Horse turning aggressive help!

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BroadstoneDignity

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Sorry its long! 3 months ago I purchased a very calm x race horse, 9 years gelding. He has taken a long time to settle as he was alone at his last home and is now in a huge field with 4 other horses. He givens me the impression that he has had some bad treatment, he came to me underweight and without muscle so I have been slowly building him up riding 5-6 times a week and he is now getting a really good feed and as much hay as he can eat. This horrible weather has meant that the horses can't stay out but he seems to have a problem with being stabled so is on the yard area with an over hang and can be near the stabled horses. He has been looking terrible for weeks but is getting lots of food, regular worming and shoeing and pysio treatment and of course being rugged The winter seems to have hit him hard! He is now starting to be aggressive. Went to turn them out yesterday and he did a little double barrel at me, he ran away so knew it was wrong! Kicking out when I'm changing his rug, turning with his mouth open at me, kicks out when he's eating his food. It looks scary but he hasn't done anything fully.... Yet! It's really hard especially with this hard weather! Any ideas?!
 
You've put your finger on the problem yourself. He's "getting lots of food" and is no longer out the whole time. Cut out all the hard feed and continue with ad lib hay. Monitor his weight carefully over the next four weeks, after that you may find that you have to add something back in but whilst he's not getting as much turnout I'd keep it to a minimum.
 
i would look at what you are feeding- he needs calories but not fizz! could be too much sugar. he is probably just a bit bored of winter and also feeling quite well (even if he still looks skinny) as he is getting fitter and putting on weight. i think some ground work to remind him of manners while being turned out might help a bit. also, just don't get near him while he is eating- lots of horses are protective of their food, especially if they have not has enough in the past.
 
What type of hard feed is he getting? If it is a high sugar/starch one, it may be worth changing to a high fibre feed with added oil, this will still provide lots of calories but will be less likely to encourage bad behaviour.

Sorry, cross-posted with pippixox :)
 
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BroadstoneDignity said:
Yes can see what you mean! the thing is he's so underweight :(
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If he is underweight but you have been feeding him to build him up for quite a while I would be concerned just why he isn't building up! Perhaps there is something going on internally that is making him sore/uncomfortable and reducing his ability to digest his food properly.....so is showing grumpy-ness rather than being aggressive.

It takes quite a lot for a horse to turn aggressive and from what you describe I don't think yours is being....he is just giving you signs that he isn't happy!
 
Hi i had a similar problem with my ex race tb mare. She also got a tad aggressive and very stressed when turn out was restricted she to was turned out on the yard as we werent allowed to use the fields but she wouldnt settle in the stable, she began to be a nightmare!!! she was getting fed loads as was underweight to!

Anyway someone suggested i take her off the hard feed but i was concerned as she was so underweight, i was told to try substituting hard feed with soaked grass nuts and readi grass!

i decided to give it a go, she changed to having adlib hay, a trug bucket with 3 round scoops of soaked grass nuts and 4 heaped scoops of readi grass morning and night and a feed at night of just basic unmollassed chaff and pony nuts! well i was shocked. Within a week she had calmed downed and no longer agressive and after a month her weight started to improve, i kept her on this and by the end of winter she looked fantastic and was a happeir less stressed horse!

May be worth a try hun, it worked for my girl. prob was she had to much energy from the feed and nowhere to burn it! she was much happier on basic forage! xx
 
splashnutti1 said:
Hi i had a similar problem with my ex race tb mare. She also got a tad aggressive and very stressed when turn out was restricted she to was turned out on the yard as we werent allowed to use the fields but she wouldnt settle in the stable, she began to be a nightmare!!! she was getting fed loads as was underweight to!

Anyway someone suggested i take her off the hard feed but i was concerned as she was so underweight, i was told to try substituting hard feed with soaked grass nuts and readi grass!

i decided to give it a go, she changed to having adlib hay, a trug bucket with 3 round scoops of soaked grass nuts and 4 heaped scoops of readi grass morning and night and a feed at night of just basic unmollassed chaff and pony nuts! well i was shocked. Within a week she had calmed downed and no longer agressive and after a month her weight started to improve, i kept her on this and by the end of winter she looked fantastic and was a happeir less stressed horse!

May be worth a try hun, it worked for my girl. prob was she had to much energy from the feed and nowhere to burn it! she was much happier on basic forage! xx
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Good advice. Loads of compound hard feed can be too high in sugars ad starches and actually reduce ability to absorb nutrients due to gut upset.
 
Thanks for all the ideas so glad I posted in here! He's on spedibeat Alfa a original and baileys outshine Oil balls stuff and Baileys 17 mix conditioning feed which I thought was fairly non heating?! pippixox and holly bear I agree possibly fed up of mud and needs some schooling! Amandap and tandD will certainly get the vet to have a look, it's annoying the weight isn't coming on but I suppose these things take time! Splashnutti1 very interesting, there isn't much grass in the field so maybe that's a good idea get some grass into him! Thanks again everyone feeling better already!
 
