Tiger oats, red cell, instant response or nothing?

J

Jingleballs

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My horse is Mr chilled – both at home and at competitions. He never gets fizzy, rarely spooks or makes any attempt at moving unless asked. When he jumps, he applies the minimum effort required to clear the jump and no more.

That said, he’s not a plod and is actually quite forward going and quick off the leg and is capable of a good turn of speed if he feels like it.

He’s reasonably fit at the moment and did his first 2’6 HT at the weekend and barely broke sweat. He’s worked between 4 – 6 times a week doing a mix of everything including some fast hacking/interval training.

He can be very lethargic in the summer when it’s milder – it doesn’t even need to be that warm and he’s puffing and panting after a few minutes and I’ll often not jump him on a warm day as it’s so much hard work to get him going and he tires so quickly (he was fully clipped in February but will probably get done again shortly).

I’m working hard to get him as fit as possible as I want to do some ODE’s this year – just a couple of unaffiliated 2’6 classes with the aim of maybe attempting a BE80 towards the end of the summer.

Now part of me loves his laid back attitude at competitions – it often helps me keep calm because he’s so Zen like! He stands in the warm up or even the start box and will happily go for a snooze but sometimes I think he’d benefit from a bit of a pick me up to give him more energy and stamina – this especially worries me when it comes to ODE’s where he’ll probably do his dressage, think he’s finished for the day and go for a nap.

That said, I don’t want to pump him full of heating foods if it’s going to change his laid back personality and create “false enthusiasm” if that makes sense? I’m just wondering if there is something I can give him that will just perk him up a bit without turning him into a toddler after a tube of smarties!

He’s currently fed happy hoof + fast fibre with his multi purpose vitamins and I’ve had various suggestions such as red cell, tiger oats or just to feed him instant response mix in the few days prior to a competition. Or do I just accept that my horse has a nonchalant attitude to life in general and just because I get excited/worked up about a competition doesn’t mean he has to?
 
My Monty was on the laid back side, I used to feed him bruised oats the week running up to shows and that worked fine for him. Jack I tried a few things with - slow release response, quick release response, power cubes then finally a special racehorse mix that YO gets in for his pointers. The racing mix actually kept him more level headed than the quick response did! I'm sure someone on here (maybe Baydale? Def one of the proper eventers, sorry Baydale if it wasn't you!) used something recently that got serious rocket powered results - can't quite remember what it was called though...

Tell you what, you can have some of Bonzo's excess energy - little beggar tried to put me into orbit last night and he only gets half a scoop of cool mix and half a scoop of beet twice a day!
 
I wouldn't recommend changing his feed the last few days before an event, as it can cause him to become unsettled!

I would try something like power and performance, Baileys no.16 or Spillers slow response, all of which should help give long lasting sustainable energy.

Baydale uses Propell Plus (Equine America!) which gives a really good pick up, and can be a bit like rocket fuel ;)
 
I like the idea of only feeding something in the week before a competition as I don't think he needs it for day to day work. I did try power and performance before with some results but you had to feed loads of it and C is such a good doer that I was worried about him piling on the pounds!

Will happily take some of Bonzo's excess energy although you know you love pingy, hyper ponies really! :D
 
I'd be interested to know the answer to this too. Babybear you could have described my boy to a T! We've been having problems on the XC phase at ODEs and I swear half of it is because he's exhausted after his dressage and SJ and can't be bothered to go XC!!
 
I used Propell Plus on a cob I had on loan, just for a few days while we were at camp and she was getting over a chest infection - my word, does that stuff work! She turned into a lean, mean, turbobread machine!! Didn't turn her silly, just full of beans, and I loved it!

So, I would recommend PP, but it's probably worth trying it out for a few days at home first, just in case your chap does turn into a loon.

ETS: When I say 'getting over a chest infection', she was fully recovered and the vet cleared her to go to camp and suggested the PP - just in case anyone thinks I was irresponsibly doping a sick horse!
 
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black_n_white said:
I'd be interested to know the answer to this too. Babybear you could have described my boy to a T! We've been having problems on the XC phase at ODEs and I swear half of it is because he's exhausted after his dressage and SJ and can't be bothered to go XC!!
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Yip that's what worries me. We did a mini ODE last year - just SJ then XC, we got 3/4's of the way round the XC and I could feel him flagging and eventually he just stopped and didn't want to go any more (although after we retired and walked for 5 minutes he woke up again and flew the last jump and galloped for home).

