[Jess!]

Kandee is about to explode. She has more energy than she can deal with! And when I mean hot, she is H O T.

The ONLY thing different that I'm feeding is Triple Crown 12%, the Ration Balancer! Could this be the culprit?

I mean, she's part arab so I expect some flightiness, but she's like a 6 year old who got into the sugar bowl!

[Dawn]

It's doubtful. There is a possibility that it contains a specific ingredient that she has either a food sensitivity or allergy to. That would be the only way that a reaction like this would happen.

I read through your other thread quickly, and I wonder if she didn't just get upset about the trailer loading incident. She has a history of pulling back. She's already worked up about the trailer, pulls back and really freaks out. Flips herself over with a saddle on. That's going to cause back pain if not damage. So when you mount up, of course she's probably going to act out because she's hurting. Maybe just a big ole snow ball of an event?

But no, a ration balancer (in and of itself) shouldn't effect behaviour in that way.

[Jess!]

Originally Posted by Dawn

It's doubtful. There is a possibility that it contains a specific ingredient that she has either a food sensitivity or allergy to. That would be the only way that a reaction like this would happen.

I read through your other thread quickly, and I wonder if she didn't just get upset about the trailer loading incident. She has a history of pulling back. She's already worked up about the trailer, pulls back and really freaks out. Flips herself over with a saddle on. That's going to cause back pain if not damage. So when you mount up, of course she's probably going to act out because she's hurting. Maybe just a big ole snow ball of an event?

But no, a ration balancer (in and of itself) shouldn't effect behaviour in that way.

Hrm. Well, I did forget to mention the trailer incident was in the morning, and I rode in the afternoon, but I basically merged the two together [trailer then tacking up].

I wonder what it is. She just started this pulling back thing, I don't know what is causing it. I might just put a rope halter on her and let her try that on, because now she knows she can get away by breaking leads and halters.

[Dawn]

Lol, okay. That does make a bit of a difference. Maybe she was just having one of those 'omg' days.

Is this the first day she's been like this?

[haunani]

Could an increased energy level be (at least partially) attributed to the 12% having a relatively high NSC level?

[Jess!]

Originally Posted by Dawn

Lol, okay. That does make a bit of a difference. Maybe she was just having one of those 'omg' days.

Is this the first day she's been like this?

No, I've noticed for the last week she's been hot. She can barely contain herself in the corral, and wants to play SO bad but Porscha doesn't want to, so she has to run around and play by herself.

And like I said, the only thing that's changed is the addition of the RB. Maybe she just feels GOOD? And that's how she acts LOL Egad, I have some wild rides ahead if she doesn't get a brain.

[MissCriss]

You know, I don't know much about the ration balancers, but I have been told that when horses are fed healthy nutrients that they weren't being fed for a long time before, they do have excess energy, just naturally. And then of course, they want to be more "athletic". So, I guess it might be it? Maybe you're right, that she's just feeling better and wants to buck it out. So hopefully, if that's the case, you'll just have to cut back some of the ration balancer or exercise her more to match up with the extra yummies.

But, I do know that the ration balancers normally don't contain a lot of sugar, and it is sugar that causes bursts of energy. From what I understand, ration balancers just contain the added nutrients in smaller amounts of feed. I'm not sure if they have slow burning energy (good fats, essential fatty acids), but I'm assuming they do, in which case your horse will eventually develop more stamina, I guess you could say, but not highs like your pony has been having.

Since the ration balancers are made (right?) to give good nutrition in smaller amounts, maybe switch from the RB to rice bran and then add a vit/min supplement. Or mix some rice bran in with RB. That way if you cut down on the RB and it's barely enough bulk to keep her satisfied at lunch time, you can have an almost equally good or better alternative, even though it may cost more in some cases. If you have her on good pasture and good hay with adequate amounts of protein, perhaps only feeding rice bran, peet pulp if she needs weight kept on, or oats will be sufficient, and then it won't cost that much more money in that case.
Oats don't actually cause the "hot headed" reactions, contrary to popular belief, right? I thought I remembered reading on it but I'm not so sure.

