Feeding advice please?

[Tangaroo]

My boy is 16.1 hannoverian X Tb who is eventing at intro level regularly. He is a crib biter, he is quite a good doer and is fairly fit. I was feeding him pasture mix and alfalfa through the winter but have recently put him onto competition mix. Last autumn(october) he had a bout of colic, with no apparent reason. He has recently started twitching a lot as if bothered by flies and getting agitated when rugged up on the lorry. He is always a very hot horse wearing less rugs than any others. Today i got him in to leave him while i took the other horse to a hunter trial and put a thermatex on him. He instantly rolled and looked twitchy and agitated. I took the rug off and he seemed better. Eventually i decided to give the hunter trial a miss cos he looked a bit colicy, so i turned them both out again. He now looks fine happpily grazing.
I just wondered if putting him on the competion mix has had an effect on him?
Maybe he should be on something less heating, any ideas?
Are there any independent feed helplines you can ring for advice? I usually ring dodson and horrell but obviously they just recommend their feed. Maybe i need to put him on something different!

 

[archoak]

A girl at our yard feeds her Novice eventer on Winergy (medium), he also cribs bites but has improved on Winergy. She was recommended it for crib biting. Funnily enough he did what you are describing in the Summer when rugged in his stable, we thought he was colicking but just turned out to be too hot, as soon as we took his rug off he was fine

 

[vennessa]

Hi, email lizzie.drury@lillico.co.uk. she does work for saracen but gives imparcial advice. She did a talk for us - totally imparcial.
From what you describe she will be able to give a lot of advice.

 

[Happytohack]

Personally, I would get in touch with Clare Macleod. She is a totally impartial qualified nutritionist and is not affiliated in any way to any feed company. She has done a lot of research into crib-biting and was one of the people who discovered that in trials, antacid and a forage-based diet reduced the incidence of crib-biting significantly. She is very approachable and helpful. Email clare@macblack.orangehome.co.uk

 

[aran]

Mine is also a 'hot' horse and in the spring and autumn it can be difficult knowing which rugs to use. He is a TBx. I now tend to under-rug slightly and i dont have any heavy weight rugs, instead i layer up thinner ones so that i can really finely adjust what he wears.
I found that he would get hotter and a bit more anxious on high competition mixes and so he is now fed fibre, with oil and sups. He can compete, hunt, whatever I want without mixes and this has helped.
If you really need a mix then shop about. I tried quite a few before deciding to cut them out all together (I found spillers instant energy OK, but none of the dengie ones, and he was ok on the D&H stay power but not so happy on the competition mix).
Cutting out mixes may help stop the cribbing (or reduce it). Do you feed any antacids - Feedmark does one called Settelex which a friend had some success with (plus an only fibre diet).

 

[TGM]

Whilst cereals can be a useful feed for some horses, they can cause many problems in horses that are sensitive to them, including crib-biting and colic. Almost all mixes contain cereals.

For a sensitive horse such as yours, I would suggest cutting out cereals completely and feed a fibre and oil diet only.

The first step is to make sure that the horse is getting as much good quality hay/haylage as he can eat, as this will supply much of his energy requirment. Then for bucket feeds, you can either choose a cereal free complete feed, such as Allen & Page Sugar & Cereal Intolerance Feed, Saracen Re-Leve, Winergy Equilibrium.

Alternatively, you can choose to feed fibre 'straights' with an added vit/min supplement. Fibre sources include alfafa, beet and grass products. Oil can add extra calories and can be fed in various forms, such as straight veg/soya/corn oil or in the form of a commercial oil-rich supplement.

 

[Nari]

Cereals & cribbers aren't a good combination IME.

My cribber gets no cereals & seems far better that way. He gets ad-lib hay, Luciebix, aSaracen ReLeve & cooked linseed meal. He looks great on it (a bit too fat actually), cribs far less & is calmer in himself. He doesn't lack energy or sparkle.

Before I realised how bad cereals were for cribbers he was harder to keep weight on, often edgy (ok he's naturally sharp but things were getting ridiculous) & could be touchy to handle. YO fed him competition mix as she thought he needed it & he completely lost the plot!

 

[galaxy]

How odd! My friend has EXACTLY the same horse that I look after in return for competing! 16.1hh hannxtb gelding that cribs!! They must be twins that were seperated at birth!

When we got him he was very thin. We put him on Alfa Oil and Build up cubes, but as soon as he put on a bit of weight I took him off the cubes as I know that cereals and cribbers don't mix. We've put him on Alfa Oil and Alfa Beet now which works a treat and I think his cribbing and behaviour has improved. He is ridden a lot (by his owner and competed by me) and I haven't found it a problem him not being on cereal based feeds. He also has ad lib haylage.

Hope that helps!