A bit more oomph without stupidity?

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Hovis_and_SidsMum

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Morning all
After a hack last night in which Hovis showed as much enthusiasm as a dying duck I'm wondering about changing / adding to his food.
In fairness he isn't yet clipped and it was boiling hot (he was sweating terribly) but he felt once again as if there was nothing in the tank.

He's currently in a new field during the day with his grazing restricted, two haynets a night (about 12lbs of hay i'd guess), morning and night feed of chaff (1.5 scoop per meal) and pasture mix (3/4 scoop per meal) plus the occasional carrot.

Any recommendation of anything i could add to his food to just give him a bit more ooomph without blowing his brains? I don't particularly want to change him off pasture mix as he's not in heavy work and when I'm working away he has 3 days off a week. At the moment he's probably working 6 days a week but only for 30 mins schooling at nights (my version of schooling which isn't exactly taxing) plus 2 hacks a week max.

He'll be clipped shortly (just awaiting the return of my blades) which usually helps but something i could give just to pep him up a bit is also an option i'd like to consider. Any suggestions?
 
A bit of sunflower oil - from the supermarket - really helps my lazy pony, and its cheap!

Mine always goes through a really lethargic stage this time of year when his coat is changing.
 
My two never get any form of mix. I feed Just Grass from Simple Systems or Dobson and Horrell, Green Gold (alfa) from Simple Systems, speedibeet, linseed, black sunflower seeds and the essential carrots.

If I want more energy I add a bit more speedibeet and alfa, and if I really want more go go go I add the red bag grass nuts - more energy value than oats.

When I changed Cairo Clydesdale from molasses chaff and pasture mix to the above, I found he had a lot more stamina and his energy levels were far better on the fibre diet.

At shows, if Stinky has lost a bit of sparkle he gets a feed about 40 mins before his class of grass nuts and speedibeet (as advised by SS) and it kicks in as he goes in the ring.

At the moment they get a green stubbs scoop of each type of chaff, and the same of sloppy speedibeet twice a day. I am also giving them a big slice of hay each at night as the grass is now very short in the field.

Both have plenty of energy, but with this diet, they are never silly. I was told that Farra reacted badly to any form of molassed chaff or alfa when I got her and have to say that what I feed has a big girl with energy to do what I want, but never stupid. Could be worth trying this for your big lad. They also get what look to be huge feeds, something I am sure he would enjoy. If he gets too tubby, you can change Just Grass to Ruff Stuff from SS and the Green Gold to Lucie Stalks - Cairo had this in the summer months as he was a good doer and then back to the more fattening stuff in winter.
 
Ditto the others, I find adding oil is the best for slow-release energy, without blowing their brains, low sugar too :)

I started feeding this Linseed supplement, mainly as it's much less messy than oil (after I knocked the last bottle over :rolleyes:). I like it so far, finding it's lasting quite a while & her coat is definately shinier, always a bonus!

This heat sure isn't helping though, glad I've clipped already :)
 
i was told many years ago that any changes in omph around this time is due to the change of coat, i use to see this a lot in the older horse, more energy is put into hair growth and you loose the omph. by popping them on energy or propell their omph came back.
 
My cob has been like this for a few weeks now, so gave him a full clip at the weekend and put him on a few hand fulls of oats (along with his balancer and hadfull of chaff) and linseed oil and bit of salt. Looking and feeling lots better and took delight in galloping off down the beach the other evening on our hack :)
 
Mine was like this about 2weeks ago, getting chaff, and horse and pony cubes, now changed him to Allen &page ride and relax and hi fi mollases free, much better deffinatly got some in the tank, he does still get his calmer and linseed oil
 
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