Horses and Fireworks: Deciding Now, Not on the Night
Share
Fireworks are a harder problem with horses than with dogs, and not for the reason people assume. A frightened dog hides. A frightened horse weighing half a tonne runs, and it runs into fencing, gates and roads.
The good news is that almost everything that helps is decided in advance. Very little of it is bought on the day.
The decision everyone agonises over
In or out. It is the first question asked every year and there is no universal answer, so here is the one that actually matters:
Whatever is normal for that horse.
A horse that lives out and is brought into an unfamiliar stable on the fifth of November has had two frightening things happen, not one. A stabled horse turned out because someone read that fields are safer is in the same position. The routine is the reassurance. Changing it on the night removes the only thing your horse was sure of.
If you genuinely think the usual arrangement is wrong — a field that backs onto the village display, say — change it in the middle of October and let it become normal before it needs to be.
The part that costs nothing
Find out when and where. Village displays, the rugby club, the school. Most are advertised weeks ahead. Knowing the three dates that matter locally is worth more than any product.
Speak to the organisers. This works far more often than people expect. Ask them to set up at the far end of the site and fire away from the paddocks. Organisers are generally reasonable if they are asked in good time and not on the afternoon.
Tell your neighbours. A polite note before the end of October — that there are horses over the hedge and could they let you know if they are planning anything — heads off the back-garden rocket that nobody saw coming.
Walk the field. Assume the worst and check what a galloping horse would meet. Loose wire, a gate left half open, a broken rail, machinery parked against the fence line, the new water trough. Fix it in daylight in October.
Do not separate companions. Taking one of a pair in because it is the nervous one leaves you with two upset horses instead of one.
Leave plenty of hay. A horse with a full haynet has something to do. Chewing settles them, and it occupies the hours either side of the bangs, which is most of the problem.
Leave a radio on in the barn. Same principle as the house. Bangs arriving into silence are worse than bangs arriving into ordinary noise. Put it on a few evenings beforehand so it is not itself a novelty.
Be about, but be boring. Being on the yard is sensible in case something goes wrong. Standing at the door watching anxiously is not. Muck out, sweep up, carry on.
Do not ride. Not on the night, and not in the evenings either side. This is not the week to be on the road at dusk.
Check the passport and the freeze mark. And that whoever needs to reach you has the right number. Horses do get out on Bonfire Night.
Calmers, and the bit nobody tells you
Most equine calmers are loading products. They are designed to be fed over a stretch of weeks, and a scoop on the afternoon of the fifth is largely wasted money.
Start these by the middle of October. Equine America So-Kalm Solution and Calm Equine are both daily feeds. Dodson & Horrell Placid and Global Herbs Herbal Calming Mix are the herbal end of the same idea, and Hubblick Calm comes in 5kg and 10kg if you have several to do.
If you would rather it was part of the feed already, Blue Chip Calming Balancer is a balancer first and a calmer second, so it replaces something you are feeding anyway rather than adding a job.
For the night itself, a syringe is the only format that makes sense. So-Kalm Plus paste is given an hour or two beforehand. Worth having one in the tack room even if you are already feeding a daily calmer, because displays turn up unannounced.
If you compete, read this bit
Valerian is a prohibited substance. It is banned under FEI rules and under British Horseracing Authority rules, and most other UK competition bodies follow suit. We stock Lincoln Valerian Cordial and it is a perfectly good product for a horse that does not compete — but if you have anything affiliated coming up, do not feed it, and check the withdrawal period rather than guessing.
The same caution goes for any herbal mix you have not read the label on properly. Plenty contain valerian without it being the headline.
What we cannot help with
None of the above is a treatment. These are feed and supplement products and they suit some horses more than others.
If your horse has genuinely hurt itself in previous years, or box-walks, sweats up and will not settle at all, that is a vet conversation and it is one to have in October. Sedation can be arranged in advance, it has to be prescribed, and it is not something anybody can sort out at seven o'clock on the night.
The short version
- Now: find the local display dates, and check passport and contact details
- Early October: walk the fences in daylight and fix what a galloping horse would find
- Mid October: start a daily calmer; speak to display organisers and neighbours
- Late October: radio on in the barn a few evenings, so it is nothing new
- On the night: normal routine, companions together, plenty of hay, and be about without making an occasion of it
If you are not sure what suits your horse, or whether something is competition-safe, email us and we will tell you honestly — including when the answer is that you do not need to buy anything.