You are right. The coat clip was a ridiculous thought process and ive put that to bed. I am overthinking things and ive over complicated the matter by bringing them in each night. They dont need to be in, they have a fabulous paddock, lots of shelter and a super swanky new field shelter with integrated water and a Bark-chip floor so i realise i'm being one of those idiots who humanises their ponies! I think (my gut feeling) the bad behaviour is as a result of being stabled overnight. So last night i left them out. But i still showed up at the same time, brought them up to the yard and groomed and fed them. Darcy still did her usual pushing and barging at me, but she eventually played ball albeit she wasn't happy about it. I from daily, but i'm wondering if this is too much, they're not used to that much?! So perhaps every other day is better.
I think they're getting enough to eat. When i get there in the morning I give them a scoop of pegasus conditioning mix, with a handful of honey chop chaff and a bit of cider vinegar for their breakfast (as per the instruction of the stud farm they came from - and i wanted to keep them on what they were used to), they scoff it whilst i poo pick and then i try grooming and that's when darcy starts with all the pushing and shoving. Today the farrier came and trimmed their hooves and he said they look in great shape, hooves are all good. He said if anything i'm feeding a little too much and i should be careful of the big L..
In a day they get their paddock grass (which is pretty low now), their breakfast is as above, and they get a big hay net in the morning in the paddock and a hay net in the evening.