Advice for feed and spooky TB

[Nemo&Nat]

Hi
So I’ve recently got a TB who is 9, I’ve had him about a month now so now time at all so all advice welcome.

1. feed wise he isn’t a skinny TB and currently feeding haulage as much as possible (2 large haynets) with maybe a bit of hay. With molichaff (4 handfuls) and Baileys no 4 (4 handfuls) - twice a day.
- he seems to of got a bit more fizzy so not sure if I should be adjusting what he’s eating? Also any supplements for stiffness would help as can take him a little bit to warm up. It seems a mindfield what I should be feeding!

2. I’ve had his saddle checked and has muscle wastage and so buying a shims any advice how to build this up?
I used to ride a teen/ young adult dressage so love schooling but im out of touch.

3. He also seems to be spooking at everything and looking at everything! Sometimes he’s fine and will just look, but it’s the same stuff every day. How can I help him know it s okay?

4. I lunged him tonight and he was very fizzy, taking off, bucking, turning in on me! All a bit much and a bit scary at times to be honest even though he’s been in the school loads.

Any friendly advice would really appreciate it.
thanks

 

[AmyMay]

Think about changing the haylage to hay, and feeding a high fibre or grass nut feed, instead of the molichaff and Baileys.

 

[paddi22]

for any spooky ones I get in I tend to cut all feed apart from hay for a period just to see if anything is a reaction to food. haylage can send some horses loopy and some feeds have stuff like alfalfa that can affect them.

for ones that I know are going to have to blow off steam I prefer to loose school them and let them run it off themselves instead of lunging.
is he getting much turnout during day?

 

[mini_b]

if he’s in light work and not dropping weight then just hay and a wet grass chaff type thing to put your balancer/supplement in.

Building muscle - hacking!
lots of work in walk
Lots of walk/trot transitions with short bursts of trot. It takes a long time but it’s worth doing it the long way rather than breaking your horse.

If you find it’s not the feed, some horses are just “looky”, ignore and push on. Sometimes they cope better if you let them look. Mine thinks he’s a periscope.
The more work you do and better schooled/ attuned they become to your aids you can keep their concentration a little bit.
If you suspect they are going to be a div do some shoulder fore/shoulder in/leg yielding away from the offending article.

I really rate premierflex joint supplement.

 

[FestiveG]

Having had two mares who had awful reactions to alfalfa and carrots, and one prior to that who could tolerate no cereal, feed is always my first thought with worsening behaviour

 

[paddi22]

with the spooking, some tbs just have very busy minds and relax more if they are worked on hacks, so flexing, lateral work etc to keep them occupied. I had a few that would just get bored and find stuff to spook at if they weren't made to work.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

It could be the haylage and I would change the Bailey's and molichaff, both probably have molasses a lot of horses especially hot bloods don't cope with molasses, I have Arabs they can be spooky I can't feed them anything with molasses and rich haylage can make them silly, I just feed chopped grass pink mash and micronised linseed, they only get 1 small feed a day as both are good doers, they also get magnesium oxide which can help with silly behaviour when sugars are high in the grass.

 

[twiggy2]

I echo most of the above and would just feed hay.
How much turnout/work/company does he get every day?