Wise HHO'ers i need your help! please please please!

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kez1001

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Just to warn anyone reading before i start, i ramble and go off topic constantly, kettle on to read this :D

SO i am running out of solutions!! posted a couple of days agao in veterinary forum to ask for advice on sugar intolerance as i think my mare has this, it seem the only explanation for her behaviour or is it or is it me????

We completed our first BE event two weeks ago, long time coming, my horse is a TB exracer chesnut mare and a tricky madam to say the least but when shes good shes really good but when shes bad..... :(

So every year we have a spell at start of summer around may (usually when her turnout was previously increased to 24hrs) where she becomes a complete buzz bomb to ride and very spooky, grumpy and completely ignores you! I had posted before about this and got some very good advice (you are all so wise on here!) about reducing her turnout time and a mg supplement.

So we moved yards to a place where she only gets out for around 6 hours and we started mg supplement and she seemed to be going great, back to normal "winter pony mode" :D as already mentioned working towards first BE event and all going good, if anything she was quite lazy on the flat in particular! Fed winergy senior 2kg and pro feet as feet rotten!

All going well til last monday! had day off after ODE and had a nice calm hack the next day then into the arena on wednesday, a bit distraccted but ok. thursday schooling again not too bad, friday sat sunday very very very hot to ride, shooting off not letting me put leg on and being a general PITA! So noticed droppings were slighlty cow pat like on sunday and thought yeh i know whats wrong, so started mg supplement again on sunday(had stopped as behaviour was so imporved!) and started pink powder for her guts and also as it has selenium and vit E in it! gave her monday off and contacted winergy to review feeding, and they said for her workload not to change anything, also phoned nupafeed and they said to give a couple of big loading doses but shouldnt take much.

Today droppings normal, good! Rode in school and disaster, distracted fizzy and generally not doing as she is told, thought to myself its ok i have all day (and to be fair i am very patient with her) but today she broke my patience i could feel myself getting so mad as she just wouldnt listen so i got off and put her away, then promptly burst into tears :( two weeks ago i was over joyed with her and now i feel like we are literally back 3 years to when i got her, i'm so frustrated! Her saddle and teeth etc have all been checked. i originally thought she was just pleased with herself after going xc but now i have another event next weekend and think i will withdraw :(

So for those who got this far (very well down have some chocolate brownie with that cuppa!) does anyone have any advice for me? should i restrict her grazing further? cut out any hard feed? send her to glue factory? :rolleyes: (i'm kidding, well maybe! ;) ) my next thought was to get vet to do bloods? she can be grumpy to groom and tack up (has always been this way but is slightly worse in summer) and i thought she might be a gastric ulcer candidate but would that cause these behaviour changes so quickly? She looks well, weigh tape at 540kg.

Help ???????? please :)
 
Is it related to her seasons? My mare gets like this in the summer and I put it down to grass,sun and her seasons = feel good factor. Sorry no help but hope you get to the bottom off it
 
i dont think so but you might be right she makes me feel like i have PMT at the moment!

she isnt a particuarly mareish mare but i suppose that is the other thing i could look into thanks for replying :)
 
Sorry Kez, no wise words of wisdom, but don't withdraw from Drumclog. Even if you are up all night lunging the little madam into submission, you have to go. You were deflated and feeling under-prepared for Strathallan and look at how well you did. Plus I have to meet you both properly!!!

Seriously though, it might be worth speaking to your vet - they may be able to run some bloods and poss scan her ovaries. M used to be such a b!tch; I could never catch her and she would frequently bite and kick out as well as bucking and temper tantrums. Each spring I would have a nightmare 4 weeks or so when she would try and deck me as soon as I got on, and would be so spooky and tense to ride she was like an unexploded bomb. It was all down to hormones and I did have her on Regumate which made a massive difference. This last year she seems to have settled down and is a nice 'person' to be around. She's a completely different kind of beastie to Izzie though, and I freely admit to knowing nothing about sugar intolerence.

p.s. at least your pony goes forwards *rollseyes*
 
I would stop the hard feed for a week and see what happens. We had a mare who was intolerant to most things! :eek:The problem is that they can develop new ones, or ones which are not as obvious become more so when you remove the most obvious, if that makes sense. As a result of many animals (and people!) having food intolerances at our place (no idea why we collect them!) we now look at that before anything else. We feed grass nuts to just about everything, with no added cereal or sugar, this seems to work wonders for just about any horse, except the oldies, who do get more. Good luck
 
Are you sure nothing food wise has changed like a new delivery of haylage or even hay?

