Rug Rat
Adjusting his mineral intake solved Rugrat’s Head-Shaking problem!
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A big thankyou to Teresa for telling us his story. Teresa found, by trial and error, just the right amounts of CHH supplements, in this case GrazeEzy & AlleviateC SOS that worked for 'Rugrat'. (Hence there are no set amounts of GrazeEzy and SOS to feed– how much each horse requires depends on the situation).
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“We bought our pony ‘Rugrat’ 18 months ago. He is 13.2hh. At the time he had a ‘wicked head-shake’ - the 'up and down vertical flick' which, according to his previous owners, had developed whilst they owned him. I made it my challenge to get to the bottom of what was causing it.
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The previous owners had already had his ears scoped as they thought that may have been the problem. But he was never head shy and always allowed us to scratch his ears and put his bridle on and off ok.
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I started by making sure his teeth had a thorough and very in depth check......even though they seemed fine and were not causing him any discomfort. Changing his bridle to take any pressure off the poll or nose did not make any difference. I then changed his bit to a kind happy mouth...that did not make any difference either.
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By now it had been over 8 months since we bought ‘Rugrat’ and his head-shaking was no better.
I then went into Vet Marlborough and asked about CHH products. I bought some GrazeEzy and AlleviateC/SOS, then started feeding them both in his hard feed.
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After about 2 weeks I started to notice a difference - his head-shaking was becoming less and less. So I cut back on the ÇHH products he was getting.
I then noticed that over the next couple of weeks his head-shaking had gotten worse again.
After a message to CHH to ask advice, his dose of SOS was increased along with his usual GrazeEzy. Ever since then I have made sure I am consistent with his CHH products and that he receives them daily.
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This has made a HUGE difference in his performance.
‘Rugrat’ competed in a ‘teams’ dressage competition last weekend for Pony Club and had to ride ‘up a grade’ due to a withdrawal of a team member and he got 69% in his first ever Level 1 dressage test! We are very pleased with the result the CHH products have had on our pony and his head-shaking has now completely gone.
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Over the time I limited his grass, but never had him off it completely. His grazing has been the same all the way through from the day we bought him.
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I mix his supplements into his hard feed dinner which consists of meadow chaff, Legup rapeseed meal and oil, and crushed barley. I mix it all together and he never leaves any behind. I was giving x1 scoop of GrazeEzy and x1.5 scoops of AlleviateC/SOS when he was at his worst, now he is stabilized with x1 scoop of each in his dinner every night.”
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Teresa Ikenasio, Marlborough, NZ
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“Observe, Remember, Compare” is a good motto when it comes to working out how much of a supplement your horse needs when addressing various grass-related issues.
You will soon work out how much your horse needs in your particular situation. You don’t learn to ride in one lesson and it is the same for learning how to manage your horse/pony on your grazing.
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Introduce any new supplements gradually, start with a small amount and build up from there. Make sure both salt and GrazeEzy are dissolved in the water you use to wet the feed. For large horses be aware you will need to get quite a lot in.
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You will know within a couple of weeks that you are ‘heading in the right direction’. Once the horse is back to normal the amounts can be gradually reduced but when it rains you will like need to go back up. Best to increase when it starts to rain rather than waiting for symptoms to appear.
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As a general rule of thumb it is more over wet spells, less over dry spells!