our silver is acting very odd

james29

james29

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May 24, 2012
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our grey grumpy mare silver has started acting like a nut case.
when she is hacked out away from home she is her normal plod along and good girl but try and turn her to go back home she just doesnt want to go.
she spins,runs backwards and wont stand still in the direction of home and even if she does start to walk its a dancing trot intill she does her spinning and running backwards thing again.
even on the roads she does it and does not care about the cars etc.some times when she is doing it she even starts to tremble?

so heres abit about her and her routine.
she isnt on any grass at the moment because there is non in the winter paddock she so she has been on haylage and one hard feed at night which is nuts,chaf and calm and condition this is what she has always been on and she has been fine up intill a couple of weeks ago.
she isnt in any pain as had her checked just after xmas and saddle checked a couple of weeks ago and she is all fine.

she is a little attached to our other mare which we thougth mght be the problem but she doesnt want to go home lol.
other things we have change since she has started being like this is 1 haylage. 2.no grass 3.lack of turn out . 4.attached to our other mare 5.new yard but she did start being abit silly be for we moved and we moved just before xmas.

i have been reading alot about lack of magnisum and what syptoms a horse may have.silver does seem to have a couple of them and was maybe thinking is it because of the no grass??

if she was doing it to get home then i might be able to understand but its not its as if she not wanting to go home but its just not our happy ploddy silver.
 
also i must add since the past week she has started to eat her own poo.
so i know that means they might be lacking in some vitims etc
 
My first thought is definitely lack of turnout. What is the horse going back to? Is she immediately put back in a stable? I wonder if she doesn't like this and is voicing her opinion? I know I wouldn't be very happy if I am cooped up all day and only let out to 'work'. I appreciate there are certain yards that enforce a rule of no grazing while its bad weather, but I wouldn't move there. Is she getting any turnout at all?
 
yeah she is getting turn out just theres no grass in the paddock at the moment so we put out haylage but now going back to normal hay.
she is fine when she gets back normaly its get back groom and then feed and put to bed for the night.
its strange because once we have had our fight and get home she is all fine again.
 
I think captivity too. I know nothing about sophisticated dietary cures but when there is no turn out, people at our yard will lead their horses out to graze in hand for an hour on the common.
I always did this with my share mare.
Bit boring but you can take a crossword or a book. The young things catch up on their smart phones.
That is not to say the horse will be happy to go home after an hour - but at least one has done one's best.
 
yeah sorry i ment no grazing and lack of turnout.
she is getting turned out every other day with her freind but now its dry will be every day and even days when she is in she has the yard to walk around.
sorry i missed out that info
 
also we do let her have a much of grass on the verges when we bring her in but only 5mins or so realy.
 
Once she is turned out everyday I would have thought she would settle down again. I would think she is fed up of being in, especially as the weather has improved.
 
nat17 said:
Once she is turned out everyday I would have thought she would settle down again. I would think she is fed up of being in, especially as the weather has improved.
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yeah hopefully she will but it just seems so strange for her tho.
even the part about her eating her own poo is strange,yuk
 
james29 said:
yeah hopefully she will but it just seems so strange for her tho.
even the part about her eating her own poo is strange,yuk
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Not strange to me I'm afraid. I abhor horses being kept in because of bad weather. They weren't built to be kept in. I appreciate it may be yard rules, but you can't expect them to be perfectly behaved when they've been imprisoned for god knows how many hours.

I hope she improves once she's getting more time out, I would look into the poo eating, but apart from that, I don't think you're going to find some food related cure for this if it is only when you turn for home.
 
The poo eating isn't usually a worry - according to our vet. Joe did it now and again - as does Storm. There are a few theories as to why they do it, one is that they have a slight gut inbalance and are trying to put it right their own way. If it carried on indefinitely I would ask your vet.
 
Flipo's Mum said:
Not strange to me I'm afraid. I abhor horses being kept in because of bad weather. They weren't built to be kept in. I appreciate it may be yard rules, but you can't expect them to be perfectly behaved when they've been imprisoned for god knows how many hours.

