Problem feeding the horse

[rachk89]

So of course my horse has to provide more issues haha. When it comes to feeding time, he gets way too excited and almost aggressive when getting his food, but his ears are never back and its not like he is being nasty. But he is scaring the girls at the yard, in particular the younger ones who help at the weekend. He half rears up a lot, kicks the door, lungs for the bucket and I have seen his front legs almost come over the top of the door. I am sick of this behaviour and I hate him scaring people.

I know its probably because he was rarely fed at his last home and now he is fed twice a day. I think he maybe worries that the next meal might be the last, we had a cat that went through the same thing as he was abandoned.

Now I could leave him alone and hope he gets over it but frankly it seems to be getting worse. Does everyone have any tips on how to get him behaving better? I am unfortunately rarely there when he is fed due to work, so it would need to be training I can do outside of normal feeding hours. He doesn't get many treats as I don't want him becoming aggressive with them either.

Thanks for any help.

 

[be positive]

The first thing is that the YO needs to ensure he is not fed by young girls who are possibly scared of him and may be contributing to his behaviour by backing off, shouting or rushing about trying to avoid him, he needs to be fed quietly by a competent person who will not be scared and can remain calm, they also need to feed him first so his excitement does not continue to escalate, if he was in my yard I would have his feed already made up and take it in with as little fuss as possible before starting to feed any others, or have tea ready in his box when he comes in from the field so he does not see it arrive that would take care of the pm feed situation.

Mornings I would expect him to be fed by yard staff before the kids arrive so that should be less of an issue, if there are people coming in at different times could you leave it ready outside his box covered up so whoever comes first can pop it in without making a fuss, is he getting enough exercise and turnout if not that could be why he is getting worse, also does he have plenty of hay to keep him occupied so he should not be too hungry for his feed.
I think as you cannot be there this needs to be dealt with properly by the YO before he causes an accident to someone or hurts himself, they do need to take it seriously and ensure he is only fed by someone competent and that although it may be a nuisance they must try and accommodate him to prevent it getting even worse.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I agree with be positive, having had more than 1 horse in the past which had been kept short of feed in previous homes. What is yours being fed?

One of mine had deveoped sensitivity to severa foods, which made her behaviour dreadful and deteriorating, just before meal times, until we changed her diet to foods that she could tolerate.

 

[rachk89]

Yeah gonna have to have a word with them. They think he will just get over it though but I ain't so sure. The kids get there at the same time as everyone else and they do love him so think they like feeding him in a way but don't like him trying to grab the bucket off them.

He is fed conditioning fibre and slow release conditioning cubes by Spillers as well as biotin garlic and mint supplements.

 

[be positive]

I would cut out the garlic as it may be that he is sensitive to it, it can be toxic and irritate their stomachs so he may have reason to be fractious.