Am I feeding horse enough?

[Supertrooper]

A bit of history first, berg is a 16.3hh shire x cob, he is 13yrs and we've owned him since September 2010, when we got him he had no shape to him and was a blob on legs. I don't know his exact weight but had no definition to his body and both vet/farrier believed he was a case of laminitis waiting to happen, both advised that if he ever did get it there would be no chance of recovery due to his size. Having lost a cob with laminitis in 2008 I have learnt my lesson on that score! So he's had no rugs on all winter and has only had fibre feeds. He now looks like a different horse and is much more mobile also (when we got him he could hardly lift his backlegs off the ground when he walked!!) he is never going to be skinny as he's not the type but he now has shape to his body and so many people have noticed a change including vet and farrier

He has been out now 24/7 for a week on a small/medium sized paddock, it's not brilliant grass but I'm not worried about that as wouldn't want him on lush grazing anyway! He seems happy enough wandering around searching for grass and I know that when we have rain the grass will come through. At the moment we are still supplementing the grazing as we also have a 37yr old who has to fed all year round really and it's not fair for her to get something and not him: so he has......

AM - his decahedron feed toy with a handful of high fibre cubes or a handful of happy hoof in it (it's his favourite thing in the world and keeps him occupied for ages)

PM - his toy with a couple of handfuls of high fibre cubes plus a chopped up carrot. A medium slice of hay. 1/2 scoop of happy hoof, equivite supplement, mobility supplement and some carrots plus the odd 1/2 apple occas.

I feel a bit cruel though, is this enough at the moment? Oh also he's on field rest at the minute as he's slightly lame in trot so he's having a couple of weeks off, normally he is doing schooling work/hacking

 

[underdog]

Sounds fine to me as long as he is still getting a good quantity of fibre - even if you want the weight down he still needs to have constant fibre even if it is low quality (nutritional quality!) - there are various grass / hay substitutes for laminitics if the grass gets too much .

Just don't be one of those people to go 'he lives off air so i won't feed anything / put on starvation paddock' (unless on veterinary advice with severe overweight laminitic issues) because you are asking for stomach ulcers!

Sounds like you are on top of it tho!

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

That sounds ok to me (although without seeing him, it's difficult to tell). I would weight-tape him now, if you think his weight is about right and monitor weekly to keep him the same. If you feel that his weight is fine but you want him to have more fibre, you could give him oat or barley straw. Horses find both palatable but they are calorie free. We are planning to take our oldie in for a bucketful of dried grass, when we put them out 24/7, because she's bored of haylage now. This means that we can give the others, all good-doers, what they need and still keep her weight up.