A few unrelated questions.

[x0arkadia0x]

 So I lurk more than post here, but I have two horses...Sirius (http://community.livejournal.com/equestrian/4585434.html)and Arkadia (http://community.livejournal.com/equestrian/2618544.html). And I work with 13 draft horses at

Comments

[meupatdoes]

For your stall rested horse, you can put her on a tranq like acepromazine or reserpine.
I think if you get a reserpine injection, it can last for a month, but they also come in pill form to give daily.

[x0arkadia0x]

Wow. I should have thought about that...the vet gave her a month long tranq thing when I was starting her. I'll talk to the vet about that. Thank you :)

[candysgirl]

You might try any number of bitless options with the draft who doesn't seem to like bits. I'm not a huge fan of the Dr. Cook type bridles that actually tighten around their head, but some people have gotten good results with them. There are also all kinds of hackamores and sidepulls you could use.

[x0arkadia0x]

Would that work while he's hitched in a team, do you think? That's certainly something we could try.

[candysgirl]

Sure, why not? I mean, bits don't truly stop horses (drive my mare sometime when there are fireworks and/or snowplows) if a horse is scared enough it'll run through anything.

However, there are many options for going bitless.

I'm not necessarily a huge fan of these Dr. Cook bridles, but here's a whole article on the website about driving.
http://www.bitlessbridle.com/dbID/257.html

Google "bitless driving" and you'll get all sorts of hits. I don't see why a bitless bridle would work any differently for driving than for riding even if the horse is in a team.

[x0arkadia0x]

This is true...I've certainly driven/ridden horses where bits just don't make a difference...and that is truly scary. I have zero experience with bitless bridles. I rode a horse once in a hackamore, but I was like, 13, and afraid I was going to break her nose by pulling back to hard.

It's cool to see that in use. I'll do some more research on it. Thank you

[rckmeamadeus]

Long term sedatives. We had a yearling colt with a serious leg injury who was on stall rest for at least 5 months. He got ace daily in pill form and it kept him from trying to kill everyone who entered his stall.

It also helps to cut her grain ration in half while she's in. If she's not a hard keeper it might also be wise to cut it completely so she's not getting a ton of excess energy.

For the draft, I hardly know anything about driving, but is it possible to use a flash noseband for him? I think that no matter what bit you use he's going to wiggle his tongue over it unless his mouth is strapped shut.

[xihateyourx]

seconded on the grain cut. besides it helping keep her calm it is the healthy thing to do. if she needs the weight or is a hard keeper put her on a big bucket of beet pulp and possibly with some oil or weight builder in it if you had to.

long term sedatives are a good idea too depending on how bad your horse is about stall rest. I have TBs that seem to require stall rest pretty often and I find that finishing up their hand walk with some grazing time seems to help them keep their wits about them.

[x0arkadia0x]

So if I were to cut her grain out totally, I could keep her on soaked beet pulp? How much would you suggest for that?
Her hay is a mix of timothy and alfalfa or alfalfa and orchard grass depending on what we get

[xihateyourx]

depends on the horse. simply as an example my horse Jake is not necessarily a "hard keeper" but he will drop weight if his grain isn't kept up or as pasture starts to die in the fall. He is a 13yr old OTTB who is normally in pretty heavy work (until he injured himself) He is 16.1 and pretty beefy for a TB. Just to give you an idea of the horse