This message is from: Diana Calder <dcal...@gmail.com>
On 5 October 2010 19:13, Debbie Hunt <huntdebbi...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > I recently reverted to dry lot for my 6 yr. old gelding. He is overweight > and I board him. Muzzles did not work. He destroyed three. After good advice > from this forum, we started dry lot one week ago. He is not happy! He is dry > lot 17 hrs and in his stall 7 hrs. He has a major attitude problem now with > the new routine. I am hopeful this will get better soon. > > Have any of you had experience with Fjords getting agressive when you take > away grazing time or food? > > Debbie > One of our two has ended up losing his limited grazing time the last few times we've tried giving him some because he gets very pushy & aggressive when he *thinks* it's time for him to have some more grass. After we cut him off again, he'll stay a bit - well, cranky - for a while but then he'll let it go and start behaving himself again. If yours has been on grass for a long time, it could take quite a while for him to get used to the new routine. If his dry lot &/or stall is suitably set up for it, you could try giving him one of those food-dispensing toys with something like Equalizer or timothy cubes in it to keep him busy for a while. You could also try slowing him down by using a small-mesh haynet. We're using one when we go to horse shows - made a big difference in how fast they went through their hay. They weren't too happy with it at first but mostly got used to it, though they still occasionally get frustrated. I went for the 1.5" mesh size of the NibbleNet - in retrospect, the 2" might have been a better choice as it would still have slowed them down but possibly been a bit less frustrating. I see there's a new NibbleNet that has both size openings, which might make a happy medium. I have also used the Nibble-n-Go with our mare when she had to be kept shut in during the heat of summer days due to insect allergies. I'd hoped that it would keep her occupied & keep her mind off itching once she finished the rest of her hay. It was a mixed success - our stalls don't have tall/solid enough walls to prevent her from tossing it somewhere that she couldn't reach it when she got frustrated. It also took her about two seconds flat to figure out that she could plant one hoof on it to hold it still while eating, so the fact that it wasn't tied down didn't work to slow down her eating any more than the small mesh alone did. I'd definitely suggest trying to find some way to spread his eating time out more. Since he's boarded, it probably makes it much more difficult to have him fed small servings a few hours apart, so a small mesh haynet might be your most practical solution. And/or maybe you could get some several-year-old hay that has very little food value but lots of chewing value so that you can give him it in addition to his regular ration. Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
