new tb, reducing feed to fit workload

J

JLG

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Your thoughts please.
My new tb was doing more work in his previous home (he's an ex racehorse, had started being retrained and now I've got him). He was worked for up 1.5 hours a day whereas at present I'm managing 40 minutes max daily of very light work.
I kept his feed the same for a couple of weeks but I'm currently feeding low sugar, low starch. He is quite sharp and a bit spooky and I'm not sure yet if this is just him still settling in and basically being a baby as far as being a riding horse is concerned, or if the feed is contributing. He feels like an unexploded bomb at times although to be fair the only thing he has done was tank off once on the lunge when he didn't want to go on his stiff side.
He is a bit skinny but I am not bothered about that just now. He has about 4 - 5 hours of turnout on very poor grazing a day - this will increase when the weather improves and the ground dries up and is well-rugged.
I changed him to Fast Fibre and Hi Fi molasses free with ad lib farm haylage but as yet (3 weeks in) I'm not noticing a change for the better. The haylage is poor quality but the hay is much worse so I didn't really want to start soaking hay if I can avoid it. He was on haylage at his previous place.
Do I just cut out all but a handful of bucket feed for now or does anyone have any better suggestions, thank you.
 
I wouldn't have thought the hifi and fast fibre would make him silly I would be looking at the haylage especially if his getting as much as he wants, I have Arabs they are hot bloods like the tb and they can get silly on rich haylage, I have managed to source some light haylage which is hay but without the dust and about the same as hay in a nutritional sense, if I were you I would switch over to hay and see if he settles down, being out only 4 or 5 hours could also not be helping mine are out in winter for at least 8 hours a day any less and I too would have hyper horses when ridden.

sorry I have just red the end of your post again about the hay if whatever the farm is offering is not suiting your horse can you not buy your own, you could then buy some decent hay that may not need soaking.
 
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Thank you for that. He only wants to be out for a few hours - I think that's probably what he was used to previously. The grazing is rubbish and its really muddy so they get bored fairly quickly at the moment and want to be in. I'd rather he came in than being bossed around at the gate when they all start getting fractious. He got mud fever very quickly when he arrived so I'm keen for him not to be standing out in it for longer than necessary.
We can't buy in our own bedding or hay/haylage so it looks like I will have to try soaked hay for a few weeks instead.
 
JLG said:
Thank you for that. He only wants to be out for a few hours - I think that's probably what he was used to previously. The grazing is rubbish and its really muddy so they get bored fairly quickly at the moment and want to be in. I'd rather he came in than being bossed around at the gate when they all start getting fractious. He got mud fever very quickly when he arrived so I'm keen for him not to be standing out in it for longer than necessary.
We can't buy in our own bedding or hay/haylage so it looks like I will have to try soaked hay for a few weeks instead.
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I totally understand you not wanting to leave him out in that situation when they get bored they often start hurting each other, I would try some of the hay for now because of the turnout situation then you might find when his out more he will be okay on the haylage, or maybe cut the haylage back and replace with the hay so his only getting a small ration of it.
 
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