Grumpy horse on restricted grazing

[tatty_v]

Hi all

I'm hoping for a bit of HHO wisdom here, or just some sympathy! My little Connie is on soaked hay and restricted turnout on the vet's (my husband!) orders. He's not obese by any stretch of the imagination, but slightly tubbier than he should be and we wanted to nip this in the bud.

He is stabled overnight, has a small net of 12 hr soaked hay in the early morning, gets turned out at 10am onto a restricted paddock (still a good amount of grass in there at the moment), comes back in at 4pm, does a bit of work when I get back from work around 7.30pm (hack, lunge or schooling) and then has another small net of 12 hr soaked hay overnight.

As I leave for work at 6.30am and am not back until 7.30pm, a helper turns him out and brings him in for me. The problem is, he hates this new regime and is a bolshy pain in the arse to turn out (prancing, spooking, barging etc), getting into the field and galloping off as soon as his headcollar is removed. This is not normal behavior for him as he's usually very sweet to handle on the ground, and "comes in like a lamb" in the afternoon. Understandably my helper doesn't want to turn him out anymore (she's got back problems and is frightened she's going to hurt herself).

I'm really struggling to think of a solution. I've been pondering turning him out in the morning when I do his stable, potentially with a grazing muzzle (although I suspect he'd be even more annoyed about this!) and asking her to bring him in earlier, but I'd love to hear if anyone else has this problem and how you get round it. The additional quirk is that he's an ace jumper and if annoyed/lonely, will jump out of the field of his own accord. His new restricted paddock has 5ft high electric fencing and he hasn't jumped out yet, but it is a distinct possibility...

Apologies for the essay, I'm at my wits end this morning!

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Grazing muzzle? Have you tried one?
Worth a shot & then you could turn him out before going to work & get helper to bring in at lunchtime?

 

[tatty_v]

I'm definitely thinking about a grazing muzzle - will be searching threads here to see which one people recommend!

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

I find the 'Dinky Pony' ones work well for mine (having always been against them for many years)
They do go up to a good size from teeny tiny ones to fitting full sized horse ones.

I did have to canibalise the 1st one for Tiny Fuzzy and make a cut into it at the bottom, till she really got the idea she could eat with it on Subsequent ones have not been tampered with! I do get through 1.5 a year and always have 2 on the go, as there is nothing worse than putting a sodden one back on the next morning if I haven't dried it out in time.

Of course there are various different ones on the market, worth seeing if you can pick some up cheaply via your local facebook pages?

 

[9tails]

I'd put him in his field at 6.30am with his morning pile of hay.

 

[twiggy2]

put something else in the paddock at night to graze it off then put him out first thing with his hay and get helper to pop a bit more hay out at lunchtime/or muzzle him

 

[MyBoyChe]

Could you either turn him out first thing with a muzzle on, then get your helper to just pop the muzzle off at 10 and bring in later as normal, or, turn him out overnight, bring him in first thing and get the helper to top up his hay twice a day, then you let him out after he has worked? I completely sympathise with the grumpy pita thing, my highland has been on a really strict diet even through the winter and when he is hungry he is a bargy, rude and very strong eejit! I solved it by mixing straw with his soaked hay to fill him up, not sure if that is an option you could try.