My horse has gone nuts!

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LansdownK310

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I’ve had my rising 5 year old for 3 months now. He’s 7/8th TB and was a bit ribby when he came to me. Over this time I’ve gradually increased his workload and turnout (he’s gone from hacking 2/3 times a week and turnout for a couple of hours a week to working 6 days and turnout 8 – 5). He’s looking much better with a really glossy coat and is building muscle.

Mum saw him at the weekend – she hasn’t seen him for a couple of weeks and was surprised that he still doesn’t have a good enough covering over his ribs. So on her suggestion, we trawled round the tradestands at Badminton speaking to the feed companies and have a selection of samples to try. On Friday I also I started feeding him a small breakfast of high fibre cubes and mollichaff calmer (he usually has this for his tea with carrots, oil and pink powder) and a sprinkling of baileys no 4 to try.

Basically the last two days he’s gone nuts. Sunday he behaved really badly for my friend out to the field and was rearing at spooky objects which is unlike him. Last night he spent the whole time galloping round on the lunge snorting. So no breakfast this morning… although friend text me earlier saying that he was galloping like a lunatic round on his own whilst everything else was grazing.

I’m wondering whether it is because of the extra food but there isnt really much in the fibre cubes or the chaff (he was on this with previous owner but I've just upped amounts in line with his work and added oil) and I’m concerned that a handful of the baileys can have that much of an impact!
 
Might be worth looking through some of the old posts on here about sugar/something else intolerant horses. Some react like anything to even small amounts.

Having said that...
- spring grass
- being new (something like e.g. a shoot, muck spreading near by, etc, etc that might not upset the longer term residents might still bother him?)
 
Food has an immediate and extreme impact on horses. My bet would be that there is something in his new fed which is upsetting him, for example R goes loopy on barley and even a small amount is enough to set him off. If he were mine I would go back to his previous feeding regime and wait 3-4 days for everything to get out of his system. Pink Powder is very good for putting on weight without fizzyness, but also with all the grass coming through at the moment you may find you really don't need anything else.
 
Thanks - yes I've already reverted back to his original regime today and we'll see how he goes.

Maybe I'll give Baileys a ring to find out what he could have reacted to - he's only gone nuts the day after feeding him the sample.

Grass hasn't really changed much here given the heat we've had and the ground is like concerte. Once we get a bit of rain I expect it'll shoot up and his dropppings haven't changed much to indicate a change in grass.

I read about the pink powder on here and he definetly has improved on it but still not enough!
 
My horse goes completely crackers on any standard horse and pony nut or high fibre cubes. If you read the ingredients many of them are actually based on oats and barley... You'll notice many of them do not advertise the ingredients and they wont be found on websites etc only in teeny tiny print on little labels stuck to the bag!! Mine now gets Top Spec Cool Condition cubes which I totally recommend. He looks amazing and has a brain!!
 
Deffo sounds like a food allergy/ sugar intolerance. It should wear off soon, but it sounds pretty scary. I would suggest going for something very low starch and sugar, and just adding a tiny bit a day to see how it goes down.

Hope it settles down, sm xx
 
Sounds very much like the spring grass has gone to his head!

Fast growing grass has a low magnesium level and more often than not makes horses spooky and sensitive. Sometimes called grass tetany as it has similar symptoms as tetanus.

Try feeding him this mix twice daily while the grass is grwing fast.

1 level Tablespoon each
Epsom Salts (Magnesium) calms the muscles
Baking Soda - reduces acidity levels in the gut
Yeast - absorbs any mycotoxins in the system
Dried Thyme - a general blood cleanser

Try to give one dose about 1½-2 hrs before a ride as the Epsom Salts is metabolised fast.

This is an old NZ Stockmans recipe - Works far better than the commercial preparations.
 
Thanks for the help and comments, back to the normal feeding regime now and he's back to normal - definetly something in the food.

Did a bit of research into the baileys cubes and they are high in starch 26 - 28% most of the conditioning feeds are comparable to this so will give a few companies a call to see what they suggest!
 
It's a tb thing!

My tb is fed all year fast dried short chop grass (such as Graze-On, Readigrass etc) with high fibre nuts. When he needs extra weight he gets added vegetable oil. He also gets ad-lib hay more than he could ever eat, at night.

This has kept the weight on him all though winter and even over spring with no grass and a very increased work load, now we have a little grass I've stopped the oil.

He is also fed on Magnesium Oxide as he's barefoot and sugars in the grass effect his feet.

My horse's nemesis is speedibeet!!!
 
My TB also needs to put weight on, but won't eat a 'proper' meal. She gets 1 x Baileys no 6, 1 x mug lo cal and 1/2 x chaff twice a day plus 24/7 turnout. She is fine on this as the no 6 is a slow release energy especially for endurance horses.
 
Try a cereal free balancer (I use Top Spec) just for condition. I am very wary of all molassed feeds (which includes mollased chaffs). For condition how about Baileys outshine & go for oils rather than cereals?
 
Yes, Bailey's No 4 is wheat-based, so quite high in starch, which might explain his changed behaviour. As others have said, now the grass is through he might put on more condition even if you keep him on the high fibre cubes he is on now. If not, and you want something a little more calorific than high fibre cubes, you could look at Spiller's Response Slow Release Cubes, which are really like high fibre cubes with a higher oil content, and therefore a higher calorie value, yet only 2% more starch than the Spiller's High Fibre Cubes.
 
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