A question regarding feed and work levels

I gladly accept the offer of your son as a sacrifice to the sun gods - perhaps we could have a bonfire with him and toast marshmallows too?
My three live out too and I have to soak hay and wheelbarrow it to the field...not fun in winter rain, but two of mine are youngsters and I try to keep them naturally. I do rug them up well though, and their field has natural shelter (plus they're good doers, who get grass colic).
But I've never fed them feed company rations, and most vets complement me on how healthy they are...
Hope Patches is inspired in the Autumn for you!
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I would give her a bit more feed, I've seen some of your recentish pictures of her and always think she looks very well for a cob, lean and fit. But as she is lacking in energy it would be good to feed her a bit more, is she very prone to putting on weight? I used to have a cob who also did a lot of work and was at times lethargic, fortunately he wasn't prone to putting on weight though so I could feed him loads of energy and he still remained lean as he was working so hard (a mixture of hunting, endurance type work, schooling and jumping 6 days a week). He was in similar condition to how patches normally looks though probably with a bit more muscle as he did more power work (jumping, galloping and reasonably high level dressage).

You could her on an endurance mix, Staypower by D&H is quite good to give her more stamina. What worked best for my horse were D&H Barley rings (for energy), oil for stamina and alfalfa for vitamins and minerals and sometimes he had sugarbeet if he was looking a bit thin.

In fact now I've started feeding alfalfa I swear by it as it provides slow release energy, vitamins and minerals and is fibre so best suited for the horse's digestion. So prehaps start her on this see what happens, and if needed add some oil and prehaps some barley or oats in a few weeks if she still lacks energy.
 
i would say light work.
i would have said my mare who hacks out in walk and biut of trot and some light schooling 4 days a week for an hour each time is retired and not in work.
when she was competing-usually every 2 weeks,med dress, schooling and or an hours hack everyday she was in medium, work.she did fine off poor grass and hifi with some minerals and vits added.shes ish.
 
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i would say light work.
i would have said my mare who hacks out in walk and biut of trot and some light schooling 4 days a week for an hour each time is retired and not in work.
when she was competing-usually every 2 weeks,med dress, schooling and or an hours hack everyday she was in medium, work.she did fine off poor grass and hifi with some minerals and vits added.shes ish.

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I've read that a few times. Are you really saying that you don't consider your horse to be work and think of her as retired when you're hacking and schooling 4 times a week?
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Does that mean you only consider a horse to be in work if they're competing?
 
But your cob is doing the same hours that her horse was when 'competing', Patches, and yet she thought that was 'medium work' at the time, although a dressage test is only a few minutes, and at medium level isn't that demanding?
Clarification needed for us confused old folks
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an hours walking is not demanding on a horse at all.
in the wild a horse would walk many miles on just forage in the diet all year round.
personally i think alot of people tend to over estimate workload with their horses.
an hours walking plus 20mins in the school in walk and trot doesnt make a demand from my horse,she doesnt even sweat.she doesnt have lots of muscle on her as she isnt building them up, because she is hardly doing any work at all!so yes i would say her workload is negligable and consider her resting/retired.
i dont think a horse has to be competing to be 'in work' if i was riding everyday for a hour and doing loads of trot and canter then i would say my horse had a workload.

when she was competing she did alot more work-everyday for an hour plus which included trot and canter and good gallop work as well as schooling,often twice a day.she only does walk and a bit of trot these days

its not about how many hours you do with them rather what actual work they are doing during that hour that makes up the workload!

so yes i think my horse was just in medium work when competing once a fortnight(which included alot of time in the lorry too) and ridden once or twice a day doing schooling and hacking walk,trot,canter and gallop with a small amount of jumping

i would have said eventing would be a hard workload.

im not saying im right,just my own opinion!
 
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