Personality change - spring grass?

Kirstineridesagain

Kirstineridesagain

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My lovely mare has had a personality change. I noticed it on Sunday - while leading her up to the yard on the grassy field she started to get more and more wired. She ended up running round me in circles, rearing and breathing like a dragon. Once we got off the grassy field and back on the stone track, she was her usual self (not a complete bombproof plod, but forward and fairly relaxed). Had a lovely hack and my eight-year-old rode her (on a lead rein) for the rest of the hack.

Then yesterday I hacked out on my own. Went along the stony track and she was nappy. Still managed to convince her to move. She stopped regularly but we kept going. Then she felt like she was going to rear or spook and I got off to lead her. After a few metres she had completely calmed down, to the extent that she just stopped. I spent 30 minutes moving about 100 metres. I then gave up and turned round. Complete mood change of course, she nearly bolted off once but I stopped her. Still managed some trotting and tolting and ended on a good note.

This morning the weather was amazing, but a bit more wind so I thought she’d be feeling a bit more eager to move. No. Today I couldn’t even move her feet after tacking up. After 10-15 minutes of trying all directions I picked up a small stick from the ground and she did start moving when I waved it at her bum
(I have never needed to use one before). We walked up the woods and she was okay, then when we got to a grassy field she went a bit nuts again. So before it escalated I took her back down the woods (this route is along fields - we’ve been doing it since Christmas) and back at the track the only place she was going was back to her field. I’d run out of time by now so I took her back.

Now I’m feeling very deflated. I don’t have riding company in the week days so I’ve been working on going out on my own and only last week we had a fantastic hack. She is usually so easy to work with, sensitive and forward, our main thing has been that she can get stressed in new places but never that she won’t move.

I’m giving her a few days off and can ride her in company this weekend, but how long does this spring grass-itis last normally - until autumn?!
 
By the way, she lives out with the rest of the herd, the field they’re in now is pretty churned up, overgrazed and boggy, they have ad-lib haylage. They’ll be moving fields soon.
 
Please be very careful with thrifty native sorts on UK spring grass - can you muzzle your ponies?
It's high in potassium and proteins as well as sugar so can make their guts feel a bit gripey as well as the laminitis risk, have you noticed a change in the consistency of their droppings?
 
Little update, I think the mystery has been solved. The hoof trimmer discovered a recently healed, small abscess - I think that explains the issue with going forward a few weeks ago. She’s now back to her normal, forward self, and today I tried her on the grassy field again, and no stressy behaviour! Fingers crossed we can keep going on grassy bits as I don’t love keeping to toads and stony tracks. Will keep an eye on her hooves, it’s been tricky to spot stuff with all the mud but the field is drying out a tiny bit so hopefully there will be an end to the deep mud soon.

Hoof trimmer remarked that she looked very well and slimmed down, so that was nice to hear.

The rest of the herd are all doing well - one colt gelded a few weeks ago, the other one tomorrow. Still haven’t weaned them. They are adorable and so friendly. My Highland mare is lovely too, but not enjoying being groomed. It’s probably not something she’s used to, but as she’s grey she will need to get used to it and hopefully will enjoy it (her son certainly does!).

Backing the Highland mare soon, that will be exciting. She’s had a saddle on and we take her out on in-hand hacks regularly, she seems pretty unflappable but she’s also quite strong so we will have to work on getting her to understand our signals a bit better. She’s brave and stoic and loves to eat - hopefully she’ll enjoy having a rider.

As for me, I finally managed to lose a bit of weight through sheer hard work and physical activity. Lots of walking with the horses (my children and husband frequently steal my horse so I have to walk), poo picking and also walking our new puppy. He’s a Sprocker Spaniel so full of beans. He comes on hacks sometimes and the horses don’t mind him at all, and he’s managed to avoid being trampled on so far…
 
this is how my gelding was and he ended up having grade 4 ulcers! he would literally plant for ages and when I would keep asking him to walk on he would get more and more cross with me and it would eventually end in a rear, but if I turned him around to go home he would go no problem!

he has however, been very grass sensitive since the ulcers and he can get very unhappy being groomed if he's on too much grass, so I have to keep him restricted all year and feed him hay instead
 
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