Horse has become very spooky on hacks

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goodtimes

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But the only thing that has changed is I'm now feeding him speedibeet. Surely that can't make him more spooky as its only got 5% sugar.

All the usual checks have been done, apart from teeth. That's next Friday.
 
If anything changes in the management and the behaviour changes at the same time, then the first thing I would do is change the management back to what it was. It may not be the amount of sugar, but could be some other consistuant of the feed. Hope he reverts to normal when you change his feed back.
 
My mare becomes a total fruitloop if fed alfalfa or carrots, dangerous to ride as she just looses the plot, other mares we've had have been fine. Interestingly the Tbx who was allergic/intollerant of cereal was fine on sugar beet and alfalfa. Each one can have an idiosyncratic response to anything.
 
I feed mine kwikbeet which is also only 5% sugar but I've noticed that this does tend to hype him up regardless of the sugar content. Mentioned it to YO last year and was told shed noticed the same in a few other horses too so it is possible the two are related.
 
I would cut out the speedibeet and see what happens - some horses are intolerant it, just sends them fruitloop.

Just to add, there have been a few posts about horses being "not themselves" atm - in other words NUTS. i think the general opinion is that the grass may be coming through, which is sending them all loopy - so don't panic ! Even my bombproof cob has been like Tigger on a hot tin roof over the last few weeks. ;)
 
I thought the same when my boy started being spooky on hacks and the only change was linseed. Cut the linseed and my chilled out boy was back. I too reasoned that it was an excess of energy.
 
Interesting about the sugar beet, my lad used to paw the ground while eating, had sugarbeet in, stopped using it for no particular reason last winter, no pawing.
Gave him some this week and on his second feed with it in, he is back to pawing, one bag of sugarbeet off to the local rescue
 
I'd say cut the feed out too. Unless in real hard work, my mare has too much energy if fed pretty much anything. She gets a very token gesture of hifi lite, but even giving her a handful of pony nuts or swopping the hifi for alfa-a results in her being much more lively if I don't also up the work accordingly.
 
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