Help feeding/equipping my fizzy mare

[charlotteelizabeth38]

I bought a new mare in January, so it's been five months now. When we went to try her she was very level headed, still quick but steady enough. However, now she's constantly very forward (worse when she's in season), sometimes if she hasn't been ridden the day before, she's almost uncontrollable in trot. She's not strong just very quick and hates a strong contact and if you do she carries her head like a giraffe but it not she flies off with you at 100mph. I stopped feeding her any hard feed seeing as she obviously didn't need the extra energy and she's staying in good condition but barely steadied. On the ground she's an absolute angel; like an oversized labrador (and a dopey one at that). I'm really stumped now so if anyone could help (not just with feed but with tack as well) it would really be appreciated as she has tonnes of potential and will make a lovely show jumper if only we can crack this pretty fundamental issue. Thanks in advance! x

 

[Barnacle]

How often do you ride and how often was she ridden before? What do you typically do when you ride her? Do you do any groundwork? What was she used for before you got her? Who was riding her?

 

[Shay]

We have an ISH just like this - although he also frets off condition so has to stay on hard feed or he runs up like a coat rack! Took us a few years - but these are the things that worked for us...

Cereal free feeds - we use A&P but there are others.
No molasses what so ever. No sugary treats. (No sure if this worked on us or him... but it made a difference somewhere!! Oh - and don't let him nick your iced coffee - he got hold of mine once and went loopy for hours!)
No rich haylage
Relatively spare pasture / limited rich grass
Work 6 days per week - and the work to be really varied. So lunge, walker, school, dressage, jump, hack, play trec games, ground work - anything to keep him engaged and listening. Doesn't need to be long; being over fit won't help - but we do event and hunt in season so he is fit anyway.
Change the bit... we went through a load and of course each horse is different but we ended up with an NS elevator for jumping and XC, a waterford gag to hunt unless cubbing when he can stay in the elevator and a NS Baucher for dressage (still legal in PC / eventing for now...)
Obviously - check tack / back / teeth (should have put that one in a bit earlier!)
Finally we did try calmers - magnesium based ones worked a but but we got the best results from D&H placid. If you don't compete anything with Valerian in it will work - but is a banned substance so not an option for us.

Every horse is different but there might be an idea here you can use -good luck!