A little food advice

[BoxCleva]

hey folks ,
We took our boy (4 yr old Welsh Sec D gelding) off all hard foods and started feeding him hay on an ad hoc basis. This was done to eliminate food as a possible cause of his rude behaviour. I am now happy that the food wasn't a factor and we have made considerable headway with him .He is currently going through just over half a bale of hay a day.

He is slightly underweight and has been since we have had him, so I would like to try and address this as I am concerned that he is likely to come out of teh winter losing more weight rather than gaining.

I am very concious of what feed we put into to him, so my YM suggested a mix of the following :
Hi- Fi
Balancer
Soya or Linseed oil
+ ad hoc hay

He isn't doing a lot at the moment, ridden once and week and schooled in hand every day.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the above diet ?

thanks

 

[cptrayes]

Can you see his ribs?

I suspect since he is a Welsh D that the last problem you'll have come May/June is that he is a little underweight.

If he was mine, I'd be inclined to continue ad lib hay so you know he is not hungry, and let him be a bit spare for the rest of January and February, in the almost certain knowledge that you'll be having to start restricting his grazing in March in case he gets too fat, escpecially since he is not doing very much work.

 

[BoxCleva]

yes, you can see his ribs. It's not glaringly obvious, but you can see them nonetheless.

I considering feeding him again as he hasn't put on any weight in the last 6 months.

 

[AmyMay]

Does he get as much hay as he can eat? It doesn't sound as if he gets much.

 

[wench]

The feed sounds ok... I wouldnt want to be pumping him full of conditioning cubes!

 

[BoxCleva]

Amy - He gets more than he can eat. I.e when I arrive in the morning there is usually a little left in the nets and a little left in the evening.

Wench - thanks, and yes I didn't like the sound of that either.

 

[L&M]

Is the hay his only forage, or does he also have access to grass?

 

[BoxCleva]

Hay is his only forage unfortunately. When he's out the field is pretty much destroyed with all the rain we've had (quagmire) so nothing of any nutritional value on it

 

[amandaco2]

Slightly underweight would be ideal imho.
I'd go for fibre oil based feeding if he needs anything with adlib forage

 

[TwoStroke]

Iiwy, I would feed hay in the field before giving hard feed. Are his teeth & worming up to date? I agree with cptrayes that being a little underweight is preferable when going into spring.