Okay, so a comment on my most recent post brought up the feed issue again. Could the feed really be affecting her this badly? I feel like she gets almost nothing. She is lean bordering on thin......I feel like she needs the extra calories. She gets half a bale of hay a day right now (20-25lbs), Timothy/Orchard/etc mix.....and then less than a half pound of Triple Crown Complete AM and PM. In the PM she also gets about a pound (maybe less) of beet pulp (soaked) and about 1/2-1lb of alfalfa pellets.
I will cut out everything but the beet pulp and the hay to see if that helps. I went back through the blog to see if this got worse when I started feeding the Triple Crown Complete and they did happen around the same time.....but Foxy has been bad just about the entire time she has lived here, so that is not really a good example. I thought Triple Crown Complete, as a high fiber/fat feed, was supposed to NOT make them hot?
I'm so confused!
I also posted an ad on the local craigslist looking for inexpensive boarding. Hell, anyone reading this have a herd they want to add her to? I'm in Tennessee so I doubt anyone nearby would be willing to take her. She just needs a place to retire.......if she does not calm down in a normal boarding environment, then I would guess it is time to make some decisions......I am not going to sell or give her away, but would love to find someone to "board" her with their horses. That worked out decently at the last place....she was their only boarder and basically just lived at their property like one of their herd. She just wants to chill out with her friends.....I'm not opposed to paying feed/etc costs, but have no interest in spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month to support her for the next 20 years. Not unless I get a substantial raise or win the lotto. The places I have found locally want $300-$350 for full care board with a 6-12 month contract. Really, she just needs pasture board or stall/pasture. Stick her in a field with a round bale (and a buddy) and give her some grain 2x a day. If local, I will visit regularly to groom and check on....
Anyone want the "joy" of another horse without the feed costs? Have the property and need a buddy for one of your horses? Foxy's psychotic behavior is pretty much narrowed down to this property only, for some reason......she was an easy boarder at the last place, as well as the place I kept her in California. She just likes to be difficult for me. Something about this property bothers her....she was never even herd bound at the last place, they would sometimes turn her out alone and she was always fine. The place before she was scared of any horse that came near her. Here she is just crazy.....
Yay.
I love Ms Foxy but she is wearing me out. I work all day and come home and just fight her the whole time I'm here.....I never have any off time anymore. I come home and she is running the yard like crazy, standing in the mud, spooking at the fence, refusing to eat or drink, etc. It just seems to be always something. It has just been a constant battle the last two months. I'm really, really tired....I can't believe living out here there are no reasonable boarding options available. Boarding here is actually more expensive than it was in Los Angeles. Go figure.....
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9 comments:
I have been following your blog for awhile and I also was wondering about the feed issue. She is just a pasture puff so why all the extras? She might actually settle and hold better weight on good old fashioned grass hay. Almost sounds like the feed is giving her so much energy she is crawling out the end of her own nose. I think if you can manage it try to follow your new feed plan for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. also could you longe her or take her for a walk to take the edge off? Anyhow good luck ,I am in Alberta Canada so no help at all as far as a home goes but frankly if I was closer I would probably give her a try.If this all ends the other way (euth) remember you gave her the best chance she had and took excellent care of her.
You are in Tn? Where, I am in Western KY
Fern,
I had been giving her the other stuff as she has lost weight and I am trying to get it back on. I am wanting to just buy her a round bale and let her pick at it. Right now, I have no way of getting it into the yard as she has churned it up into such thick soupy mud that my truck would probably get stuck, ha.
Soshorses,
I am in Eastern Tenn...near Knoxville.
Hi, me again
Any change in diet has to be done gradually, generally over a week or two. The digestive system functions by means of various bacteria, each feed as it's own little gang which works away at their own specific feed. If you introduce a new feed too quickly, or in too much volume there will be no bacteria to digest it and you will run a vey real risk of colic, so any change must be done slowly.
Foxy will need something like 30-35lbs of good hay per day, fed ad-lib to keep her in shape.
Now I don't want to appear as if I'm trying to teach my granny how to suck eggs, as it were, but have you heard of condition scoring as a means of judging whether a horse is fat or thin, I found a very good site here which explains it all. http://www.shady-acres.com/susan/conditionscore.shtml
My own horse is similar to Foxy, give her sugar or any high protien feed and she's away with the fairies, she also doesn't keep weight on particularly well, especially in the winter. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place with her, I need to feed her to maintain her weight and give her some energy, but not too much. I looked up the Triple Crown stuff and that has a massive 11% protien, Sugar beet has 10.9%along with 21% sugar content !!. On your diet my horse wold be as high as a kite !! She has Spillers Happy Hoof (8%) with about a pound of Spillers Conditioning Cubes (11%) in the winter and just the Happy Hoof in the summer, no sugar beet at all.
I see quite a number of horses in my travels, if a student is having problems with an over excited horse I will ask what they are feeding, nine times out of ten the diet includes sugar beet, I suggest they cut it out and just use plain old water to dampen their horses feed, about a week later, hey presto .... much calmer horse. Some horses just can't take it, and I suspect that Foxy may be one of them.
If you want to get in touch with me my email is thea@rhandir.co.uk
I think foxy would do better with other horses. She seems to be nervous and a companion may help. Have you considered a goat? Don't laugh really goats are great companions.
I am in Western Kentucky, and if you seriously need a place for foxy to retire then I have a farm and several horses. She would have a good place to just be a puff. If you would like to discuss this please email me at southernoakstables@comcast.net and we can work out the details
My old stud acted the same when he was young, running around mach 3 with his hair on fire! The more I fed him as far as "extras " to hold weight the more he ran and the more he lost. What I finally did is just dropped a round in front of him ,cut out all but the beet pulp and a small amount of alfalfa pellets. He actually got a little chubby after that but balanced out nicely in the end . I am sure that you are on the right track with the round bale idea, too bad your yard is so tore up. Again good luck
Rhandir,
Foxy is a 4-5 according to that scale. She is not thin enough to be a 4, but not fat enough to be a 5. Part of it is her conformation...she is somewhat ewe-necked....no matter how fat she has been (and she has been, lol) she always has a weak neck. And along the same lines, she does not get a big butt, even when chunky. She really just gets a big ex-broodmare belly.
Fernvalley,
Foxy cannot be lunged as she is navicular and lame on one front leg. She is pasture sound but lame on a circle if asked to lunge. Sometimes I think she just does not work, ha. But yes, unless I bute her up, she does not get lunged at all anymore. On bute she is a crazy horse........which makes me think there are significant pain issues, but considering all of her "old injuries" I am not suprised. Chiro/massage/etc never made any discernible difference. She moves fine out in pasture though and will walk/trot/gallop without hesitation.....
Sos,
I will email you tomorrow about this issue. I am going to keep trying here but if things do not improve, might want to go that route.....thanks for the offer :)
I have a mare that reminds me of the way foxy is acting and I changes her to Safe Choice grain and she is the most calm laid back mare now. She is getting a scoop in the AM and PM and holds her weight and has a sound mind.
I'm in Kodak - just east of Knoxville. Feel free to send me and email if you need help hooking up with local horsey types. My horses (two TB mares and one haflinger pony) are also mud-encrusted. They've been stalled more than I like with this ridiculous rain. Anyway - my email is joskt0204@gmail.com.
Katy
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