I hope she improves once she's getting more time out, I would look into the poo eating, but apart from that, I don't think you're going to find some food related cure for this if it is only when you turn for home.
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no not yard rules just its way to deep mud for them to go out sometimes hence why they stay in but are left to walk around the yard its self when they are not going out.
but yeah hopefully this is the only problem and yeah im looking into the poo eating thing as it cant be a good thing.
 
Have to agree lack of turnout,and Frances is right mud won't kill,ours have still been going out in knee deep mud but with pig oil on of needed,no mud fever,no lameness,no absess and settled chilled horses who are happy heads down mooching about finding things to eat,there have also been 6 cobs out all winter 24/7 in the bigger field and all are well.
 
Frances144 said:
Walking round a yard is not turnout. I would be looking for another yard with turnout. Mud does not kill.
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yeah thats all good points and we all have our ways and means.
if she doesnt inprove with more turnout then we will move yards.
problem is with our yard the person who was on there before poorly managed the feilds hence why they are just mud pits but its our yard now and want to get the feilds full of grass again and with a bit of good maintaince they will be good and will have all year round grazing.
but if silver doesnt get any better then yes we will move as only want the best for her and our other girls of course but the other two are there normal selfs.
 
I would say she is bored and or lacking vitamins re eating the poo. If they were out they could lick the mud which is fairly normal but as in Silver can't do that.
Grazing in hand for an hour would be my minimum, I did that when the cob was on box rest.
Are you offering a mineral lick? Or a ball with nuts in, ease the boredom?
 
james29 said:
yeah thats all good points and we all have our ways and means.
if she doesnt inprove with more turnout then we will move yards.
problem is with our yard the person who was on there before poorly managed the feilds hence why they are just mud pits but its our yard now and want to get the feilds full of grass again and with a bit of good maintaince they will be good and will have all year round grazing.
but if silver doesnt get any better then yes we will move as only want the best for her and our other girls of course but the other two are there normal selfs.
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If it is just yourselves on your own yard, would it be possible to electrify off an acre or two and sacrifice this for the time being to ensure all day turnout, maybe with some hay out there for her?

It is surprising, no matter how wet and boggy winter turnout gets, it will usually return to some semblance of grazing during the early summer. If you are worried about the mud fever risk, they can in fact get it on even dry conditions. But a bit of pig oil on her legs would protect from the mud, but do patch test first.
 
newforest said:
I would say she is bored and or lacking vitamins re eating the poo. If they were out they could lick the mud which is fairly normal but as in Silver can't do that.
Grazing in hand for an hour would be my minimum, I did that when the cob was on box rest.
Are you offering a mineral lick? Or a ball with nuts in, ease the boredom?
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the past two weeks she has been out every other day and fingers crossed from now on she will be out every day and then come april or end of march she can move onto the the paddock we growing up at the moment.
yeah she does get a ball but not every night as she has to share it with the other two horses,we have tryed a salt lick thing but she had no interest in it at all but maybe we will have to buy her own ball
 
Cortrasna said:
If it is just yourselves on your own yard, would it be possible to electrify off an acre or two and sacrifice this for the time being to ensure all day turnout, maybe with some hay out there for her?

It is surprising, no matter how wet and boggy winter turnout gets, it will usually return to some semblance of grazing during the early summer. If you are worried about the mud fever risk, they can in fact get it on even dry conditions. But a bit of pig oil on her legs would protect from the mud, but do patch test first.
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its just been to bad to let them out but she has been going out every other day for the past two weeks.
yeah just us but the feilds are bad hence why we are resting most of it apart from the one were she is going out in and yeah we always put hay out when they go out.

realy was just wondering what lack of grass does to a horse?
mainly because she has had a good routine even on other yards of out every other day but with grass and she was all fine and happy.
she never seems un happy in her stable and never stressed.even in the summer last year she always tryed to dragg us in from the feild lol.
just seems to be since being on this yard with no grass its happened or maybe its just winter.
 
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