Anyone’s horse turn evil when the grass runs out?

[asmp]

One of ours has always been a bit Jekyll and Hyde and recently he‘s been nice and quiet. However, the past few days he has turned evil and it seems to be grass related. We strip graze as the oldie he shares with will pig out and has had laminitis in the past. As it has been frosty they haven’t had any fresh grass and have been given haylage. We think he changed last year too at the time the fresh grass ran out.

it could be something else and I removed the sugar beet from his feed but that hasn‘t changed anything. I also had to use a different chaff recently as the regular one wasn’t in stock but it is mostly the same ingredients - Mollichaff Apple to Herbal.

He just seems to lose the plot and wants to get to grass NOW when leading - trying to rear and he will cow kick (got my husband on his thigh). I know it is ground manners too but if I got someone out he probably wouldn‘t misbehave.

I don’t think he’s hangry as he has plenty of haylage - it just that he seems to want to have his “fix” of fresh grass. Fortunately we have quite a bit this year as we had a late growth. Once it thaws he will get it again.

We were wondering if a grass replacer for frosty days would work ? Is there something In the grass that he’s not getting from the haylage? I suppose it could be the haylage but he eats it when they come in for the winter at nights And seems ok.


Hoping you lot may have some suggestions ?

 

[TheMule]

Is he able to chew the haylage ok? I would watch him really closely for a bit and just check otherwise he might be hungry.
Definitely worth some dampened grass chaff before handling him

 

[cauda equina]

Could it be the haylage itself, if they are having higher energy sruff?
Mine eat vast quantities of Timothy Horsehage and stay sane

 

[Widgeon]

Mine lives to eat, and he becomes fixated on grabbing a bit of grass when it runs out in his field. But it's only when he's genuinely hungry that he becomes silly and a bit irritating to handle. I think I would be worried that yours is hungry, it seems like a rather extreme reaction "just" for being denied his favourite food.

 

[ycbm]

Mine loves haylage but it seems can't eat second cut if it smells the slightest acidic. Behaviour changes, desperate for grass, and belly kicking, all disappears when fed hay instead.
.

 

[asmp]

Mine loves haylage but it seems can't eat second cut if it smells the slightest acidic. Behaviour changes, desperate for grass, and belly kicking, all disappears when fed hay instead.
.

Yet I led him out this morning and he was as good as gold and he ate the same haylage last night. Perhaps he will need to be fed a feed every time he comes in and before he’s ridden. Its so frustrating (and dangerous)

 

[asmp]

Is he able to chew the haylage ok? I would watch him really closely for a bit and just check otherwise he might be hungry.
Definitely worth some dampened grass chaff before handling him

He eats the haylage ok at nights. The dentist is out next week. He is minus a front tooth which had to be removed after it broke but the gap has closed quite a bit.

 

[asmp]

Could it be the haylage itself, if they are having higher energy sruff?
Mine eat vast quantities of Timothy Horsehage and stay sane

It’s homegrown stuff and not the best quality this year. It is included in our livery over the winter.

 

[spotty_pony]

You could try giving him readygrass… if you put warm water on it it would soften it and maybe make him think he’s getting grass?

 

[Mrs G]

My boy also has a bit of a 'grass-addiction'. We've recently had to move to our winter paddocks and there is NO grass in them so he's getting fed hay in the field. However hay isn't sufficient in his mind - he fence walks much of the day and has a tantrum when he sees me at bringing in time, almost "Im STARVING out here, I demand you rescue me from this hell hole NOW" (even though there is still hay left)! Bronking, running and head tossing at the gate - and in this icy cold snap he messed about so much that he slipped and fell over on the hard ground! Once caught however, he usually goes quiet as a lamb again and if I take him to graze in hand on fallow areas/path edges etc he would happily be out there for hours quietly munching away! I have tried all sorts to find something to distract him from the lack of grass in winter (had him 10 years at a handful of different yards), we also tried feeding him haylage in the field (which he LOVES) but that made his behaviour under saddle/in hand worse so we stopped that. Grass nuts in a treatball will usually distract him for a short time but ultimately its fresh grass he wants!