Balanced diet for my pony

floradora09

floradora09

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I have a 14hh Newforest gelding who's coming up to the age of 20. He lives out 24/7, and is ridden at weekends, and once or twice in the week. Although in the next couple of weeks he's excersied most days for about an hour or so. A while ago, he pulled a shoulder muscle whilst doing XC, and is still a little pottery doing schoolwork- so he's mainly hacked. My hopes are that I'll be able to showjump him a little this summer, but mainly have fun with him and see him going happily and healthily into his twenties.

However, it has come to my attention that he may not be recieving all the vitamins and minerals that he needs. Please could you take a look at his current diet and give suggestions?

Diet:

Hay morning and evening
Grass all day (still in winter field)
1 scoop spillers senior conditioning mix
Handful of Hi-Fi Senior
About 1/2 scoop of soaked speedi-beet
Equi-flex
Garlic
Glug of Sunflower Oil

A lady at my yard says I need to give him more vitamins, by feeding a general vitamin supplement and salt. However, there is also a viral infection of the liver going around the local area, so I thought it would be good to feed him a "B plus" supplement, to help fend that off- but then would he be "overdosed" on some vitamins if he has the B supplement AND a general supplement?

Thanks for your time and answers- it's much appreciated as I'm very confused!

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Most commercial mixes and cubes are supplemented with vitamins and minerals, but to receive the full RDA you have to feed the mix or cube at approximately the manufacturer's recommended amount for your horse's size. So you need to check with Spiller's how much they recommend for a pony your size to be fed a day. If you feed significantly less than that, then in theory you should top up with a vitamin and mineral supplement. If you are feeding half the recommended amount of mix, then you should add half the recommended daily dose of vit/min supplement.

That said, a lot of horses do very well without a vitamin/mineral supplement, especially when they have access to good grazing and hay/haylage.
 
Ok, I see. So basically I'll check how much spillers says he needs in order to have his RDA, and if I'm not feeding enough, top him up a little with a vit and min supplement?

If that is the case, should I feed him the amount that's reccogmended (sp?!?), or less, as he's already having some of his vits and mins from the spillers mix?

Thanks!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Ok, I see. So basically I'll check how much spillers says he needs in order to have his RDA, and if I'm not feeding enough, top him up a little with a vit and min supplement?

[/ QUOTE ] Yes.

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If that is the case, should I feed him the amount that's reccogmended (sp?!?), or less, as he's already having some of his vits and mins from the spillers mix?

[/ QUOTE ] Feed less than the full recommended amount of the supplement. For example, if you are giving half the recommended amount of mix, then feed half the recommended amount of supplement. If you are feeding a quarter of the recommended amount of mix, then feed three quarters of the recommended amount of supplement. If you are feeding a third of the recommended amount of mix then feed two thirds of the recommended amount of supplement.



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look on the bag if he is getting the recommened amount on the bag there is no need to supplement him but if he is getting less than that you will need vits mins amio acids and trace elements with you will find this in seaweed for salt i would get him a himalyan salt lick. You say there is a liver virus going around get him on restore from global herbs that will help fuction and boost the liver. I also saw you said he hurt his sholder in xc thats why you just hack him did you ever have an oste out to him to see what he did?xx
 
Oh yes- that makes sense now. Thank you very much! I'll also check with Spillers if their mix supplies him with all of the range of vits and mins he needs.
 
[ QUOTE ]
look on the bag if he is getting the recommened amount on the bag there is no need to supplement him but if he is getting less than that you will need vits mins amio acids and trace elements with you will find this in seaweed for salt i would get him a himalyan salt lick. You say there is a liver virus going around get him on restore from global herbs that will help fuction and boost the liver. I also saw you said he hurt his sholder in xc thats why you just hack him did you ever have an oste out to him to see what he did?xx

[/ QUOTE ]

No I didn't- he's on loan and his owner was quite confident about him getting better anyway, although if he were mine I would've. But we did have a mucsle expert out, and she showed us some massage we could do with him, and I think that seemed to help.

I'll take a look at restore, my friend is feeding her horse "B plus" by Horse Health.
 
b vits are good for the liver but there are lots of different b vits and only some of them are good for the liver. restore is very good all natural and loads of different herbs to help the liver to fight infections make sure that it is fuctioning and will help repair aswell!xx
 
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