5 yr old lacking energy/enthusiasm

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lyndsayberesford

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My 5 yr old warmblood has competed BS for about 12 months now, and he is suffering from a severe lack of energy/enthusiasm.

I have changed his feed from standard non heating mix and chaff to Spillers Instant Response together with Equine America Propell plus, doesn't seem to have made a world of difference except he occassionally puts in an odd buck.

I have now purchased several bags of Pure Feed Racing to see if it will give him the energy required for competing.

He is just as laid back/Lazy at home. Ridden and competed in Spurs also.

He has a tremendous amount of abillity, just not forward going of recent

Getting his bloods tested next week, his back and teeth are fine, saddle fits fine.

It has been suggested to take him hunting to see if that improves his enthusiasm for going forward! If after trying the PF Racing, he still isnt forward going then i am all out of ideas!

He is 17hands and a MW warmblood type. Just hope its an age thing and as he gets older/stronger in his body that his attitude to work will change!

Anyone else experienced this?
 
My horse is going through the lack of energy bit at the moment. We had the vet out as she had a swollen chin (which looks like it was down to a allergy) but she went lethargic and wanted the vet to investigate further to make sure she was ok. We took bloods and it came back telling us that she had high liver enzymes and muscle enzymes. We also took a allergy test and she is allergic to some grass and corn, barley and other stuff. So she has been on rest since and has just started walking work as its taken 9 weeks to get her enzymes to settle down enough to try her in work again. I have no idea if she has gotten better as we are walking for no more than 30 mins a day.

So I would get the vet out to take bloods to rule out anything going on inside that is causing the lack of energy.
 
5 years old - 17hh.

There's your answer.

He needs time to mature.

Take your foot of the pedal, turn him away. Hunt him a bit after Christmas and then let him chill for a bit.
 
Sounds to me like he is probably putting all his energy into growing at the moment as warmbloods can take a long time to mature physically. If he was mine, assuming the bloods come back OK, I'd back off on the jumping/competing for a while, spend some time schooling on the flat at home and out hacking, insisting that he goes forward off a light leg so you don't have to rely on the spurs to get a response and can only use them when you really need them. And if you have an opportunity to get him out hunting a few times I would and then see where you are in a few months time. He may just need the break from the competing and the chance to have some 'growing time'. I hope he comes right for you.
 
amymay said:
5 years old - 17hh.

There's your answer.

He needs time to mature.

Take your foot of the pedal, turn him away. Hunt him a bit after Christmas and then let him chill for a bit.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. You're asking a lot of a baby, a big growing baby at that. Don't ask a boy to do a man's work should be the mantra for big young horses as he won't finish growing for a few years yet. Give him time to relax and chill, he'll come back all the stronger for it.
 
I also have a 5yr old warmblood who is "lazy". She has the most amazing pop in her but to date she has only done 5 courses so far. The most we also jump at home is once a week but more often than that it is every other week at most. I have been working very hard to get her going forwards and I "think" the penny is dropping. It's hard not to want a fab contact and for everthing to be perfect but I am hoping that if I take it slow then it will all come in time. We are doing some X/C training in October (for the first time) and I'm hoping that this will also help with our forward issues.

We have okay hacking so a shame we are losing the light now as will only be able to hack at weekends as I don't really want her in the school Mon-Friday.

I think the advice to take it slow is invaluable as even though people at home may be asking why.....well at the end of the day we will get there and I won't be pressured from them as have to slap myself down as it is.

I'm trying to do it without whip or spurs as at 5 yrs old where do you go next when they die to them?

Good Luck.
 
thanks for all the replies! it is very helpful to have other people's input!

it makes total sense, i will back off the competing with him and fingers crossed everything is ok with the blood test

i think i try and compare him to other like sized 5 year olds like the ones competing at scope and the young horse classes and wonder why he isnt as enthusiastic as them, but then im not a professional by a long stretch and my 5 year old is my pet, rather than a means to making a living

I am competing this weekend but then will lay off the shows for a few weeks with him to rest him a little more (and give my own purse strings a rest too)

I have given him longer periods of rest during the 12 months, it hasnt been a consistent show every weekend routine with him, he has perhaps done 10-12 shows in the 12 months.

