Grumpy horse! Help!

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LouiseG

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Just curious to see what suggestions people would have regarding my horses behaviour and if it's linked to feeding. He's a good weight and a good doer so up until this week when the temperature plummeted and we had snow, I thought his usual scoop of happy hoof and supplements would still probably be okay.*

I first noticed it wednesday, then he had his teeth done on Thursday, the snow came on Friday and he has been in a raging bad mood ever since. He is usually lovely and happy but when I have approached him when he's eating his haylage in his stable, his ears go flat back and he snarls at me which is very out of character. He even kicked out at the boards when he was eating his turnip which he has never done before. I'm thinking the reason for this might be that he's actually very hungry?*

He is out for 7-8 hours a day and gets around 18lbs of haylage per night. He gets 2 feeds a day currently of 2 scoops of happy hoof and equivite. He actually tends to scoff all his haylage in no time at all, on some days he's finished it within a few hours which leads to grumpy full tummy!!

Can anyone help or offer suggestions of what I can add to his feed or what I can do differently as his change in behaviour is worrying me. He's only 5 with bundles of energy so I definitely don't need to add anything heating. I don't fuss over him when he's eating an leave him completely alone with his feeds, but I don't expect to be snarled at when I am in the stable and he's munching his haylage.

Thanks!
 
I can't offer much solution beyond saying if I see any mild grumpiness in my very food orientated cob cross it's at this time of year - the goodness will have gone out of the grass I guess and so maybe they become more fixated about what's in their net/stable. Ours have all just gone onto the winter routine of all being in at night and I notice that unsettles mine for a day or two. Last night not long after I'd put his net in mine was being very grumpy about me picking out his feet and checking his mud fever as I think he thought I was going to take him away from his hay.

Was everything OK at your teeth appt - did he have any hooks etc sorted? I only ask as mine after one appt a couple of years ago when he had to be sedated as quite a bit of work was very sore for 2 days afterwards and struggled to eat the coarser haylage we had at the time. I had to find softer stuff from the bale to help him til it eased but it was only a day or two and he was OK eating grass so tried to leave him out for as long as I could. But til it was better he did get frustrated then and grumpy as finding it hard to eat the haylage. I gave him suitable non-molassed hay-replacement chaff feeds to help him along.

Are you using small holed haynets to try and slow yours up a bit? That sometimes helps avoid them being standing in with no food for a while though mine can empty a small holed haynet quite impressively! Or is hay an option rather than haylage if he's a good doer?

Much colder temperatures and changing weather can make them a bit unsettled too sometimes though depends on the horse!
 
Thanks so much for your reply! On the day after the dentist i doubt he would have had much grass as there was a thick covering of snow, combined with sore jaw, freezing temperatures and finding haylage a bit harder to eat it's no wonder he is grumpy I guess. He was a bit better yesterday.

There was a bit of work done by the dentist but his teeth and mouth were generally good, but he got quite upset over it all so that won't have helped his mood either.

He had trickle nets for a while which were great but I feed him his haylage from the floor now as there was no noticeable difference with the trickle nets, he still managed to practically inhale his food!!

I'm hoping that today he will be in a much better mood, it's just a worry when they change so suddenly! Would it be worth adding something else to his feed now? Was looking at calm and condition or something like that as it needs soaking and it
would really bulk up his feeds and might fill him up a bit more? I get so confused with feeding, it's a real minefield!

Thanks again!
 
My mare is very grumpy at the moment and has been for about 2 weeks. Usually when I'm grooming or picking out front feet, she's even lifted a leg at me a few times (no food / hay in the stable at the time). I'm putting it down to the fact there's been no turnout for 3 weeks, she's cheesed off and taking it out on the first person she sees (me!). Also due to no turnout I've been walking her out in hand and have had to do some work on her manners so any interaction she is having with me is a bit of a battle as to who is boss.
Turnout has just restarted again so I'm hoping she'll chill out again soon.
 
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