Or! Maybe her buddy hasn't been in the playful mood lately and she's been frustrated?
I guess what you could do is kind of survey her throughout the day and see if something comes along at a particular time that kind of sets off her rocker.

Dawn mentioned a good point that is probably the right reason for her behavior that day. Maybe the trailer incident in the morning affected her later on, and the back pain when she reared caused even more problems. Her being a pony, their "off" days, in my experience, a bit more um...exciting than with your regular horse lol. Lordie knows how many things those ponies can think up of along the way.

[Dawn]

NSC of 12% is 29.7% which is a high %. But you then have to account for the fact that she's being fed 1 1/2 lbs (I think) a day. At that point, you see that it's providing relatively little in the way of starches and sugars. Much less, I'm sure, than her previous feed.

And yes, sometimes with improved nutrition, they will become themselves and be a different horse.

[Jess!]

Originally Posted by MissCriss

You know, I don't know much about the ration balancers, but I have been told that when horses are fed healthy nutrients that they weren't being fed for a long time before, they do have excess energy, just naturally. And then of course, they want to be more "athletic". So, I guess it might be it? Maybe you're right, that she's just feeling better and wants to buck it out. So hopefully, if that's the case, you'll just have to cut back some of the ration balancer or exercise her more to match up with the extra yummies.

But, I do know that the ration balancers normally don't contain a lot of sugar, and it is sugar that causes bursts of energy. From what I understand, ration balancers just contain the added nutrients in smaller amounts of feed. I'm not sure if they have slow burning energy (good fats, essential fatty acids), but I'm assuming they do, in which case your horse will eventually develop more stamina, I guess you could say, but not highs like your pony has been having.

Since the ration balancers are made (right?) to give good nutrition in smaller amounts, maybe switch from the RB to rice bran and then add a vit/min supplement. Or mix some rice bran in with RB. That way if you cut down on the RB and it's barely enough bulk to keep her satisfied at lunch time, you can have an almost equally good or better alternative, even though it may cost more in some cases. If you have her on good pasture and good hay with adequate amounts of protein, perhaps only feeding rice bran, peet pulp if she needs weight kept on, or oats will be sufficient, and then it won't cost that much more money in that case.
Oats don't actually cause the "hot headed" reactions, contrary to popular belief, right? I thought I remembered reading on it but I'm not so sure.

Or! Maybe her buddy hasn't been in the playful mood lately and she's been frustrated?
I guess what you could do is kind of survey her throughout the day and see if something comes along at a particular time that kind of sets off her rocker.

Dawn mentioned a good point that is probably the right reason for her behavior that day. Maybe the trailer incident in the morning affected her later on, and the back pain when she reared caused even more problems. Her being a pony, their "off" days, in my experience, a bit more um...exciting than with your regular horse lol. Lordie knows how many things those ponies can think up of along the way.

She gets 2 pounds of the Ration Balancer a day, which is for a horse is heavy work, which she is - she's being conditioned for an endurance ride, one I plan on being a front runner in.

She gets this total:

2lbs ration balancer w/ 1lb Rice Bran, 1 cup flax in the morning.
2lbs Rice Bran with equitrol in the evening.

And alfalfa, she'll usually eat about three flakes a day, sometimes four if she's feeling over zealous.

She's a very, very hard keeper which is why I wanted to try the RB to begin with, and why I feed the rice bran with it. She hates beet pulp, so that is not an option.

And we're fighting an uphill battle because she dropped probably a good 100 pounds or so from December to the end of January because I wasn't in SoCal, and she was just being fed bermuda, and not even free choice.

I think she's just feeling better, because she looks better. She has a better attitude [well, except for today] and has actually started cleaning up all her hay [most of the time] and her "grain". Before, she wouldn't even touch her grain, and it was oatmo which most horses love.

[royalrox]

wait she gets two pounds twice a day? Isn't 4 pounds over the max feed level? Perhaps she's getting too much of certain minerals...unless I read that wrong...