Feeding a cob (Also in Stable Yard)

Damnation

Damnation

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I am currently riding a 15hh medium/heavyweight cob. He has NO energy and I am really starting to get fustrated. He is unfit and on the porky side but that is being dealt with via everyday exercise and the starvation paddock and is almost down to an ideal weight. He is ridden in spurs and a schooling whip to try and get more of a response (Along side other exercises in the school like transitions to try and get more impulsion) but it just isn't happening! His owners have said that he has always been lazy even at the peak of fitness but when he was put on oats it just made him silly i.e spooky and nappy, but did nothing for impulsion in the school. Does anyone know of a feed that will give him energy to work in the school but without making him silly?
Any help appriciated!
Izzi xx
(I have also posted this in Stable Yard.)
 
Do you do plenty of hacking? My cob gets fed up if he doesn't go on a fun hack every now and then (and can gallop with the best of them!)

I feed him hi-fi lite, oil, vits+mins (I wonder if the cob you ride is lacking in iron? try top-spec or red-cell if his gums look pasty) and salt, with spillers fibre cubes. Perhaps dengie alfa-a lite may be worth a try, although I have no experience with this.

Also don't ride in spurs every day because cobs get dead to things very easily, mine is ridden in spurs 3 X a week, no more, which keeps him responsive.

My friend feeds her potentially-fizzy Welsh D calm+condition, he hasn't put weight on but he has energy, a lovely shine to his coat and doesn't get too over-excitable.

Hope this helps.
 
Ask in your local feed merchant if they know of any deficiencies (sp?) in the soil. We have a selenium defiency, which I believe makes horses pretty lack lustre - we sell a fair amount of Selenevite E and Baileys lo cal balancer to remedy this.

Other than that, I second DiablosGold - maybe your horse just doesn't see the point of schooling (mine doesn't but makes it clear in different ways!)
wink.gif
 
Also trying the unexpected helps. Like us, when we meet knew situations we sit up and think. So try chucking rugs, jumps, anything around schooling area to wake him up. Rather than it being the same old thing.
 
What is he being fed at the moment? Is he getting a vit/min supplement or a balancer if he is not getting much in the way of hard food? Sometimes good doers on restricted diets can be lacking in the vit/min department which can make them a bit dull.
 
Hello all. He gets hacked at the weekends (But its TT week over here and there are bikes everywhere so I haven't hacked him along the roads for about a week and a half)and usually before or after schooling I go around a little offroad route that takes about 20mins to do and we go for a number of good blasts along it. Even then we haven't managed to gallop, even if I absolutely beat him even if there is a horse infront or behind him! He has had a XC session recently and I do trotting poles and vary where I ride. (We have a huge indoor arena, a sand school and a dressage arena).
I do vary the spurs but he is so much better with them but not great and my legs are practically dead after the ride. The spurs that he is in are dummy spurs - so pretty weak too.
He is being fed Happy Hoof with a garlic suppliment and a multi vitamin and mineral suppliment because I know that due to the fact that he is on the starvation paddock he won't be getting the nutrients he needs. He is also stood in all day with just enough hayledge in a small holed net to last him the day.
 
my cobs do very well on D&H Country Cubes - plenty of protein and not too much starch- they have plenty of energy for hacking/lessons / hunting without getting silly (and one has had laminitis!)
 
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