How'd I miss it?

Gali has always had an Equine Metabolic Syndrom body type.  Cresty, weird fat despoits, easy keeper, part draft... all the typical stuff.  I've known this, and since I've had him, I've kept him on a low starch grain and on low starch or limited treats.  There have been few times that I've struggled with his weight, but this winter has been one of them.  He spent all summer on hay stretcher (with no ration balancer, yes, I realize NOW that was a mistake) and while his condition over the summer was great, once the weather cooled and he got put back in to work, he needed something more.

After a small drama where the barn owner put him on her textured feed without telling me, I started bringing his food out and got him back on the grain he's been on for the past two years.  We've had a mild winter, and despite him being pasture boarded, he was doing well on the grain and twice daily feedings of hay.  (He's by far the alpha in the field, and had no problem eating his fill of the other horses' hay, as well!).  Over the past month and a half, since the weather cooled a bit and he's been in even more work, his grain amount was raised.  He was keeping good condition, and while it was more grain than I'd like him on, he wasn't overweight at all.

At the same time, he started getting grumpy.  He's never been the most pleasant horse, especially in the barn, but something kept striking me as odd.  I know my horse, and I thought something was bugging him.  I had the dentist out to see if it was his teeth.  I went over his body thoroughly looking for any sore spots.  Everything came up negative - so I started searching for reasons why a horse would suddenly turn grumpy for things like grooming.

Right there, admist all of the "he's just girthy!" and "just beat him more!" forum posts, was my answer: EMS. One symptom is general grumpiness.

I now think that all of the grain he's eating is the culprit, and starting tomorrow he's on a significant fat supplement to replace some grain.

Oh, and in addition to the xrays I'm getting to recheck his ringbone progress, my vet is going to run a CBC and a Cushing's blood chemistry panel.  Depending on the results of that, we'll either continue testing or start managing his diet.  The test is scheduled for just under a month from now (over my spring break), so if the diet change helps a ton, I'll have some more anecdotal evidence to put the puzzle of Galahad together.