He does suffer with locking patella, and having spoken to my vet he advised to keep him in work for now to encourage the muscling up of his back end to help with the locking patella (i have to add it never locks when riding - usually only when getting him out of the stable first thing in the morning etc)

Perhaps i will try and get him out to a few hunts over the next few coming months too :)

Thanks again!
 
Might get shot down here but I would try with all my heart not to compare your 5 year old to those being produced by pros etc for young horse classes. There have been plenty of threads over in CR forum, and some wise words from more experienced members re the amount if work it would take a pro to get a baby horse ready to jump round BN or Disco or BE80/90. My 5 year old is a year behind yours competitively, he has just done his first BN. He has done a bit of everything over last 12 months, punctuated with regular breaks and ybh more hacking than anything else. I'm super paranoid about not breaking him, and he's only 16.2... Interestingly my instructor's young horse is at exactly the same stage, and he is extremely experienced and knowledgeable, but this is a horse for the long term not a sales prospect!
Definately my advice (and I am no expert) is that if you plan to keep him long term, give him a holiday and just hack or even turn him away for a month or so?
 
ok decision made to leave the competing this weekend, get him out and about hacking most of the time with perhaps one schooling session per week in the menage

I am going to take away the spurs also. Going to leave him on the Pure Feeds mix for now and if he gets too much i will then change his feed

As said earlier i dont want to just stop him working altogether as his locking patella improves when he is in work rather than rested
 
As I said I am sort of in the same boat. I don't think you have to stop work, just maybe vary it and keep it quite simple so it isn't too intense? I tend to spend most of my time going large with maybe the odd circle or shallow loop rather than plug away on a circle as most of the others at my yard do. My mare is no smaller than 16"3 but I refuse to measure in case it does register 17!!! EEK!

Glad I am doing the right thing too as you do see a hell of a lot of young horses "out there" and mine is a keeper..
 
yes madison i am in same boat (17hands is an estimate - he was about that last time i measured and i really dont want to think he is any bigger as bought him to be 16.2hh!

Leaving the show at Tushingham this weekend and will pursue some fun light hearted work with him

And let the blood test do the talking next week too!
 
lyndsayberesford said:
My 5 yr old warmblood has competed BS for about 12 months now, and he is suffering from a severe lack of energy/enthusiasm.

I have changed his feed from standard non heating mix and chaff to Spillers Instant Response together with Equine America Propell plus, doesn't seem to have made a world of difference except he occassionally puts in an odd buck.

I have now purchased several bags of Pure Feed Racing to see if it will give him the energy required for competing.

He is just as laid back/Lazy at home. Ridden and competed in Spurs also.

He has a tremendous amount of abillity, just not forward going of recent

Getting his bloods tested next week, his back and teeth are fine, saddle fits fine.

It has been suggested to take him hunting to see if that improves his enthusiasm for going forward! If after trying the PF Racing, he still isnt forward going then i am all out of ideas!

He is 17hands and a MW warmblood type. Just hope its an age thing and as he gets older/stronger in his body that his attitude to work will change!

Anyone else experienced this?
Click to expand...

I had exactly the same thing with my horse. He lost his sparkle completely and was a nightmare to warm up at shows, with no enthusiasm although he was still really keen when we actually went into the arena to either do our dressage test or commence our show jumping round. I tried spurs which were effective at first. But then they stopped being so effective. So I bought competition mix which really didn't do much at all. Started him on Rowen Barbary horse feeds ready mash extra, little difference but not much.

Then by chance I got the vet to look at him with something else and the vet reckoned he needed his hock medicated - (he had his hock last medicated over three years ago after being diagnosed with spavin, and at the time we threw the lot at him -adequan, intra articular injections of HA and steroid and three lots of tildren). After that last injection he was a totally different horse, and is keen but sensible. I no longer have to feed him ridiculous ammounts of hard feed and he is lovely to ride. At the moment I'm having issues with his suspensory ligament and coffin joint which means we've done very little over the past three months but I'm hoping in the future he can be kept ticking over. Like the vet said, its better to ride an arthritic horse daily for 20 mins than to ride one once or twice a week for an hour. That's why I try to ride my horse 6/7 days.

