New Gelding Showing Food Aggression & Ridden Behaviour Changing

[ester]

You’ve got 10 acres, fence a sacrifice paddock.
Somerset levels clay 3.5 acres for 2 and we still managed daily all day turnout every winter and had far too much grass every summer and took a hay crop.
Your horse needs a daily routine (some days in some days out won’t be helping), turnout and company, the advantage of having them at home is that you can make sure they have all of that.

(And if truely ad lib hay don’t net it)

 

[Gloi]

We used to put 4 ponies out on a 5 acre field for winter and although it looked absolutely trashed when they moved to their summer field it always recovered enough to get hay off in summer.

 

[Goldenstar]

How ever muddy it is you must turn him out daily .
You really must get another horse as a priority.
Handle for safety and put all food in when the horse is out of the stable .
He needs time and company and a settled routine one of the reasons that routine was such a big part of old horse care is that it helps to calm horses in stressful situations .In the past life was stress for working horses .
Use all your effort to get that second stable ready fast.
The riding it’s hard advise you based on so little background but I would er on side of caution .
Lead the horse about for ten minutes before you get on ( another ancient horseman thing )if you judge you might fall because of the behaviour don’t ride him .
You need to be calm quiet and comfortable with him set yourself up to succeed in doing this .

You say he lacks condition and muscle don’t be tempted to feed him to much high energy food atm .

 

[Glitter's fun]

Hi Mel, some good advice here already. Can I just ask if you know what his previous life was like? (What his daily routine was, amount of work , turnout etc.) The steady horse you bought was a product of his then life. If you could replicate it you might get him back.

 

[meleeka]

If you don’t want to turn him out daily, you are unfortunately going to get behavioural issues, followed by ulcers etc. He’s stood still for 23 hours for over half the week, I’m not surprised he’s grumpy.

 

[Hallo2012]

in OP defense, i am in the NW too on proper orange clay and it wouldn't matter if i had 20 acres for my 2 ponies its been so deep it dangerous ....even on my rested fields with 2 foot of grass a person cant walk on it without sinking knee deep or slipping over its just like a sodden, tendon sucking, spongey mess. LOADS of grass but impossibly deep soil structure and i really look after mine too

can you create a turnout pen on an area of hard standing? mine have all weather pens for Jan/feb/march when he ground gets deep.

i think you need to be treating for hind gut ulcers (which you cannot scope for). I would use Abler sucralfate.
you need to be hand grazing on the days he cannot go out
totally 24/7 ad lib fibre, as well as hay i would provide soaked grass nuts and grass chaff in the stable
second opinion on saddle fit

get that companion asap

 

[Goldenstar]

I would not be self treating this horse for anything based on the information given .

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Thanks so much for all for the replys,

I turn him out as much as I can, obviously the weather has been horrendous and fields get very wet and boggy up here (Manchester) but I try my best to turn out atleast 3x a week as I think it's always best for them to 'chill out' and let off steam, and especially for him being a big Irish Sport horse.

I did have at the forefront of my mind that it could be him being on his own and can show in many different ways. It's our priority to get another one up here asap, I have someone waiting for us to be ready for them, so I'm hoping that will be within the next week (ideally). I hated him being alone but unfortunately, with a lot of things going on, it's just took so much longer than anticipated. @shanti that is interesting - I really hope he relaxes as much as that when they arrive! I do feel horrible. I did have someone come to meet us a couple of weeks ago from another yard to go for a hack and my god he bronked!! Like a rodeo! Later, realised the saddle (or numnah) had been rubbing on his back as coat was shiny on both sides of his spine, so put his behaviour then down to that (I did have the saddle fit too)....aswell as seeing another horse (mare) and maybe becoming very excited, along with rushing him to tack up - i think he's very sensitive, he hates a dandy brush!! Anything too hard & harsh, he hates. He also had an issue with his head/ears being touched initially, but with patient persistence, we are pretty much over that and he relaxes when gently grooming him and I get him resting his head on my shoulder! Completely different to 10mins before when feeding!

Everyone who meets him (out of the stable!) thinks he's a lovely horse and with great potential & I don't think he really wants to be that way in the stable if honest. When he works, he's amazing, and hacking nothing fases him - lorries, diggers etc he's not bothered in the slightest, I just don't want his behaviour when we mount/ set off riding at the minute to over shadow what could be, as obviously, the more times things happen, its knocking my confidence. The stable situation is not ideal, but we mitigate alot of that now with careful handling and routine.

