Feeding the sharp/tense horse - help please!

[spinner1]

Hi all
I have a rising 6 yo who I am struggling to settle - I've had him almost a year, he did settle through the summer, but seems to be a continual loon since christmas! He goes out, gets fed hi-fi lite with basic horse and pony nuts, and ad lib hay. I've had him on equifeasts cool calm and collected for about 8 weeks now but its made minimal difference - basically comes out incredibly tense and, although he will work through it eventually, the concentration just isn't there and he will only let go an breathe in the last 10mins! Does anyone have any suggestions? Not sure whether to try an alternative calmer, or look at basic diet again.

Thank you !

 

[L&M]

Will be interested to see what others say as I have the same problem with one of ours…..

Tbh what you are feeding sounds spot on, how much turnout/excercise is the horse getting?

I have also tried c,c and c and if anything, found it made the horse worse!

 

[9tails]

What does he do during the day? Is he out?

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I would stop the hi-fi lite, some horses react very badly to alfalfa and it also has molasses, or mo-glo, which many horses cant cope with. Your h&p nuts are probably molassed too, so I would stop those too. Try soaked grassnuts with dried grass chaff and Speedibeet if he needs more condition. these are much easier for the horse to digest, so are less likely to wind him up. I don't understand why you are feeding Hi-Fi lite and yet are also feeding h&p nuts anyway. Hi-Fi is marketed towards horses which need minimal feeding, whereas nuts are for those who do need feeding.

 

[Jazmyn101]

I feed my sharp/tense horse hi-fi molasses free, topspec cool balancer (for fizzy horses), garlic and magneisum for calming. I previously fed hi-fi lite but molassed fizzes my horse up and hi-fi lite does have molasses on it. Hi-fi lite contains 7% sugar and hi-fi molasses free contains 2.5%. Your horse does sound more tense than mine though, it only takes about 10mins for her so settle.