Advice on what to feed my 15 year old mare?

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Missfleurie

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Hi,

At the moment my horse is in lightwork, which is going to be increased a little bit (she hacks out about 5 times a week, and soon she's going to be schooled about 3-4 times a week and hacked out twice). She is barefoot, is a bit of a hard keeper and can suffer from sweet itch so I was wondering if anyone had any tips on what I could feed her that's relatively cheap (cheap for a thoroughbred haha!).

She is in working livery at the moment and I don't feed her, but I think she's on alfabeet, mollichaf and conditioning cubes at the moment.

If you know of any feeds etc. that don't break the bank then please let me know. Xx
 
Well her current feeds aren't BF friendly and I wouldn't want to feed Alfalfa to an itchy horse as it can cause skin issues, plus it does make some BF horses footy.

So I would use oats, micronised linseed (can be fed in larger quantities than the normal 'cup' if you want to use it to add condition), unmolassed sugar beet and if you want a chaff to slow down a food bolter, use a timothy grass chaff. Plus the good vit and min supplement eg pro balance. Copra is also an option that some like for poor doers. Also true ad lib forage will help.
 
I was thinking of trying her on healthy hooves molasses free as it's apparently good for their feet, and also has garlic which can help with the sweet itch and using some type of sugar beet, I don't know loads about feed so I didn't know alfabeet would be bad for her. Is there a particular type of sugar beet you recommend? I'll definitely look into the micronised linseed :)

Thank you:)
 
Garlic is not good for horses with sweet itch, it is not that good for any horse but can make the sweet itch far worse as it stimulates the immune system which is counter productive as a horse with sweet itch already has an overreactive immune system.

Brewers yeast can be good to help reduce the symptoms, avoid sugar in any form, so unmolassed sugar beet such as speedibeet if you want to feed it, micronised linseed will help with the condition of her skin as well as keep the weight on.
 
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