I might try the propell plus - I'd obviously not use it for a substitute for fitness but I think just having that extra spark might help him be more up for the XC!
 
You don't need to feed P+P at high rates at all, the lowest recommended amount for my mare is 600g a day, which is nothing! It can take a while for the horses body to adjust to using oil as a energy source, hence why feeding it short term won't give the best effect :)
 
Babybear said:
Will happily take some of Bonzo's excess energy although you know you love pingy, hyper ponies really! :D
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I don't mind the pinging when it's over fences, I do however object when it's massive pinging bucks up the long side of the school cos I dared to squeeze a bit too hard...

Seems that I was right about it being Baydale, and now I know what the stuff's called! It sounds like it might be a good thing to try out anyway, will be interested to hear how you get on with it - nothing more fun than a buzzy cobby type!
 
ive tried roll oats
tiger oats and naked oats
the only thing these did was made him spooky

let us know what you try & the results!
x
 
I would definately review your actual fitness routine first and be really honest about how much work your horse is doing. Also a more heavily built horse will need to do more interval training than say a TB and are much harder to get "wind fit". My old TB x mare could keep her event fitness easily, my ISH (who seemed to have a larger dose of ID in him) was a lot harder to get and keep fit. One of the earlier posters mentioned her horse running out of energy half way round. While feed could help, I would also attribute that to a lack of fitness. (not being offensive, just saying it as I see it) As an example a friend of mine has a purebred Connie competing at Intro. He is worked 6 times a week with a mix of hacking/interval/some flat and jumping but she can't run him on any less than that as he just would not be fit enough. He also has more problems maintaining his fitness than the pure young TB on our yard also preparing to go out eventing.

Feeding a horse a "one off " feed is not a good idea either. It takes upto 2 weeks for a horse to assimilate enough of the "good bacteria" to be able to get the value from the food so its not helping. Also mixing around with different foods for short periods of time can also open you upto colic.

Propel Plus - I used it on my mare when I first got her because her immune system was so poor (having had a foal taken off her) and she picked up every sneeze and virus on the yard. Worked wonders on her but when she was actually well again, it made her a little OTT. I have seen some other liveries try it and its great but all found their horses too fired up once they were back to normal health so I would advise using it with caution!
 
Your horse can have some of my horses jumping beans if you like!!
I swear mine stays fit just walking around the field lol. He likes to lull me into a false sense of security by being nice and normal at home and then at comps right now he's yeee haaaa! Mine won't get tired lol, bloody thing is like a duracell bunny.

What I can recommend if mine is anything to go by a good dose of spring grass aka rocket fuel :p.

In all seriousness it's probably fitness. 4 days a week isn't hard work and will only sustain current fitness not improve on it. 6 is better but you need do a mixture of slow stamina and short bursts of high intensity work. Maybe ride 2 times a day every now and again to simulate an event? Go for a long slow hack in the morning and then jump or take him for a blast round the fields in the afternoon. I sometimes ride twice a day :).
 
I have tried PropellPlus a number of times and have had the same results every time even on different horses.

Both of mine are quite forward going but at various times over the years they have been a bit under the weather so I used it as a pick me up. I bought a large bottle initially so had some left after the 1st 'treatment' which is why I used it a few times.

Let's just say if I had used the bottle up after the 1st course I'd never have bought it again - the poster on here who said it's like rocket fuel obviously saw the results on mine too :D

Unfortunately it made both of mine spooky, and I mean VERY spooky. We couldn't even walk up the road without leaping, spinning etc etc. Yes it gave them more energy but not the sort of energy I wanted!
 
I absolutely agree that getting him fit is the top priority. I try to work him every day and give him one day off but due to work and other commitments (and the horrid weather we've had) it's not always feasible but I do try my best.

I'm working on a fitness plan at the moment and have ordered some Power & Performance to start him on next week so hopefully this and being fitter will help.
 
I posted a similar post a few days ago and am now trying the Spillers Instant Energy mix - wonder if it will make any difference - just gradually introducing it at the minute but so far no difference!
 
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