Help! My horse has no energy! :o(

warmbloodcrazy

warmbloodcrazy

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Hi every one,

I have a 13 year old 17hh black warmblood which i have had for 8 years now and i am at a bit of a loss as to what to do with him.

He seems to have no get up and go in him...this only seems to have happened this season...he is fed on oats, barley rings and alfa alfa oil currently. He is a good doer and is currently living out pretty much 24 7 and has a good covering. He is ridden at least 4 times a week and brought in hayed and fed each day.

I took him to a show jumping competition in June and i felt like he was a thellwell pony is my only description...he would not go forward and had no ooomph in him although i did manage to get him round it was so much hard work and i have now found this to be the case at home. Some days out hacking hes his lively self and others u would think you were riding a 30 year old...i have tried feeding him various things but am at a loss as to what to do now. I don't think the constant muggy heat has helped...(he hates doing anything in the heat) nor the hard ground which i don't like to run him on. He hasn;t done alot of competeing over the last 18 months as i have had no transport and now i can get him out and about he has no get up and go!

Hes very capable and can jump like a stag when hes on form, but he just doesn't seem to make any effort at the moment. We are meant to be jumping for our riding club team at Hickstead on Sunday but i am all for pulling out as i can't imagine tackling a 3ft course there with him the way he is at the moment. Any help and ideas would be much appreciated...has any one else had this??

I just want him to have a bit of spark back!! At the moment i am just not enjoying riding him so much :( and pep talks with him are just not working! Hehe. Its so hard to ride a horse thats being so backwards..has anyone else had this??

Thanks everyone.
 
Very interested to hear opinions on this too - one of my liveries has a similar issue with her 5 year old IDXTB cross who is very backward thinking...so much so he trotted round his first BE xc!!!
 
My horse has been very much the same over the past few weeks - and in his case I really do think that the muggy weather has been getting to him. He's looking rather too well, which isn't helping either :o

Could your horse be carrying a bit of excess weight, which won't help? Do you feed electrolytes????

Funnily enough carrying a whip was enough to make my horse move a bit quicker (never carry one usually). Bless him....
 
Have you had him blood tested? This would be the first thing I would get done if abnormal behaviour. In the mean time I would be adding something like Red Cell to his feed to find out if this gives him more pep.
You say he is a good doer yet you are feeding barley rings which I only ever feed for condition. I would perhaps add something instead that provides more energy like a competition mix or energy release cube depending on the work levels?
I would also be looking to work his fitness up a level and increase stamina work just to help with the weather.
 
No i haven't tried him on electrolytes before, yeh i think the muggy weather really isn't helping, he is not hugely over weight, i will see if i can post a pic up of him.

I was carrying a whip and wearing my spurs...not much help :o(
 
No i haven't had him blood tested but he is due his jabs soon so i will run it by my vet.

He has barley rings in his kick stable ball, no i have not tried him on red cell before, i will have look into that.

I have been trying to work him through the heat and always working on improving fitness but it is proving a bit tricky with him being so backwards at times.

Thankyou so much for all your ideas everyone, all help and ideas are much appreciated.
 
Basically when horses sweat they lose salts and if they are sweating regularly and are in medium levels of work these are sometimes not replaced so the horse can become lethargic. By adding an electrolyte you are helping to replace these.
 
blood tests are a fab idea, friend of mine had her horse done last week, and he was found to be in excellent health - it'll put your mind at rest if nothing else. She uses Energ (sp) by Naff - also Propelplus is supposed to be good ? But def go with vet's advice.

Good luck, sm x
 
I always feed my eventer on Propell Plus over the summer as he is big and does not like the heat so it helps him cope with it better. Gives him more energy. Red Cell does the same thing.
Add energy release cubes instead to the ball.
 
How much water does he drink? is he drinking any less than usual or perhaps not enough during the warmer days, perhaps he's little dehydrated? Is there any difference in how much sweat he produces?
 
If he's a good doer, does he really need the barley rings and the Alfa A high Oil? not questioning your feeding, just wondered if perhaps making some small changes to his hard feed might make a difference, he may not have the energy to get fitter, so your in a vicious circle so to speak.

Perhaps giving a feed company a ring, they may be able to suggest a diet more tailed to your horse, worth looking into, obviously you won't see any drastic changes straight away but it could be the answer.
 
Kenzo said:
If he's a good doer, does he really need the barley rings and the Alfa A high Oil? not questioning your feeding, just wondered if perhaps making some small changes to his hard feed might make a difference, he may not have the energy to get fitter, so your in a vicious circle so to speak.
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I agree. How about looking at the slow release energy cubes a Lec suggested.

You could also think about clipping him - he looks as if he may have some draught in him, and perhaps a thickish coat??

Feed electrolytes daily, try and ride during the cool and go from there???
 
Are you sure it's not just a matter of riding him forward? My gelding went very backwards thinking for a few months, ignoring my leg almost entirely - I could sit and kick him and he'd 'go' but reluctantly and with no power OR speed! :p
Got to the stage where I asked nicely once, and then I did everything I could to make him GO! Voice, leg, whip if need be (though in my case, mostly excessive amounts of leg - whip makes him buck!) and then we'd carry on. If he stopped reacting, same again!

