Need feeding advise to calm mare

[mollywestern]

Need some feeding advise for bringing my mare back into work...

17hh 5 year old Irish sports horse mare. Recently had the all clear from a fractured splint bone and I've just began brining her back into work. Taking things very slow, just leading her around the yard at the moment gradually building her up. Should be able to start riding in about 6-8 weeks. She's currently on ready mash extra, chaff & linseed oil and has haylage.

She's proving to be very fresh, throwing herself about & very nervous (everything wants to eat her) which is understandable after 5months box rest.

Is there anything anyone can recommend feed wise that would help calm her and take the edge off her a little bit but put/keep weight on her. The vets have recommended Sedalin but I can't be giving her that all the time, and it takes at least half a tube to even take an effect on her. I've also been recommended that equine America has something called so-Kalm (I think) but what's people's thoughts?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Well I would take her off haylage [or soak haylage], and source some medium quality stalky hay [no dust of course], let her have this ad lib, add some minerals.
I would not worry too much about lack of condition as you can build this up as she comes back in to work.
Feeding magnesium might help too, but you need something like Fast Fibre as a carrier, I think you are using mash to build condition and it is giving her too much energy, so I would stop that for 2 weeks and substiture FF, see if that works. you MUST remove all sugars and replace with fibre.
Use 2-5 ml Sedalin when you take her out if she is going to hurt herself, but maybe try long reining and do something a bit more interesting than walking round the yard, where she might hurt herself if she falls. I would also think about light support bandaging of cannon bones, not tight, just for support and only for a few weeks.
I know it is a risky period, so make sure she has knee boots [Westrop are easy to use], you should have a hat and gloves and she should be on a long lead and a bridle.
Can you take her in the arena to do some walking over poles, I really do not fancy walking a fresh animal on a concrete yard with no option to get her on to grass/a surface. six weeks before she can be ridden seems a long time if the splint bone is healed, but obviously the vet knows what is happening.
Take the shoes off so she won t slip on the road or in yard.

 

[D66]

I think you need some help with groundwork, not saying that food isn't an issue, but if her attention is on you as it should be she won't be looking for things to spook at. Michael Peace is expensive but good, or you might find someone locally.
Good Luck.

 

[milos]

Try some magnesium and replace mash with fast fibre. Avoid any alfa oil chaff. I'd just feed the fast fibre to mine coming off box rest. If they are fussy eaters you can get some peppermint flavouring from the baking section in the supermarket and add a few drops to the water you add to the fast fibre. Always wear hat n gloves ! A control head collar or bridle.

 

[Jazmyn101]

I'm pretty much in the same situation my horse has just recovered from a fracture sesamoid. She can come back into work after 6 and a half months! She is definately not the calmest, before she was on alfa a oil, pasture mix and molassed sugar beet which sounds crazy as she must have been getting so much energy. I have no changed her to spillers cool fibre (non molassed chaff with magnesium in it) , top spec cool balancer and magnesium powder. I have been giving my mare Sedalin to put her out in the field and definately will be using it when she starts to do done work, I wouldn't say it really works but it helps very slightly.

 

[Orangehorse]

Ask the vet for recommendation for sedation. Mine was a complete nightmare after box rest a few years ago. Sedalin soon stopped working and he was so dangerous I had to send him to a rehab yard. They had similar problems (so I wasn't feeble whimp after all!). Like yours, the vet said my horse should be doing an hours steady work, before turning him out. (They missed the rearing and bucking down the lane and the galloping round on the end of the lead rope! And this on sedalin.)

On the vet's recommendation the YO gave him bromide, a white powder. BUT, BUT, BUT the first day my horse stopped eating and the YO was up for hours at night trying to get him to eat something in case he got colic. He was OK, but the vet said in the morning "Oh, yes, it can do that to some horses." Thanks vet.

So the story is, obviously the horse has to be VERY closely supervised to see how he reacts. The amounts are tiny, by the time he came home he was on 1/2 teaspoon per day. I didn't give him any, as he was back in work and back to his normal routine by then.

 

[Rosesandhorses]

I have been in your position as well! It is so hard to keep them sane and sensible when they are kept in 24/7 and the most interesting part of their day is walking with you. Mine used to fly buck next to me which was less than desirable! The Ready Mash Extra I would say is largely responsible for her being as high as a kite- I have fed it to my retired ponies before and even they were fizzed up on it! If she needs condition then you are right with the oil and I would have a look at what chaff you are giving- if it is chop this could also be adding excitement. Basically anything sugary with high starch levels is a no go. Fast fibre is great but if she needs condition you could try Calm & Condition (Allen & Page) but start with a small amount and build up in case this goes to her head. I also had the issues with Sedalin and found Valerian to be very useful. This is a natural product which you will have to search online for- it's fairly cheap but not widely available as its competition banned- I think I got my last lot from Robinsons. I used to walk in a bridle with a lunge line so I could get myself out the way and a full set of boots on my TB and always wore a hat with gloves- there were moments this saved me from injury. I hope this helps x