The leaves are starting to change and the mornings are getting a little cooler, that means it’s time to pull out the stock tie and fill up your flask. Depending on where you are in America, your hunting season might have already started, either way, Equilibrium could give both you and your horse the balance you need.
Young Horses
New experiences of any kind can be stressful and anxiety inducing in any discipline, add in hounds and 40 or so horses and you’ve got a recipe for a disaster for yourself, your horse, and potentially someone else.
Chelsea Gammon, founder of Folly and Friends Mustang Sanctuary, a Pennsylvania based 501c charity for retraining mustangs, regularly takes the recently domesticated horses out with local hunts. If you didn’t know mustangs make fox hunters, you’re not alone!
“I credit CannaHorse Equilibrium for helping them to cope with their anxiety. Unlike acepromazine or other sedatives, it doesn’t affect them physically or affect their mental clarity, so they can retain everything they learn.” said Chelsea in a recent Instagram post sharing a morning out with a young horse.
Top level eventers like Ema Klugman find the same benefits when taking young horses, often OTTBs for their first off property cross country experiences. “When you trailer anxious horses off property, they normally carry that travel anxiety into your ride. With Equilibrium, you can go right to work and give them a positive experience.” Said Ema.
Active or Older Horses
The potential benefits of Equilibrium extend beyond just anxiety. A growing number of human athletes have reported significant improvement in their recovery and cannabis has shown, to them, to provide a viable alternative to the dangerous and addictive opioids they had been taking. Super Bowl winner Rob Gronkowski, UFC stars Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor, Gold Medal/World Cup soccer legend Megan Rapino, and golfers like Bubba Watson all credit cannabinoids as benefiting them in some way.
If your horse is hunting a few days per week, they might benefit from some added help from the inflammation and lack of rest that over exertion can cause. Published studies have indicated relief from exercise induced muscle damage in humans, reduced tissue degradation in animals.
Nervous Horses or Nervous Riders
While you may be able to have a nip of jumping juice from your flask, we don’t advise it for your horse. Even for an older horse, there is a lot going on in a busy hunt field, from hounds running between horse’s legs, to a brisk wind at the top of a hill, any number of things can set even the most seasoned horse off. Ema Klugman feels that “Amateur and junior riders often worry when their horse feels anxious. Equilibrium can help riders feel more confident when their horse is more relaxed.” When combined with a nervous or older rider, this could potentially lead to serious injury.
“Two of the worst accidents I saw during my 25 plus years of hunting were competent but strong older horses ridden by gentlemen who were maybe a bit past their prime. In both cases the horses had been sedated before the meet moved off and the horses lost their footing on the other side of a coop.” said Laurel Byrne, MFH and a former board member of the Masters of Fox Hounds Association. “There is really too much going on in the field for horses to not have their wits about them, especially if the rider is a little nervous. What I love about Equilibrium is that the horses seem to lose that fiery edge, but maintain their ability to focus. To me, it’s a much safer option for horse and rider.”
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