Question: When I sit quietly near my 13 year-old mare, she gradually moves closer until her neck is over me, then lifts a front leg, almost like a dog shaking hands. I can sit under her belly, but that doesn’t seem to satisfy her. She’s not aggressive or demanding, and has that dreamy, relaxed look in her eyes.  What is your interpretation of this behavior?

I get a lot of emails about behavioral problems, many of them stating that their horse is high strung or has a lot of energy. As a nutritionist and a behaviorist, I felt that it would be of great relevance to point many of my readers to the following article about feeding for behavior: Feeding for behavior I. This article gives you a starting point for evaluating your horses ration. In my experience, your horse’s ration has as much influence on his behavior as training and handling does. Remember, your pasture goes through seasonal changes, with springtime being the time of year when your horse or pony may be most likely to founder. Take into account the amount of nutrition your horse obtains from grazing when balancing your spring ration. Using the exact same ration year round often leads to health and behavior problems if a horse obtains good quality forage from a pasture part of the year and not the rest of it, or is worked (work could also mean different stages of breeding/pregnancy/lactation for broodmares or breeding season for breeding stallions) differently throughout the year. Good luck! I look forward to your questions.