horse suddenly not relaxed in his stable..

[charlie76]

My horse has been at his new yard for eight months and has always been fairly chilled in his box. However. Over the past couple of weeks he has started behaving a bit odd in the box.
It started with him refusing to eat out of his corner manger which he was fine with before. Now I'm finding he hardly touches his hay over night and he is being odd when I pick his feet out in the stable. He is reluctant to pick up his front feet, he is worried about it.
yesterday I caught him weaving slightly which he did five yrs ago when we got him but he hasn't done it for yrs. His neighbour who is on box rest does weave badly however.
He is on quite a high protein diet as he works hard so wondered if that was the cause but he is not silly to ride. In fact. Quite the opposite. He is verging on lazy!
He has ad lib hay. Goes out most days for four hours, no longer due to the mud and wet, and he is worked every day.
There has been signs of rats in his stable so we have got a cat.
any ideas?

 

[HelenPassfield]

Is he normally used to going out for a bit longer (I know how difficult it is right now), perhaps he;s streeing about wanting to go out?

If there are rats about perhaps one was in the manger when he put his nose in giving him a fright which he remembers?

 

[zigzag]

He could have been scared by the rats, they may have peed on his food / hay

 

[LaurenBay]

How long has his neighbour been on box rest? is he a stresy type?

If his neighbour is feeling anxious your Horse will pick up on this also.

 

[ihatework]

I was about to say Rats/Mice!

It would be worth really turning his stable over and disinfecting.

Also make sure the hay storage area is clear of rodents - probably worth putting traps down in addition to the cat.

Rats can really freak the odd horse out!