Help - psycho lickle ex race horse... where to start?

My horse went completely bonkers about a month after I changed him from hay to hayledge. As soon I worked out the hayledge was the problem I put him back on hay and after a week he was his normal happy calm self. It's probably worth trying him back on hay at least you can rule that out. Good luck
 
I think a lot of it is to with the spring grass and weather My TB has been right pain in the prevereable the last few weeks, but I keep him in a livery yard / riding school and quite a few of the riding school ponies have been little tinkers the last week as well !!

I currently feed mine A+P Calm & condition and Mollichop calmer -he was having a scoop of each once a day but now he is out 24/7 he is only having half a scoop of each once a day, he is a TB and never gonna be well covered(fat) but he never seems hungry and vet said he looks great !

I am changing onto Simple systems top nosh & ruff stuff over the next month as want to cut out a lot of the C*$p that goes into Mollichop and have seen very good results on a couple of other TB's with SS.

Oh and I tense up as well but am getting better and I can often be found hacking around the lanes whinging to my horse about my OH / Boss/ other liverys, he always seems to agree with me :-)
 
combination.

hayledge
spring grass
feed
fitness.

I dont think you need to withdraw anything but look at what your putting in to him and modify it, I dont think id be withdrawing feed, but speak to a few of the feed companies and ask about a sugar free diet, i think your find that if you stop the feed he will lose weight quickley.

change the hayledge to hay and restrict the amount of turnout time, even if by just a few hours a day.
 
Hi, I had exactly the same problem with my 7/8ths TB when she went onto haylage for the winter. As everyone has said it could be a combo of the conditioning cubes, haylage & grass.

I need to feed mine a conditioning feed as she really is a poor doer, and just about everything I tried sent her loopy, sometimes dangerously so.

She was great on Winergy Equilibrium but just physically couldn't eat enough to keep the weight on, Baileys Endurance Mix was good too but we have now found TopSec cool condition cubes which don't contain any cereal & she is very sensible but has enough oomph to do the work she needs to do. I also use their balancer as the cubes don't contain any vitamins but you could use any balancer (baileys lo cal as you've mentioned) or gp supplement.

I also give Baileys Outshine for some extra non-heating calories & great coat shine.

It's probably a case of trial & error but good luck!
 
I've not read all the replies, but I think you are also describing my TB mare. She is normally the most placid, easy going horse to hack out, not spooked by anything. For the last couple of days, all she has done is jog and prance. I think it's the Spring grass - she has recently gone from daily turnout to 24hr turnout. I wouldn't worry - I'd let her get on with it for a bit, she'll soon get over it.
 
I would think the main culprit is the spring grass. Too rich and full of sugar probably. Have you had a grass analysis done. I know people often blame lack of magnesium at this time of year and its not always the case but if it is, that would partly explain the wild look you describe, Im not an expert but it partly causes muscle tremors and increased sensitivity, nervousness almost which can manifest as wild behaviour, he just wont be able to control himself. Calmers are such a trial and error thing, finding one to suit is a bit of a lottery but its made all the difference to my TB.
 
Must admit what spring grass we've had here has all be burnt off with the sun and no rain for 2 months. But I feed mine winergy low energy, it keeps their weight on without them going over the top, it takes a little while for them to put the weight on, but it stays on and your ex-racer looks lovely
 
Every time my ex-racer has been a fruit loop it's been a change in diet, he just gets graze-on, pony nuts and oil now and has kept amazing condition all winter and even early spring before we had the grass though and his work load increased he stayed looking good.
 
Id say the grass is the major culprit. Our fields arent lush but they dont want to come in at night anymore, they are all putting on weight and the ridden ones are loop de loop.
My boy is always spooky but he's scary at the moment, on his toes and looking at and for everything. Friends usually sane WB is spooking at logs, shadows etc.
 
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