Fizzy on new feed

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Overgrown Pony

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Hey guys. I bought my 17.2hh 7 yr old DWB x ID gelding back in end of September 2007. He's always been very quiet and easy. He came to me very skinny with no muscle. He'd been broken then roughed off in a field for 3 years before I bought him. I started him from scratch with a gentle fittening program and have been feeding him up with a Rowan and Barbary fibre based diet.

I was finding that he didn't put as much weight on as i'd expect then I noticed him quidding his hay so he's just been into horspital (19th Feb) and had various diastema (spaces) burred out and work done on his top teeth. He has to go back again to get the back ones worked on as he wouldn't sedate properly. Now since having his teeth done I changed his diet to Dodson and Horrell Build-up, Dengie Alphabeet, Alpha A Oil and Baileys No.1 to try and get more condition on him. I've managed to get 14kg on him which is fantastic but he's like a different horse. He's turned very spooky and sharp and silly. The extra energy he has is good but he's too big to be acting daft and it's getting to be a bit of a nightmare. When he took off with my sharer I took him off the Build-up and No.1 which both have cereal in them and he's now on Alpha A Oil, Alphabeet, Baileys Outshine and Baileys Lo-Cal Balancer (as recommended by Baileys). My problem is he's been off the cereals for over a week now and he's still acting like a prize prat. How long will it take to get out of his system? Could the Alphabeet have anything to do with it? Dengie said it's more or less just fibre and she doesn't think it would be heating. None of the other horses have spring fever yet so it can't be the grass.

Help
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Could be the Alfa A Oil. I have read a few posts on here about some horses being nutters on Alfalfa - especially the oil version.
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Might be worth trying just the Hi Fi instead.
 
My two big heavy horses get hyped up on alfalfa. I feed them ad lib hay, cubes, unmolassed sugarbeet and grass chaff. How much hay do you feed, having had huge horses over the years, I always start off by feeding them as much hay as they will eat and then top up with other feeds - I always stay clear of mixes and molassed feeds.
 
a couple of the ponies at my yard are noticing the spring grass coming through and are being a bit giddier than usual...
 
It could be that while he was in poor condition, he just didn't have the energy to be sharp..? In my experience, these kind of thin-to-fat horses spend about 2 weeks, bounding about being stupid, and then they chill out a bit. Plus he's relatively young and hasn't done a great deal so it might be that he's just going through that youngster phase of spooking at his own shadow.
 
Unfortunately i'm under vets instructions not to feed him hay or haylage until he's had the second lot of work done (end of April) and it's all healed.

I've always been a big fan of going the fibre route but I had to try something different to get the weight on him. The No.1 and Build-up did the trick but has also turned him into a wee monster!

I've heard excellent things about the Outshine but it's just cost me £41 for a 20kg bag!!! When I feed it at the recommended rate it'll last me about 3 weeks! I'll use the is bag up then re-think that one cause that's rediculous...
 
We've got a tb on the yard who was really hard to keep weight on, he's been here about 6 years. His owner tried every feed imaginable (!) and the main problem is that the slightest cereal content sends him loopy and he then worries his weight off. 2 years ago we changed to Rowan and Barbary forage and fibre and he's never looked back, he has speedibeet, oil, chaff and bluechip too (the blue chip predates the forage and fibre). It suits him down to the ground and he's no longer silly and fizzy at all.
 
I have all mine on AlfaBeet and it has never heated them up at all. I wonder whether the fact that his teeth has been done so is now presumably eating a lot more hay, plus the new feed, means that he is just reacting to the extra calories in his diet, rather than to an individual foodstuff. He might have just been quiet before because he was skinny and unfit and generally feeling a bit cr*p!

However, if you are still having problems then why not try him back on his old food - this will give you an opportunity to see if his behaviour is feed-related or just due to him feeling very well in himself!
 
Journeyman - that makes good sense to me. I initially thought he was just feeling fantastic and I quite enjoyed it but him taking off for apparently no reason with my sharer (which I could see was going to happen as he's like a champagne cork waiting to explode and I can just keep a lid on him) made me whip him straight off the cereals. I'll give him another couple of weeks and see if he settles then have a re-think.
 
Hey TGM, that would be sensible to try. Think i'll give him another week or so to see how he is (it's hard at the moment to get the work into him cause of the snow). If he's still being daft i'll switch him back onto his old feed and see what happens.

Thanks so much you guys. You're all ace and very informative. I always pick up cracking tips reading this forum.

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Oh, and I wouldn't bother with Outshine. It's nice and convenient but a large vat of corn oil from your local Oriental supermarket will do exactly the same thing for a quarter of the price. I decant mine into clean old milk containers so you don't get it everywhere..
 
I give mine 150ml each per day split into two feeds - it's about one small tea cup full. I don't think they need extra Vit E to digest it but in any case, good hay/halyage/alfalfa or a feed balancer should provide enough.
 
horsegirl - he's out at grass 24/7 apart from when he's in to be ridden/fed/fussed. The field he's in has been rested and has quite a lot of grass on it. None of the other 30+ horses at the yard have spring fever with the grass yet so i'm thinking it can't be that, unless he's very sensitive to it.

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could be sensitive to it, as i said, some of the ponies on my yard are feeling it, none of my horses seem affected yet
 
I tried Baileys No 4 conditioning cubes this winter as my 17.2hh warmblood has had to slum it this winter (got a shelter, but not clipped etc this year and doing less work/just a big Rambo Supreme with neck cover etc). He has been back in work for some weeks now and is off his rocker, quite frankly - looks great (!!) but do not think that the Alfa A, Baileys No 4 and beet is working well for me!

I am about to return to Allen and Page Calm and condition and quiet mix (he isn't mad keen on the C+C so a bit of mix ot spice things up seems to work) and a return to non Alfalfa based chop I think.....

Spring is also in the air remember, so hang on to your hats everyone!

Glad that I tried something different but am returning to tried and tested stuff now and all of mine have always loved the A+P feeds and done really well on them. I find it fascinating that different feeds can have such an enormous effect.....
 
I'd go against the grain and say it was the build up - sent Ty loopy and he bronced me off on a hack - never done it before or since!
 
Hey guys, cheers for the heads up on the Baileys conditioning cubes as that was something I was going to give a go. I might give the Allen and Page Calm and Condition a whirl as I think i'm not going to manage to afford to pay £41 every few weeks for a bag of Outshine ontop of everything else...
 
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