The chestnut in my siggie (yup a chestnut mare) would turn from sharp but OK into a complete and utter spooking lunatic if the composition of the haylage changed. In the end I put her on blue horsehage as it was consistent quality (she couldn't have hay as it made her cough)

Anyway just a thought
 
tinkandlily - you are definately wise lol :D i really do question my sanity sometimes :rolleyes:

davieismycat - i will still come to drumclog and cheerlead! Seriously though i think i might get her bloods checked, the vet is in my yard quite often as the BS coaches wife's horse has a nasty injury so he comes to see it quite often so will maybe nab him at next visit and ask? it would also show if she is really deficient in mg or i am just pouring £££ down her throat for fun! interestingly apparently with mareish problems (according to google!) they get worse with age flipping heck!
do you feed regumate all year? at the risk of sounding really stupid can they have irregular cycles like people? just thought if it was her hormones it would happen more often?? but if it only effected M in spring then... fingers crossed! OH is supposed to be helping me at BS show this weekend as prep for drumclog, hehe! hows your prep going? :)
 
yorksg - i'm stopping the hard feed will syringe the supplements in to her! why o why do we pick such tricky horses eh?

oldmare - the haylage is different!!!! i was questioning YO because it was this years stuff apparently??? she had been on it for a few weeks though before the behaviour started but??? you never know, it is very fresh almost like hay, trying very hard to remember when the new haylage came! wonder if i soaked it if that would help.? try get some richness out!

thanks again for replies :)
 
Just a thought but has she ever been to parties before? Could she just be totally overwhelmed and excited like many youngsters when they first go hunting; first time is fine but then they are on hot springs imagining they're going again every time you take them out. Only way to improve her attitude is to make her buckle down to work, don't give in to her and ride her through it I think.
 
The oestrus cycle is 21days on average. M was particularly wild in the spring around the time of her first season of the year, but was bad to catch all summer so had a few summers with her on Regumate. I used the porcine one off licence as it was lots cheaper, but not sure you could get away with that now, with medicines laws being tightened up. M is deffo getting better the older she gets, she's almost pleasant these days! ;) That said, this year (her first living out 24/7, and after moving up to Scotland in November) she came into season in February, and has more or less been in every couple of weeks since. I'm choosing to ignore this fact since her behaviour has been so much better!

It could be the haylage by the sounds of things.

Reeeeeally hope things settle down so I get to see you both at Drumclog. :)
 
maesfen - no she has been out to parties before but to be fair it was her first party this year (moved house and car problems!) so maybe i do need to just get her to bloody behave herself! slight problem is you have to ask nicely, if you get mad the game is a bogie :rolleyes: why o why do i have such a high maintenance princess! im never getting a mare again :D

davieismycat - interesting about her getting better as she gets older, i think that would make more sense OH says she needs a boyfriend and a baby! oh dear - i might need to be a real geek and get haylage analysed! fingers crossed we get her sorted

thanks again :)
 
I have the same problem and Ive come to the conclusion its grass!! When we have rain, he is a complete loon for a few days. I think its the flush of grass, sugars, fructose or what ever it is etc etc.
Last year I threw the towel in, I was so fed up, finally managed to afford to buy a wagon for trailer phobic nutter :( and he was a nightmare at comps, kept going hoping for himm to improve but he didnt. Hedoesnt get silly, hes just irrational and was spinning at people, bikes, the bell ringing, it was so disheartenning. So gave up, sold the wagon and now Im bored and looking to put myself through it all over again.
Ive tried Nuprafeed etc with no success so if you find something that works, please let me know. :)
 
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