So the reason for his reluctance was undoubtedly due to his spavin, and him being in pain with it, in the same way you wouldn't run if you had a sore joint yourself. As your horse is a young warmblood I would suggest you get the vet out to flexion test him and see if he has a problem in this area. I am almost certain you will find your answer there. But even if he does have spavin its no biggy. Just the odd steroid injection, no trotting on hard surfaces. Easy. My boy does elem dressage, 1.05m jumping, one day events, fun rides, etc without a problem.

Good luck
 
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amymay said:
5 years old - 17hh.

There's your answer.

He needs time to mature.

Take your foot of the pedal, turn him away. Hunt him a bit after Christmas and then let him chill for a bit.
Click to expand...

First reply that made sense imho.

Too much, too young would break any horse and believe me, you WILL have structural and muscular problems later if you keep forcing calories into his system!!

Too many people take nutrition for granted these days... it's too important to leave in the hands of FEED COMPANIES!
 
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i had a 4 year old like that last year and i put him on red mills ita a racing supplement given to racing horses and it worked very well for him and is also very good for horses
 
I think some VERY sensible advice has been given re giving him a break and taking your time with him. At 5 he IS still growing and thus will have aches and pains from time to time and also be lethargic... (it takes a lot of energy to grow!) the fact that he also suffers with a locking patella sugests that there could also be a physical problem which to be honest I would want to rule out before feeding him up!

I would give any competing a miss until the spring and look at turning him away mid / late winter (out 24/7 if possible) for at least a month if not a couple more to chill out and mature and come back into work with a fresh head.

My boy is 4 and sounds similar to yours - though only backed gently this summer, now I am just trying to get him out hacking as much as possible. I'm going to keep him ticking over - riding 3 days a week until late November and then he is having a break til march.

I also know of another youngster who was completely ruined by his owner insisting that he competed week in week out and NEVER went hacking despite numerous people comming to the same conclusion when asked what to do with him. The horse became stale and even began refusing to load onto a lorry or trailer to go anywhere so the poor thing then got a beating... when he eventually stopped 'performing' at competitions, he was sold. I just hope he found a nicer home.

Make learning fun. School can be terribly boring if you have a teacher that just bangs on at you about the same old stuff day in day out but if you get some time out in the playground it tends to be much more fun! ;)
 
My 8 year old warmblood has done no competitions because we have had the most backwards 3 years. I bought him as a forward going 5 year old hoping to start BSJA but he became so lazy, lethargic and backwards thinking it became impossible to do anything with him until this was sorted !!

We had him vetted n bloods done, but we just had to use loads of different exercises to get him to use his backend and work properly.

It hasn't been until this year he has become forward thinking and we've even been able to get him to go over jumps !!

we went through loads of different feeds to try and give him energy but this year we just had him on baileys no 17 - top line mix & spedi beet.

So i hope this winter he will really come into his own so that I can start competing next year :)
 
hi again, thanks for all the advice

as said i am knocking the competing on the head for a bit now, blood test on thursday.

The vet has checked out his joints and there is no problems with his flexion. As said the locking patella disappers when he is in work, it is only when he is rested for a week or more that it appears. Vet did tell me this should be less frequent and disappear altogether when he gets older and stronger

He has a varied workload, hacks out quite a lot, farm rides, works in an open field, schools in menage, polework, lunging etc

I want a fabulous long term horse for the future so am prepared to wait and give him maturity time. He wont be turned out 24/7 though as i dont feel comfortable leaving him out at night for one, and secondly he is always ready to come in after 7 or 8 hours grazing.

But i will continue to vary his work, let him have a bit of fun, and perhaps re-introduce one a month competitions after Xmas with him. Obviously will only do this if he is showing more energy/enthusiasm again :)
 
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