Suspecting someone drugging your horse?

Prancer & Vixen said:
So you've had the horse for six months, started competing more two months ago and this was at the same time as the behaviour change. I suspect you may want to look a little closer to home before accusing someone no matter how petty and spiteful you think they are. It is more than probably that this change in behaviour has something to do with the horses increased fitness and workload or her actually competing more or a combination of both. I'm not saying do not suspect them, I'm saying rule out all other possible and more probable causes first. For example, you say you fed a mix, cereals don't go well with many horses and the feed itself could be the cause. It could be the winter and any relative routine change such as you upping the feed for winter or stabling the horse. Adding excess veg oil is not going to 'drug' a horse, it's slow release energy. Personally I would buy a lockable feed bin, strip the horse back to basics in the form of a orange based diet with no cereals. Lay off competing for a couple of weeks, probably just pootle out on some hacks and then reasses.
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She has had 3 weeks off recently due to an ill fitting saddle so no way is she even in hard work, yet her behaviour is still the same from when she was in work to off to back on. She is on Safe&Sound. I never said that durgging a horse could be veg oil I stated that they could be feeding or drugging her.
 
Tern said:
All saying that how can they feed her horse - Quite easy, when owner is not there they have their own buckets i guess due to having horses - make nice tasty high energy feed and voila. What are is her horse/her horses fed on?
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Thank you, competiton mix, chaff, sugar beet and lots of veg oil and I mean ALOT she showed me a month or so back...
 
I had my suspicions at the first yard I was on.
The facts were that I had a troubled start with my horse and then started to make real progress with him. I had a lot of trouble with a loony.......could go on for ever about her but its just the same old petty stuff you read on here all the time. The horse took a massive step backwards... but when I look back I was nt enjoying being around the yard at all. I moved the horse and he changed literally overnight... I was hacking out on my own within days.
I couldn t say for sure wether it was the fact that I was so much more relaxed or wether the said loony had played a part in it........ I will never know for sure. the point is if you really believe that your horse is kept somewhere where someone is capable of such things then you need to get away as soon as you can. I knocked on doors and found a new home less than a mile away. this was nearly four years ago and I feel totally confident that my horse is safe and happy in my absence.....and im calm and happy when I visit him. It makes such a difference to both my horse and myself.
 
One of my horses reacts to the sugar in carrots and if she has too many she gets very silly and spooky. I ways keep an eye on what she's eaten and how much exercise she's had so I can be prepared for any stupid behaviour. I had a problem when she was on livery as she was behaving really badly and I couldn't work out why. Turns out yard manager was feeding her carrots as my horse is headshy and she wanted to makes friends with her!!! It's amazing what 4/5 carrots can do to the behaviour of some horses.
 
I think you should listen to your instincts. A horse that arrived on my yard had a reputation for being hard to handle
a bit of a lunatic. Rearing up and boxing etc. But he was an angel on my yard from day one. Owner since found out that the yard owner at the last yard had been hitting him, making him wait until last to be turned out and then chasing him round his stable with a schooling whip and not letting him go out until he stood still at the back of his stable.
 
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