Managing a moody mare in winter

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tlhow

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Any advice welcomed!! I am currently in my 3rd winter with my 12 yr old IDxTB mare. She is a dream in the summer months, loves work and we successfully evented last season and both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! The first winter I had with her was great, we competed on weekends during the winter months with no issues. However last winter and this winter she has been unmanageable. Although she will reluctantly hack out, I cannot work her in the school, not on the lunge or ridden. She bucks and rears when asked to do anything in the sand arena. Her back and teeth etc have all been checked, so it's just come down to her changing temperament in the winter months. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm struggling to cope with her and wondering if it's all worth it. Can anyone suggest a coping strategy? The only change feed wise is the addition of speedy-beet in the winter which I have currently cut back out to see if it helps calm her down. HELP!!!
 
I have found speedy beet can change a horse that much. Last year my yo insisted on feeding it to my horse and he became a 'fruit loop'! Utterly bonkers and in the end I just stopped riding him for 4 months.
This year I am in total control of their feed and he has stayed his sane sensible calm self! It was the only thing added/changed so it was obviously this causing the problem!
 
She's mostly out in the day and in at night during the winter. My only problem is that there are only 2 horses on the yard together so if she stays out she's on her own and then spends all the time hanging round at the gate stressing out!

I will try cutting out the speedy beet completely. Just out of interest TandD - what do you feed in the winter?

Thanks for comments! I'm so on the edge I'm considering selling her but when I look at our pics of eventing I remember how good she is in the summer!
 
well you could be talking about my mare. she is a dream to handle and hack in the summer but as soon as she is in at night she gets very stressy. i cant have her out 24/7 in winter as yard doesnt allow it, also same as you there are only 2 of us and them other person likes their horse in at night in winter and mine wont stay out on her own so i cant even leave her out a bit longer. mine canters out of the stable in the morning!!!!!! as she is nearly 23 i dont think she will change. good luck with yours. i feed fast fibre instead of speedibeet.
 
Yep, my lovely calm ex riding school mare has turned into a fruit loop this winter, finding schooling very difficult as her mind is always in the field. It's our first winter together and at first I was horrified but my instructor assures me this is common.

She is also on speedibeet as she dropped weight during a growth spurt, but am considering taking her off it.
 
webble said:
Is she in season?
Click to expand...

No - she's not in season, she's literally the same from November to spring! I wonder if it's because of less work but it's a catch 22 because I can't ride because of weather/lack of light in winter and she's getting less work. But then when I can ride she refuses to do anything anyway!!!
 
I also had her ovaries checked last year to see if there was anything hormonal affecting her behavior - but apparently that's all normal!
 
tlhow said:
She's mostly out in the day and in at night during the winter. My only problem is that there are only 2 horses on the yard together so if she stays out she's on her own and then spends all the time hanging round at the gate stressing out!

I will try cutting out the speedy beet completely. Just out of interest TandD - what do you feed in the winter?

Thanks for comments! I'm so on the edge I'm considering selling her but when I look at our pics of eventing I remember how good she is in the summer!
Click to expand...

We are currently on once a day
1/2 round scoop of bran
1 whole round scoop of mollichaff
1 cup of balieys outshine
1 cup of balancer
Either 1 small scoop of nuts or sustain depending on current work.

In the morning we just get handful of nuts and chaff

Ad lib haylage

This is a 7/8 tb, who can seriously drop weight very quickly. This is keeping him very well currently but have found that fibre and oil, rather than high quick release energy like protein etc does him better and keeps him much more level headed! The more fibre I feed the better he looks and works!

Edit.....he does get an uncomfortable stomach through winter as he is a stress head and he really isn't a wet weather horse (he regularly tells me that he should live in the south of France!) but this year this diet has helped enormously along with some baileys digest.
 
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Hay or haylage ? long shot but haylage is acidic and might be upsetting her gut.

I have a cob who is much nicer to ride on good hay rather than haylage.
 
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