Michen
Well-Known Member
Dithering a little as to whether to scope Boggle. He’s extremely fit, hunting weekly or competing if not hunting. It’s an achievement if I school once a week (I keep saying I’ll fix this!) but the reality is I have very little time during the working week and his sharer only wants to hack. So he’s not a muscled dressage pony!
I’ve tried him on every type of feed you can imagine. Copious amounts of linseed (won’t eat a feed if more than half a scoop in it), oats, conditioning cubes (sent him nuts), equijewel, outshine, Dodson and h build and glow, Speedi beet, copra, key flow.
Currently he’s on Alfa a oil, alphabeet and pony nuts (to make him eat the Alfa). But although he’s not really losing any I just cannot get any more weight on. Ad lib haylage.
He feels fantastic, has a great shine, isn’t girthy or grumpy with grooming. He is a very buzzy horse and has started in the last month getting quite “wound up†when bought in early and tied up to tack up and ride. I think he associates coming in early as potentially going out hunting so he gets excited, and poos a lot.
I’m wondering if it would be worth having him scoped. I feed him protexin anyway, but considering his buzzy nature I do wonder if he could be creating ulcers for himself from being excited about life. That said I wouldn’t label him at all as stressy in general.. but I guess there’s a fine line between buzzy and stressy and both could cause ulcers?
I wouldn’t take the decision to scope lightly as he’d then be excluded for all sorts of things but I’m wondering if there’s an underlying reason why he won’t put weight on despite copious amounts of feed, or whether it’s just the way he is. He did come over from Ireland two years ago in extremely poor condition and has never been one to be fat even mid summer.
Pics below. He hunted a full day on sat so probably looking a little more lean/tucked up than the norm. I’m probably overly worrying given spring is around the corner but he’s such a genuine chap I’d hate to be ignoring an issue if there was one. I’d always prefer a lean fit horse over a fat unfit horse, but he is technically a native pony (Connemara!) and really you could mistake him for a little TB.
I’ve tried him on every type of feed you can imagine. Copious amounts of linseed (won’t eat a feed if more than half a scoop in it), oats, conditioning cubes (sent him nuts), equijewel, outshine, Dodson and h build and glow, Speedi beet, copra, key flow.
Currently he’s on Alfa a oil, alphabeet and pony nuts (to make him eat the Alfa). But although he’s not really losing any I just cannot get any more weight on. Ad lib haylage.
He feels fantastic, has a great shine, isn’t girthy or grumpy with grooming. He is a very buzzy horse and has started in the last month getting quite “wound up†when bought in early and tied up to tack up and ride. I think he associates coming in early as potentially going out hunting so he gets excited, and poos a lot.
I’m wondering if it would be worth having him scoped. I feed him protexin anyway, but considering his buzzy nature I do wonder if he could be creating ulcers for himself from being excited about life. That said I wouldn’t label him at all as stressy in general.. but I guess there’s a fine line between buzzy and stressy and both could cause ulcers?
I wouldn’t take the decision to scope lightly as he’d then be excluded for all sorts of things but I’m wondering if there’s an underlying reason why he won’t put weight on despite copious amounts of feed, or whether it’s just the way he is. He did come over from Ireland two years ago in extremely poor condition and has never been one to be fat even mid summer.
Pics below. He hunted a full day on sat so probably looking a little more lean/tucked up than the norm. I’m probably overly worrying given spring is around the corner but he’s such a genuine chap I’d hate to be ignoring an issue if there was one. I’d always prefer a lean fit horse over a fat unfit horse, but he is technically a native pony (Connemara!) and really you could mistake him for a little TB.