Would you adjust his diet?

[Bexx]

Hi I'm just after a but of feeding advice for my horse. He is a 15yr old 17hh Irish sports horse competing and BE100. He is fit enough to be competing at this level. Always inside the time cross country and recovers quickly after our round. He is currently fed a scoop of chaff with a low cal balancer and has ad lib hay.
I am finding at the minute that during the dressage, and to some extent the show jumping, he is a bit flat, bordering on lazy. In the cross country phase he is not, he is off the leg and responsive but this is clearly his favourite phase. This recent laziness has caused our dressage marks to drop from the 20s to the 30s in our last few events. He has a mid season break in July and august so i wouldn't say he was going stale. He is also reasonably lazy schooling at home. His teeth, saddle and physio checks are up to date. He has also dropped a bit of weight recently, but this was probably needed.
Would you adjust his feed for more energy? Of so what would you add or change?
Or is this more a schooling issue?

 

[be positive]

I would give him some oil, micronised linseed ideally, if you don't already I would give a generous amount of salt daily or an electrolyte supplement and see if that helps.

I would be a bit concerned that there is something physical going on in a horse of his age that has dropped in performance, xc is often the last thing to suffer as they are running on adrenalin and not having to push in the same way as they need to doing dress/ sj so a vet check may be worthwhile if he does not freshen up now the season is just about over.

 

[Leo Walker]

I'd get a cushings test as well while you are at it. Hes the right age and the sluggishness and weight loss would tie in. Its free to run the test so worth doing.

 

[Pinkvboots]

Agree with above it could well be cushings well worth doing a test.