Had his saddles checked and widened slightly too, which helped - did immediately have an affect which then became less noticeable as he did still revert to his lazy self :p

The last thing that seems to really have helped him is a lesson I had last week! Instructor pointed out that he held a lot of tension in his back, and had me work on this, getting him to relax & stretch, and then asking him to flex both left & right. By the end of half an hour I had a horse moving forward off the leg, happily (: I've been working on the same things with him in our last few schooling sessions and he's got a lot better! We can now actually canter, and stay in canter for more than about 3 strides anyway! ;)

Might not be the case with your lad, but a different idea anyway (:
 
agree with LEC i;d get bloods checked, he could have a virus or something which is making him feel lethargic. in the meantime i would definitely try propell plus/ red cell or you can even put guinness in his feed (but not if you are competing as would come under a banned substance :rolleyes:)
 
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/picture.php?albumid=676&pictureid=3946

I have tried different variations on his feed, that is just where i am at at the moment. Any suggestions are welcome :) I was reluctant to give him too much of the high sugar mixes etc as when he was younger and he had suspected joint troubles i was told to steer clear of the high starch and sugary feeds. Hence trying different approaches, Red Cell looks like it could be a good thing as an additive. I am going to go to Hickstead to support my team on Sunday if i don't compete so i may talk to some feed stands there and see what they say?
 
I have a 14.2 native cob x who you never could describe as forward going at the best of times but he's been markedly weary for a few weeks which I have put down to the weather - met another woman out with her coloured cob and I was commenting on mine's slow walk as it took us so long to get past and she said her's was very much the same at the moment and think's it is the weather too as we'd both been worrying it meant something was up. The field my horse is in has very little shade so he's had some hot days out. I've just upped his vits and mins as he is a good do-er so gets no food to speak of. He is in overnight and has access to a salt lick and plenty of water when he's in and he is using his salt lick a bit as it is wearing down so I'm assuming he is getting a bit dehydrated during the day though huge trough at his disposal in the field! I soak his hay so he gets lots of water that way too. Mine is carrying extra kgs and I know that is a factor too in his lethargy but trying to get the balance of enough energetic exercise underway when the ground, bridleway or field, is like rock and the heat/humidity is high is quite a challenge. At the moment I'm just doing lots of hacking either early AM or late PM of brisk walking plus the odd bit of trot if ground is not too hard, plus routes with hills and fortnightly lessons - he will go forward for his jumping as he likes that...but again having to watch the ground. Am going to start lunging too so can crank up his exercise without him getting too hot/sweaty. Someone did say to me this week they wouldn't be riding their horse in this weather but I don't it's that bad.
 
Thanks Sol :)

That is another interesting angle, he is due for a tack check up etc soon, and i have my next lesson booked next week, although he was a good boy in his last one, i always have to do alot of stretching excercises with him as hes a big long boy and it supples him up, its frustrating as in his last jumping clinic i did which was in May he was a Gem!!

Thankyou for your ideas, i will keep u posted! :)
 
MochaDun thats exactly my problem, i don't want my boy to put on any weight but i need him to have the energy. Its a catch 22 situation. Many people i have spoken to have also said the same thing, that their horses havent been the same and are suffering in the constant muggy heat...i really don't hink it is helping him but what are we to do?

I also am finding the rock hard ground a challenge as like you say its just too hard to be doping too much on. I am going to up his vits and speak to the feed merchants at Hickstead and try and help him out that way....i am preying for some rain and cooler weather!! And hopin gi then have a more willing horse, bless him. Fingers crossed!
 
amymay said:
I agree. How about looking at the slow release energy cubes a Lec suggested.

You could also think about clipping him - he looks as if he may have some draught in him, and perhaps a thickish coat??

Feed electrolytes daily, try and ride during the cool and go from there???
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He has holstein in him, but his coat isn't really thick as hes in summer coat. This prolonged humidity we;ve had isn;t helping at all....can't wait for it to cool down and rain a bit! Its a night mare.

I work full time so he is either ridden very early in the morning, or after 7 at night when it is cooler. I will give the electrolytes a go and have another feed re jig and fingers crossed he will come good!
 
My boy is so laid back and has tb in him, but thats his personality and i wouldnt change it for the world !Maybe its just your horses ?By all means have him checked if need to ,and if need a faster ned maybe sell him and get a one with more go ? Alot of people would pay top cash for a horse with a laid back horse for a novice/not very confident person
 
I'm having exactly the same trouble with my warmblood at the moment. The last few seasons I have fed him Allen & Page Power and Performance cubes and they really do seem to help. However, at the moment he is being soooooo lazy to hack and in the warmup at shows but once he's in the ring and jumping he's fine. I have this morning bought some Redcell, so watch this space!!

The trouble is, it's hard to get them any fitter when they are being so lazy. I do think a lot of it is down to the warm weather.
 
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