Clover Hay ?

Ok, following on from the weekend, Sampson was a little on edge Tuesday and Wednesday when ridden, then Thursday simply awful, to the point where he was leaping all over the place and incredibly tense - and this was in his home arena - at the walk!. (bummer as I had set up the show jumps for a jumping session on him).

Anyway, got off and tried to do some ground work. More leaping about, barging etc, and the far end of the arena harboured horse eating gremlins.

On with the lunging gear.

Lunging was....'interesting'....lovely elevated cadenced trot :)
lots of ummm hooning (rather than cantering), including many flying changes.

However, after an hour he finally dropped his head and relaxed, so gave him another ten mins and finished.

Then the questions....WHY?

Hmmmm; what had I changed....the only thing I could think of was that I had been giving them lovely clover hay, which may well be the problem. Have spoken to some friends who give their horses clover hay, but NOT their full-on horses, who they tell me have gone absolutely nuts on the stuff.

Also, I realised that I gave them the nice clover hay at Taupo for a 'treat'.....Sampson actually ate a whole bale Friday night and another half on Saturday.

So, it is back to crap hay for him (much to his disgust)....will be interesting to see if he goes back to 'normal' after a day or so off the clover.

Oh well, one lives and learns.
:)