haylage...I suspect

[masquerade]

Hi...I have had a gypsy cob bought from a gypsy fair for apprximately 9 weeks..... seem to remember that they did not have her on any hard feed at all and just hay.

She has a very tiny amount of hard feed now just hifi lite and calm and condition ...but only a very tiny ammount. She does however no have haylage. She has started to spook quite badly and I was wondering if the haylage could be having an effect on her...if anyone can throw some light on this I wuld be very grateful....

I used to own Spanish horses and bought her because she was so calm......!!! :eek:

[Supercali]

I have been in a similar situation where I bought a gypsy cob that lived on 'fresh air' and only got a flap of hay a day! He now gets haylage and a little hi-fi light with Baileys Lo-cal.

He is probably a bit more forward going for a little while and has spooked a little at new things but nothing over the top. Maybe your haylage is quite potent stuff. I made sure I got the lowest energy one from my supplier.

Do you know the energy levels of your haylage? Be careful not to feed too much, especially if they are on grass as they will get fat really quickly.

How old is your cob?

[chev]

Haylage does have higher energy levels than hay, but not as high as grass.

If she wasn't getting enough food then that may well explain why she appeared so very calm... worms can often do the same.

I've known a huge number of people who've bought gypsy cobs for their calm, laid-back nature and then found they have a rather more exciting horse than they wanted when it's been wormed and fed properly.

[artemis]

Could be the spring grass - sends some horses loopy :D Alfalfa is high energy too I think.

[masquerade]

Thanks to you all for your helpful replies...I dont know the energy level but I suspect it may be high.
I ve taken all your points on board and am going to address the problem by process of elimination...see where that gets me... am rally grateful to you all.
Thanks very much.

[eventerbabe]

could be the calm and condition, i found it fired my horse up a little bit when he wasn't doing hard work.

[Bay Mare]

It also depends on the hard feed that you're giving. I found Pasture Mix sent mine completely psycho whereas she did much better on Cool Mix. She hasn't eaten her dinner for a week now so she's back to hay and grass!