I will do all I can to rule things out otherwise and get scoped again xx

I live just over the hill from you, we have 2 x16hh horses living out 24/7 on 3 acres.Yes it has been a very wet winter, we have a hard standing area of mud control mats which works well to give the horses an opportunity to avoid the mud. I would expect your land to support daily turn out for 1 horse, or you simply don't have enough land to keep horses at home.
If he has changed shape as you say since you got him, his saddle is very likely to be less comfortable.
He probably does have ulcers from the stress of the move and his new living conditions, so I would add Aloe Vera juice to his bucket feed to try to make him feel more comfortable until you can get your vet to rescope.
Can you get the companion home a bit sooner?

 

[Birker2020]

@Birker2020[/USER] the seperation anxiety is another issue on my mind! I really hope he doesn't get like that. If I do the above and then bring him back to company, and meet up with others to hack, I'm hoping it will give him more social situations so when the odd time we do hack alone, it's not too much of a big deal. We went to a combined training clinic a couple of weeks ago and I was a little worried how he would behave but wanted to get him out and see others. He was a star!! Even when other horses were bucking in the turnout pens he didn't react (which I know would have been absolutely understandable if he did!) and was fine with his hay and was just a normal, content horse. I have an instructor who comes to us x1 a week who knows whats happened, how he is in the stable and has helped to try and mitigate the ridden issues and when we have our lesson, she's always so impressed on how much he comes on in the week and how he works x

That sounds like a good plan to me. If you're not careful you will end up with another one to mitigate the problem. You say you have lots of grazing, maybe you could rent part of the acreage to some retired horse owners as grass livery only.
That way either horse will always have company. I know that's not as easy an option as it sounds, and you will probably need to get insurance and goodness knows what else but it might help short term.

I moved to a yard with Bailey in 2014 for 1.5 years and it had no winter turnout but a sandpit which consisted of a 40m x 20m sand post and railed fenced area separated down the middle with electric fencing. Two horses went out at a time, either side of the fencing for two hours a day, then another two and so on all through the day. They had a large haynet to eat, and could have a roll, a buck and a f*rt. Bailey had been used to being turned out for 7 or 8 hours a day in the winter at grass all her life but she adapted okay. Needs must. It was too dangerous to do grass turnout in the winter as the fields were peat and very very deep in the wet. I know its not ideal but having a sandpit and turnout all day or part of the day would be better than being stabled. To be honest, it was safer doing this than turnout, IMHO turnout on grass doesn't have to be the 'be all and end all' in the winter weather.

 

[Dam1]

Could you turn him out in the school daily with some hay if you feel the ground is too muddy ?
I have to do this in the very wet months as only have limited grazing on clay.

 

[MelJ0690]

Thanks all for the replies some of these are really helpful (some exactly a reason I'm not on a livery yard!) So I am taking the following steps:

1. He is moving next door on to a busy, private show jumping yard for the time being, to help him socialise and relax, he can go in the indoor and horse walker there (and turnout in my fields and use my arena other days).
2. Expedite the stable build, get the other horse up and see how things change with him
3. Pester my husband to create some winter turn out pens

Finally thanks to the replies from the more local people who understand the pain for wet, clay fields up north!

 

[Glitter's fun]

Glad you're getting on top of things.

Just for the record you're down south.

 

[Fransurrey]

I grew up in Bolton and the horses there got turned out every day of the year and yes, we were on clay. With 10 acres you're truly spoilt!!

The behaviour all screams ulcers to me, so it's good to read he's moving next door, but this will introduce more short term stress, so do make sure he has an ulcer friendly diet. Ad lib forage as bare minimum (I know you're doing that at home, but some livery yards won't do this routinely, so you need to make sure he has access at all times to something).

 

[blitznbobs]

This is just a recipe for disaster… next I’m sure he will have been ‘missold’

 

[Zoeypxo]

years ago i worked in a RS, they sold a nice little cob mare, a month or so later i received a message from new owner asking for help, mare is now bucking, bolting, wont leave the yard, galloping off in hand snapping lead ropes etc.. you name it. VERY out of character. I asked how she is keeping her , she says in a field on her own with no other horses in sight, she didn't know this was not right. After explaining why this wont work for her etc and convincing her to move to livery ASAP, horse immediately returns to quiet normal self once on a yard with others, as far as im aware she is still going now and no problems since.

Theres only a small percent of horses who can cope with being alone and im not surprised in your horses behaviour.
Hopefully he picks up once moved to the yard next door to you