope inside so as soon as she gave an inch the rope got shorter. Did I mention this was in January and it was freezing? Once in the trailer she was fine. So when I got her home for three weeks I worked on getting to to walk on the trailer and then back off walk on stand a minute, back off. This was also a ramp straight load. I fed her inside and made it a place that was connected with good things not bad. Since she doesnt have a need to get on a trailer much when I had to again it took maybe 10 minutes which for her was a huge improvement and the last time she was trailered she walked on without hesitation. But it was also a stock trailer that she had to step up in which she was WAY more comfortable with. So feeding in the trailer is a good thing when i fed Colly I stood inside and let her stand there and let her sniff all around the trailer and praised her when she would paw or step on the ramp cause she was being curious about it not scared.


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## updownrider (Mar 31, 2009)

KylieHuitema said:


> Want to take the easy way out? Get the liquid form of melatonin from meijers/other store. It is a sleeping drug for humans, and doesn't show up on drug tests for horses. I believe it lasts for about a half an hour to an hour. I HATE that I know this, but I worked for a trainer that would drug her horses for lessons.


This is not directed at you, Kylie, I am merely using the first part of your quote. But just because something does not test, it does not make it legal. 

Anything given with the intent of altering a horse's mood or behavior is illegal according to USEF rules.


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## squirrelfood (Mar 29, 2014)

All that aside, tranking a horse for a trailer ride is asking for trouble. An unsteady horse is quite likely to fall in the trailer, causing some nasty injuries.


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