Advice please! new horse, new feeding plan to decide on!

mad4

mad4

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So im just getting ready here, my new best friend is being vetted next monday and could potentially be coming home with me next tuesday! :D
So i need to have a plan in mind for what the heck im going to feed her!

She is a rising 4 shire x WB mare (16.3 atm) with no health issues
currently a 3-4 / 5 condition score - good condition
not currently worked, minimal turnout but 2 med haynets daily of good haylage
not currently fed any bucket feed at all and O' says is a good doer.

when she comes here she will get daily turnout, but the grass is not fabulous quality. she will come in every night and be given ad lib quality HAY.
and i will be starting the backing process with her once she has settled in.

what if anything would you offer as a bucket feed? a balancer? or some mix & alfalfa with a balancer? our feed merchants stock a good range from A&P, saracen, D&H, baileys etc. but im not sure what to try first.

i dont need her to gain any condition but dont want her to go backwards as she still has some growing to do, and at the same time i dont want to turn her into fire breathing monster while im trying to get to know her!

would appreciate your thoughts & advice
 
Firstly, ideally you would bring some of the haylage she is currently on home with her then gradually switch her over to your hay, to give her hindgut time to adjust.

If you don't want to put condition on her then IMHO the best thing to feed is a good quality vit/min supplement in a low calorie feed. For the supplement I would personally go for either Forageplus balancer, Pro Balance from Progressive Earth on Ebay, or Equimins Advance Concentrate. To put it in you could try fast fibre, it is low calorie, low sugar and low starch, easy to soak and quite palatable.

You might find that she drops off a bit on hay compared to haylage though, in which case you might want to top up a bit. Unmolassed Alfa may be good (eg. Alfa A unmolassed or alfa a oil) as it is fairly high in protein and calcium which would help her grow - but obviously you don't want too much condition on a youngster anyway :)

I personally wouldn't feed mix - it is quite high in starch and sugar which is more likely to cause problems than solve them for you. And with mixes you generally have to feed a LOT for them to get the right amount of vits and mins from them. I'd only go for higher starch (than say 10%) if the low starch feeds I was feeding weren't providing the condition or energy the horse needed - likely to be in hard work.
 
After the age of two her nutritional requirements are that of an adult not youngstock. Personally, if her condition is good as it is on the management you describe and bearing in mind she will be getting more fresh grass from now on. I wouldn't personally feed her, I would probably give her a vitamin and mineral lick in her stable but that's it. Saying that, you may want to give her a little feed in which case, baileys lo cal balancer would be a good one, or feed a chaff feed with a supplement (for the supplement I like equimins tip top) for the chaff I personally like ultra grass by baileys it's not so stalky and hard, but d&h do 'just grass' or there are the dengie range which contain alfalfa). As I said like the grass chaffs, they are simply chopped spring grass, and they last for flipping ages. Cornwall Farmers have them in stock or can get them in to order depending on which store you use, all other feed stores can order them in through their supplier (Bones). If you are feeding chaff and a supplement, I personally would feed no more than 1/4 to 1/2 a scoop, since it sounds like she doesn't need 'feeding' just needs to get her RDA of vitamins and minerals.
 
thanks both,

yes, forgot to say i plan to buy in a couple of bales of the same brand haylege so that i can transition her slowly to hay but yes, of course thats the plan.

i was hoping you would say that re. minimal feeding required and basically just making sure she has her essential mnerals & vits.Thanks Fuzzypuff thats great advice about staying away from mixes as i dont want to be feeding her masses or altering her temperament. i might try her with a lick and experiment to see if she prefers alfalfa or a grass based chaff.

although would the alfalfa be a better base for a growing girl?
 
It all depends really, the best base for any horse growing or not is fibre, I personally stay clear of alfalfa now as many horses seem to have some sort of reaction to it, even though it's low in sugar, there seems to be something in the alfalfa itself that sends some horses either footy or loopy. I changed about a year ago to a grass chaff and I've never looked back, infact, my boy needs less feed with the grass chaff than when he was on alfalfa, he looks much better for it too. Last winter as a four year old he was on a huge scoop of Alfa oil, a scoop of sugar beet, 3 cups of linseed and additional soya oil, plus his vitamin and mineral supplement twice a day he still looked a bit weedy, this winter, he is on one level scoop of ultra grass, and about 2/3 scoop of speedie beet and his supplement twice a day and he's a bit of a porker in comparison.

Another option is something like fast fibre for adding the supplement too, although a lot of younger horses don't like slop so much
 
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