He's unhinged ... But ....

[Sossigpoker]

Just a naive question but what do you feed him as Hay is grass grassnuts by definition are grass grass chaff is grass so if you don't feed alfalfa and you don't feed grass what do you feed. I understand that your grazing might be unbalanced but it is that not the grass that are the problem in some areas espeially in winter

It's the potassium in the grass that's the problem, and plants like clover , not the grass itself. When the grass is dried to make hay , it changes the mineral balance.
Most chaff is straw based ,nut grass , as are many nuts as well.
If you balance the mineral levels by adding salt and magnesium then that's better- but my cob really doesn't do well on much more than about half a day max on grass. He's so much calmer and more settled when the amount of grass is limited.
He gets - in the winter - pretty much as lib hay and I feed Spillers fibre nuts and Honeychop Lite and healthy.

 

[Antw23uk]

It's the potassium in the grass that's the problem, and plants like clover , not the grass itself. When the grass is dried to make hay , it changes the mineral balance.
Most chaff is straw based ,nut grass , as are many nuts as well.
If you balance the mineral levels by adding salt and magnesium then that's better- but my cob really doesn't do well on much more than about half a day max on grass. He's so much calmer and more settled when the amount of grass is limited.
He gets - in the winter - pretty much as lib hay and I feed Spillers fibre nuts and Honeychop Lite and healthy.

It made for interesting reading @Sossigpoker thank you. I will be researching into this more, especially as i am days away from opening up my last winter grazing field. I've not fed him for a couple of days now, mostly because i cant get near him and im not just leaving a bucket out for him. It a feed run this weekend anyway so i will make the changes.

This morning, as i waited for the baby TB to eat, he did saunter over and with a few minutes of quietly chatting to him, he did take some hay out of my out reached hand but it was on the proviso i didnt get any closer I've lost his trust before (miscommunication with swiping flies from his face once ... he interpreted that as my trying to kill him .. took him a couple of weeks to forgive me!) but this is another level of distrust at the moment. I'm hopeful we will get back to our normal soon, otherwise i dont really know what the option is to be honest

 

[Sossigpoker]

It made for interesting reading @Sossigpoker thank you. I will be researching into this more, especially as i am days away from opening up my last winter grazing field. I've not fed him for a couple of days now, mostly because i cant get near him and im not just leaving a bucket out for him. It a feed run this weekend anyway so i will make the changes.

This morning, as i waited for the baby TB to eat, he did saunter over and with a few minutes of quietly chatting to him, he did take some hay out of my out reached hand but it was on the proviso i didnt get any closer I've lost his trust before (miscommunication with swiping flies from his face once ... he interpreted that as my trying to kill him .. took him a couple of weeks to forgive me!) but this is another level of distrust at the moment. I'm hopeful we will get back to our normal soon, otherwise i dont really know what the option is to be honest

Whereabouts in the country and you?
I can recommend a few natural Horsemanship trainers who can advise you and come see the situation.
Im sorry I didn't realise he was this "untouchable ", i suspect you'll need more hands on help as well as sorting his diet.

 

[Caol Ila]

It made for interesting reading @Sossigpoker thank you. I will be researching into this more, especially as i am days away from opening up my last winter grazing field. I've not fed him for a couple of days now, mostly because i cant get near him and im not just leaving a bucket out for him. It a feed run this weekend anyway so i will make the changes.

This morning, as i waited for the baby TB to eat, he did saunter over and with a few minutes of quietly chatting to him, he did take some hay out of my out reached hand but it was on the proviso i didnt get any closer I've lost his trust before (miscommunication with swiping flies from his face once ... he interpreted that as my trying to kill him .. took him a couple of weeks to forgive me!) but this is another level of distrust at the moment. I'm hopeful we will get back to our normal soon, otherwise i dont really know what the option is to be honest

That's so difficult. Sounds a lot like my horse's post-partum malfunction, but at least she had an obvious reason. Sossigpoker might be right... seems as if it's more than just diet and a good behaviourist might be able to help.

With mine, we essentially had to 're-gentle' her, first by getting her to accept a rope over her back without jumping away, then around her neck, then a headcollar. Once she had the headcollar on, a switch flipped and she remembered that 5000 years of domestication happened. She spent a little while in a velcro field safe headcollar. If you grabbed that, she was absolutely fine. Then the baby learned how to undo the velcro, so that was out. We had to do it properly, as described above. Rinse and repeat for a few weeks. Now she's a dream to catch and handle. But the underlying cause was being a minimally-unhandled youngster, at a new barn, who just had a foal and was overwhelmed by life.

 

[Antw23uk]

Thank you both, I am confident he will get over himself and i was perhaps being rather melodramatic this morning. Its not a bad thing giving each other some space right now, and i will bring him in and give him some fuss at the weekend when he's been off hard feed for a few days. I think this is a combination of things that have just escalated and aren't helped by work commitments and dark mornings/ nights. Hes a sensitive chap but at some point he will just have to 'man up' and get on with life and i say that from the kindest part of my heart. I'm confident

 

[Antw23uk]

Just a little update after the weekend. Saturday was a pretty nothing day with the weather but a friend asked (told!) if i wanted to hack Sunday and i wasnt convinced but after catching him and giving him a fuss i tacked up and went for a beautiful hack and he behaved his usual self ..... being immaculately behaved. I think we both needed to do this and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. He's still being a tit to catch but im pleased we are heading in the right direction.

 

[Hannahgb]

Lovely update! Hopefully its onwards and upwards.
My mare turned into a hypersensitive, nervous, dramatic mess on alpha a! Fingers crossed its a simple fix for you