Cold horse or something more?

D

DizzyDoughnut

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 January 2013
Messages
1,169
Visit site
For the week or so before Christmas my cob seemed to have a complete personality change. He's normally friendly and fairly laid back, if he sees something scary he'll generally just stare at it, if he does ever get to actually spooking at something he either spooks on the spot or scuttles forward a few steps.

Recently he's been so on edge, even walking to the field he'd be jogging sideways or power walking and spooking at anything or nothing. Out in the field he'd run around furiously tossing his head spooking at anything and looking like he'd like to pick a fight, the seagulls that dared to land in the field were chased out. He's normally kind and nice to be around, the kind of horse that you could just hand to anyone, but he's been so on edge and seemed so angry at nothing that I just didn't trust him anymore even though he'd hadn't actually done anything bad to me it seemed like he could. Like he was just waiting to explode.

He only gets a handful of chaff and that hadn't changed but I cut it out out anyway to see if it made a difference which it didn't. Then we finally had a day with no wind or rain and he was like his old self again, then the next day the wind and rain was back and he was upset again. He wasn't like this last winter but then he'd only just arrived with me this time last year and was very underweight so I was rugging him more. Thinking that was the only difference between now and last winter I put a warmer rug on him and also kept him rugged in the stable, he's not clipped so normally only has a rug if it's raining. He's always felt warm, but he's now out in a 200g rug and to me feels far to warm under it but he is undoubtedly far happier and so much calmer, even people who I haven't told about my rugging experiment have commented about his restored calmness.

In case it's relevant he's a 14.2 heavy cob not currently ridden because I hate winter. If he has haylage or anything containing magnesium he gets excitable, not angry like he has been lately but like a child who's had to many sweets. I don't know why either of those things affect him but other than that he's pretty straight forward. He had his teeth done in September, also last time he saw the vet there was no issues. Had the physio last in November and she was happy with him and didn't find any issues.

So is it as simple as he just prefers to be warmer? Even though he never felt cold before, upping the rugs has pretty much solved our issues but then I read a thread on here about pssm and started to wonder. His behaviour sounded similar but then am I just looking for problems that aren't there and over complicating things. I'm happy that he seems happy now he's warmer but should I keep looking for a reason why he seems to need an overly warm rug for an unclipped cob? I will ask the vet next time he's out but seen as I seem to have solved the issue by rugging more I'm not sure what to ask him for.

Sorry that's so long winded, I'm terrible explaining things.
 
What age?

something metabolic - I'd consider test for pssm, cushings, ems. A healthy horse should be able to regulate its temperature.

ETA I have one that's calm until it's wet and windy, then it gets angry and upset and sometimes looks colicky. I'm doing Pssm testing, but havent got results yet.
With mine, being cold and wet seems to make it worse, not just wind.
 
Last edited:
I would go with the extra rugging and consider adding Vit E to his feed and then just monitor for a few weeks.
Ours are unrugged today and have had a mad half-hour running round the field because the neighbours were shooting. They have been shooting several days over the last week, the horses have taken absolutely no notice of them, nor of the fireworks that have been going off over the last few days. I can only think that it was the lack of rugs that caused it although they had hay available.
 
JackFrost said:
What age?

something metabolic - I'd test for pssm, cushings, ems. A healthy horse should be able to regulate its temperature.
Click to expand...

He's 13. I don't think he has any signs of cushings and he's not overweight. My other 2 are natives so I'm always watching their weight and they all have a laminitis friendly diet because my old pony has cushings and has had laminitis once before. I'll ask the vet when he's out.
Gloi said:
These recent constant gales have been winding a lot of horses up.
Click to expand...
We live in a ridiculously windy and wet place and it seems to have been windy for ages as well as wet. Normally he's not overly bothered by it and now he's got a warmer rug he's fine again. It's just that normally if he's spooked by something or gets excited I still feel safe with him but before Christmas it was like a different horse that you couldn't trust not to explode and flatten you.
 
I sometimes wonder if they get sleep deprived when they are living out in atrocious conditions. I also think with mine there's some sensory overload that's too much to deal with.
I mention cushings because temperature regulation is affected, and cushings doesnt always present classic symptoms. My cushings pony would shiver in bad weather and couldnt cope well with cold.
 
Pearlsacarolsinger said:
I would go with the extra rugging and consider adding Vit E to his feed and then just monitor for a few weeks.
Ours are unrugged today and have had a mad half-hour running round the field because the neighbours were shooting. They have been shooting several days over the last week, the horses have taken absolutely no notice of them, nor of the fireworks that have been going off over the last few days. I can only think that it was the lack of rugs that caused it although they had hay available.
Click to expand...

Definitely sticking with the extra rugging for now, he's back to his usual lovable self, and has been snuffling happily in my hair tonight while I sit on a bucket to do his weekly feather maintenance, which is far better than last week when I wouldn't have even considered sitting next to him. I've ordered some vit e already because I figured even if it didn't help, it wouldn't do any harm. Just waiting for it to arrive.

JackFrost said:
I sometimes wonder if they get sleep deprived when they are living out in atrocious conditions. I also think with mine there's some sensory overload that's too much to deal with.
I mention cushings because temperature regulation is affected, and cushings doesnt always present classic symptoms. My cushings pony would shiver in bad weather and couldnt cope well with cold.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I don't think he's sleep deprived he's out in the day and in overnight and there's always a cob shaped flattened patch in his bed in the morning and half his bed left in his mane.

My old cushings pony is the opposite to yours, he always used to be the first to want a rug and now he's the last, hadn't even thought of that with the cob though, next time the vets out to check the pony's levels I'll ask him to check the cob too as well as checking for anything else he can think of. Hopefully he turns out to just not like bad weather, but if there is something else I'd like to find out what it is. 😊
 
Mine becomes spooky , unpredictable and a bit unhinged when he's in pain or discomfort.
I'd given him some issues by not realising that he needed a longer girth.....he started by being startled even in the stable, not wanting to be brushed, and culminated in him running off in the school and dumping me.
He's now feeling better and his behaviour is almost back to normal.
 
I think it’s the weather to be honest, even the calmest of horses at our yard are being difficult to ride and handle! Ours are not sleeping properly im sure of it, we noticed their behaviour worsen with sleep deprivation so there is definitely something in that theory in my book. They are sleeping laying down in the fields in the daytime (muddy bogs but they must be tired as they rarely did this before) or their in the day if they are brought in…and they have hardly any bedding to entice them to lay down (longstanding livery issues, we are leaving!!) so we know they aren’t getting enough sleep with the foul weather x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top