Haylage making my horse loopy.......... Please help

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nikkinoo

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At my yard we pay £15 for unlimited haylage, the quality on the haylage is so good that you really dont need to feed that much of it,
My 16.2 Irish Tb has 2 maybe sometimes 3 haynets a day and is on saracen feed balancer and stroppy mare dried herb supplement
We have been told by yard owner that the haylage is known to send them a bit hyper. but as all the horses do so well on the haylage they will not change suppliers also we are garaunteed to get supplies right through the year, so YO wont change suppliers.
(nowhere to store if I was to buy my own)

turnout is limited due to the weather being so icy and when she goes out she either comes in throwing a shoe or a cut from a kick that usually needs to stay in, that is the only field that she can go in as the other field goes out in to a bog (huge field that cant be fenced off) and she always seems to go in to bog and either get stuck and is lame (also she is allergic to the bog)

Sorry back to the point, she is a sj and thrives on schooling, even if she hasnt been ridden for weeks you could get on her and ride her in menage and she is really good no bucks etc But the menage is flooded at the moment so cant ride in there.

she hates being ridden out panics all the time and ends up being a danger to herself and me. so I am getting really frustrated also my trailer floor has to be replaced so have been unable to box anywhere to have use/lessons off another yard.

Moving is not an option as I have 3 horses there, it is 2 mins away from my house and I would need to move to a yard with a menage which would be miles away,

Do you think a calmer would help,

I know NAF do a haylage balancer but think that helps with the acid digestion???? not calming

We are going to re-do the menage soon so do i just give up on riding her untill that is done

Or just put her out every chance I get and pray she doesnt throw a shoe hooning about and doesnt get kicked.

Help I really dont know what to do for the best
 
Yikes. I'm sorry i have no advice, but things are really against you at the moment, just wanted to say *hug* and chin up! This awful weather is hopefully on it's way out now, so hopefully things will get a bit easier for you soon. FWIW though, i would put her out as much as i could, she will lose the initial excitement of it and probably just stick her head down to eat. (put haylage out to give her something to do other than hoon).

Boot and rug her up if you're that worried about her getting kicked. Over reach boots may or may not help the mud and shoe issue, and a tough rug might help any kicks. If she wears brushing boots as well then there's not much area left for kicking! lol

I think keeping her copped up will only make matters worse, but you know your own horse
 
I sympathise because I am paying £10 a week for unlimited (big bale) haylage, which has been fantastic this winter up until now but now he starting to look quite fat and I don't think I will be able to feed him haylage all the way through the summer as it is very rich. I also like him to have ad-lib forage and I will have to review this if he gets excitable from all the protein/gets fat!

I think exercise is unfortunately a big part of the answer, and it sounds like you are extremely limited here. Is there any way you could use the school and avoid the boggy bits, even if this limits you significantly? That is what I am doing now.

Otherwise, could you raise your grazing issues with the manager and highlight that there will be an increasingly frustrated horse on the yard if she cannot change field. If she is messing around with the horses next door I suggest electric. I know you say it is a large field?

You could also fence the boggiest bits off (I know you said that would be difficult tho)? If it's really hard there is obviously nothing you can do about that. Personally, I would cut the balancer and replace it with fibre nuts or cubes that are really low in energy (check the bag). If you are doing this on a temporary basis the diet is unlikey to be cause any harmful unbalancing effect. Could you buy hay for a period and store in your trailer? Or someone elses? Or arrange a storage area with your YO? It really sounds like you are on your own with this and not getting any help from your YO.

I think a calmer will be a good idea, surely it can't hurt. I'm afraid I don't use 1 so am not sure which would be a good choice.

Perhaps supervise her grazing for an hr or 2 and then you can get her in if she starts messing around.

If you can't get hay what about a large bucket of chopp (not coated in molasses)
 
Just to add, it is a bit unfair of the YO to only provide haylage and not a choice. i would say at least a quarter of horses can't have haylage for one reason or another ie lami. Could you talk to him about having a big bale of hay and a big bale of haylage and then people can pick? This is what yards i have been on in the past have done. It worked really well.

Otherwise, it would only be fair of him to let you bring in your own hay and not pay for his haylage.
 
excellent advice I didnt think of storing in my trailer, a vey good option.

and soaking great how long for though?

unfortunatly we live on a nature reserve an the marsh/ bog is the perimetre of the whole one side of the field.

My YO are really good so maybe if I did bring up the subject of me buying the hay in then they would be ok, i just didnt want to be akward or anything.

think I will get the blue chip calmer (tried super calm to no avail)
 
Hmmm i would put my money on the problem being in 23hrs out of 24 lol!

I bet turning out regularly would sort her out in no time. Perhaps mention this to your YO.
 
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