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BroadstoneDignity said:
Thanks for all the ideas so glad I posted in here! He's on spedibeat Alfa a original and baileys outshine Oil balls stuff which I thought was fairly non heating?! pippixox and holly bear I agree possibly fed up of mud and needs some schooling! Amandap and tandD will certainly get the vet to have a look, it's annoying the weight isn't coming on but I suppose these things take time! Splashnutti1 very interesting, there isn't much grass in the field so maybe that's a good idea get some grass into him! Thanks again everyone feeling better already!
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Alfalfa doesn't suit some horses and even though I'm a lover of speedibeet some horses also don't get on with it. I would stop the alfalfa and the oil balls to start with and replace with micronised linseed and some grass nuts or even copra. Feed a balancer as well, something like Pro balance (ebay) or Equimins advance complete for two suggestions.
 
as he is stressed out, that may be why he is not gaining weight despite all the feed. the first year i had my ex-racer he was very skinny and we were at a very busy yard that stressed him out- tonnes of feed, low sugar, and he struggled to gain weight. once we moved and he was chilled out the weight piled on but with less feed! i also recommend linseed- my ex racer has never looked so good in the winter since i started feeding it. he also has trident equi-beet (brand of unmollased sugarbeet), oats and alfalfa pellets.
mixes make both my horses a little fizzy
 
Racehorses, get fed loads of rubbish feed which is totally unsuitable for horses in the real world.
I tend to feed only hay, haylage decent balancer, like pro hoof and linseed.
I don't feed by products, like beet pulp and certainty nothing horses wouldn't naturally eat like copra.
 
Pale Rider said:
Racehorses, get fed loads of rubbish feed which is totally unsuitable for horses in the real world.
I tend to feed only hay, haylage decent balancer, like pro hoof and linseed.
I don't feed by products, like beet pulp and certainty nothing horses wouldn't naturally eat like copra.
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Horses don't naturally eat flax (linseed) either.........
 
My 2 live at home. I have Adrian the ISH & Trev the ex-racer. Adrian used to be the field boss, but about a year ago the tables started to turn, & now Trev is v aggressive towards Adrian. It turns out that Trev has pyloric ulcers. I read somewhere that when horses are unwell, they sometimes behave more aggressively to 'mask' that they're ill so that they don't lose their place in the herd & get picked on by the others.

Trev is fed ad lib hay, and also Healthy Tummy & Rowan Barbary mash twice a day. He is a normal weight bordering on thin, but the ulcer issue is ongoing.

T x
 
BroadstoneDignity said:
Kicking out when I'm changing his rug, turning with his mouth open at me, kicks out when he's eating his food. QUOTE]

My horse started exactly the same behaviour as you describe above, along with dropping weight, and was diagnosed with stomach ulcers. A course of Omeprozole, and then always insuring access to forage/hay and a low sugar/starch diet has kept them at bay since.
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My friends x racehorse was v similar and turned out to have ulcers, first thing I would check and I'm not one for jumping on the gastric ulcer bandwagon!!
 
Cortez said:
Horses don't naturally eat flax (linseed) either.........
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I would imagine horses would eat flax if they came across it, like they do lots of plants given the chance. I worry about beet pulp as it's a by product and well copra, I
once had a shed load of problems with cattle feed and the problem was copra. I'm not prepared to risk it with horses.

I'm not saying you're wrong to feed copra or SB, I just don't.
 
If it was my horse, I would be getting the vet out an asking for blood tests - doesn't matter if the vet doesn't think it's necessary, you can tell the vet what you want doing.
 
Also it could be lack of turn out, may take him back to being stabled 24hr less the training, my old boy use to box walk, so he was turned out every day no matter what the weather or how deep the mud or snow was and I've kept that up with all of my horses, I keep 2 paddocks for winter use so if they really get trashed they are reseeded in the spring, works well for me and I have 5 horses.
 
I have to say he sounds like an unhappy horse.

Weight loss + agressive behaviour could be symptoms of many things. The main areas I would explore:

1. A quick vet check for soundness, blood test to rule out underlying disease and a discussion about scoping for ulcers (the first 2 cheap and easy, the latter a bit more pricy). Also teeth check.
2. Reducing his stress / anxiety - is the yard set up to meet his needs? If not would he be better elsewhere?
3. Feeding - adlib high fibre high oil diet. Personally I'd remove any compound commercial feed. If you suspect ulcers then I'd stick to hay rather than haylage. It also might be worth adding something like protexin acid ease to his feed.
 
Thank you again for all the help. The stomach ulcers would explaine a lot even down to when he is reluctant to work. I think I will get the vet to check this first. If it's not that then I'll wait for the weather to cheer up and get back into some schooling might need more work and if not that ill address the feeding situation! Many thanks again everyone all been very interesting advice and comments x
 
Re comment about stopping feeding outshine and starting to feed linseed, I would only swap over after you have finished the bag! If you intend on feeding something high in calories.
 
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