Feeding advice for a very excitable mare!

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Stackle

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Any advice as to what I can feed to my warmblood mare? She lost loads of weight earlier in the year so I began the winter feeding her conditioning cubes, speedibeet and alfa a oil, and that was working well, and she's put loads of weight back on now and looks really well. But at the moment she is not getting much turnout at all due to the weather and even though I ride her every day she is becoming a bit of a handful! I'm thinking about changing her feed to help with this... does anyone have any suggestions? Xx
 
Yeah it definitely is the problem but not able to do much about it at the moment because all our fields are flooded and have been for weeks :( hopefully things will start to get better soon but the yard doesn't allow a great deal of turnout in the winter anyway... 😔
 
You have to work with what you've got... I'm super lucky that our fields drain well and we can still turn out every day. I know I'd need to lunge before work and lunge before riding in the evening if Fig wasn't getting turned out!!!

For condition without the fizz try winergy conditioning + micronised linseed. Use mollichaff calmer for fibre. If you need to use an actual calmer I would vote science supplements prokalm as the most effective.

That said I'm having success with rolled oats at the moment. Weight + no fizz.
 
Well I work during the day on weekdays, so weekdays she gets a schooling session for about 45 mins/an hour, some days harder than others, then at the weekends she tends to get nice long gentle hacks...
 
Stackle said:
Well I work during the day on weekdays, so weekdays she gets a schooling session for about 45 mins/an hour, some days harder than others, then at the weekends she tends to get nice long gentle hacks...
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By the sounds of it you have some scope to increase her workload. Have you tried cantering her whilst out on a hack? Get out there and trot for a good 20 mins to half and hour and then do some cantering as well. Get her well worked over the weekend as well as your normal during-the-week work and see if her behaviour improves.

My WB is definitely sharper when I don't exercise him enough. So I keep the workload up most of the year.
 
Yeah we do tend to do lots of trotting on hacks... Cantering depends on who I'm with but I do try to get some canters in if I can. I agree though, I think I probably could increase her workload a bit!! Roll on summer hey?! ☺️
 
I am very sympathetic. Lack of turnout can turn the most gentle of animals into a raging bull. After being on box rest I had to walk my WB for 6 weeks. He was completely wired in the head and constantly spooking, napping and running off with me until I could trot and canter him!

In the meantime, considering she is wintering well I would suggest cutting down her hard feed. She will not be using up extra energy that a turned out horse would. Some chaff and a handful of mix I reckon.

Edit: Alfa Oil is a very rich chaff, you should think about putting the horse on to something lighter such as Dengie HI FI. And use a non conditioning mix such as pasture mix or horse and pony cubes.
 
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Good news - a space came up on a yard i'd been on the waiting list for a while at, so we're moving in just under 2 weeks... in her new home she will have daily turnout all year round, so that coupled with changing to dengie hi fi and horse and pony cubes instead of conditioning cubes should really help! :) Thanks everyone for the advice!
 
Can you lunge or loose school the days you dont ride (although this could mean she is fitter and more of handful lol) or lunge before you ride so some steam gone before you get on board? I have had good results with allen&paige calm and condition for our gelding who gets fizzy with less turn out but can lose condition and calm and collected for my mare who retains condition but also gets fizzy.
 
I'd cut that feed out and stuff her with tons of hay, chaff, non mollassed sbeet and linseed. Nothing heating there but should keep her looking well as long as you feed enough :). Weigh the hay as well to make sure she gets enough. My TB chuffs down 30lbs a day plus grass in the field!
 
Alfa can make them sharp, I know its slow release energy but it has the same energy level of a low energy course mix, combined with the conditioning cubes may be tipping her over the edge, think I'd give spillers high fibre cubes see if she maintains weight on that
 
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