Barley rings vs Calm & Condition?

SaffronWelshDragon

SaffronWelshDragon

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Hi all,

Just a quick one, my sis' 24 year old NF pony mare is looking a bit too lean for my liking at the moment. Her front teeth are worn nearly all the way down, so she can only eat long grass (not a lot of it around at the moment, and the snow certainly isn't helping). Her cheek teeth are fine and were checked a couple of months ago. She's having loads of hay, hard to say, but 3 haynets (emptied onto the ground) about 4kg each per day. She's a slow eater, but she's now separated from her bestest friend, who would scoff Mist's hay while she was having a rest. She also has 300g of Speedi-beet, and Pro balance +. She did have a mug of linseed as well, but apart from a beautiful coat, I've not noticed any weight gain. She's not ridden much over the winter, though when she do go for a hack she's full of energy.

Anyway waffle over, I feel I should give her something more calorific in her dinner, a friend has bought her oldie a bag of barley rings which got me thinking about getting some for Mist. The I started looking at A&P Calm & Condition, so am a bit confused now lol! Just bought her a small bottle of vegetable oil to put in her feed as well, how much should I be giving her?
 
It sounds like she isn't eating enough forage at the moment due to her poor teeth so I would look at providing easy to eat hay replacers for her to have alongside her hay rather than starchy feed like barley rings. Things like grass chaff or soaked grass pellets. If you think she may have any tendency towards laminitis or Cushings then you could consider Fast Fibre or soaked high fibre cubes although these are not as calorific as the grass products.
 
Thanks TGM, she does manage to eat all her hay, it just takes some time, it's all gone by the morning though and at least I know she's the one eating it all, not Saf :) She's been with us 14 years and never displayed any laminitis type issues, and no obvious signs of cushings, hence me not worrying too much about feeding cereals.
 
If her hay is all gone by the morning then I would up her hay ration so there is a little left in the morning if she is losing weight!
 
Horses really haven't evolved to eat starchy feeds; I'd increase the speedibeet (300g isn't much) and add, as TGM suggests, hay replacers such as fast fibre. You can feed more than a mugful of linseed for weight gain; I'd feed two.
 
IMO, don't think she is getting enough forage. Try feeding her ad lib or giving her a big trug of readigrass overnight aswell. 4kg a day doesn't sound a lot, one of my nets holds 7kg haylage (I am aware haylage weight more than hay) and she has 4 nets a day (adlib). Up the speedibeet too, recommended amounts are more like 0.8kg dry weight minimum. What you feed sounds good, it is the quantities you feed. More of the same will be better than lost of bits of things in this case I think, forage being the most important. Re calm and condition: biggest sack of crap I have ever fed my horse! Good luck :)
 
My 34 year old pony always picks up on fast fibre or sugar beet and barley rings, that have been soaked and gone sloppy. He covers everything in it, but it gets the weight on him no worries. Good luck :)
 
Our oldie with worn teeth and 1 missing (he's 23 this year) did well on speedibeet, and Bailey No 4 softened to mush in the speedibeet, with a slosh of linseed oil. However saw the A&P lady and she recommended half and half fast fibre and veteran vitality, and he's doing just as well on that. Haven't quite made up my mind which is best value/easiest for me though! (had to bulk buy the lineed oil a little out of my way)
 
SaffronWelshCob said:
Hi all,

Just a quick one, my sis' 24 year old NF pony mare is looking a bit too lean for my liking at the moment. Her front teeth are worn nearly all the way down, so she can only eat long grass (not a lot of it around at the moment, and the snow certainly isn't helping). Her cheek teeth are fine and were checked a couple of months ago. She's having loads of hay, hard to say, but 3 haynets (emptied onto the ground) about 4kg each per day. She's a slow eater, but she's now separated from her bestest friend, who would scoff Mist's hay while she was having a rest. She also has 300g of Speedi-beet, and Pro balance +. She did have a mug of linseed as well, but apart from a beautiful coat, I've not noticed any weight gain. She's not ridden much over the winter, though when she do go for a hack she's full of energy.

Anyway waffle over, I feel I should give her something more calorific in her dinner, a friend has bought her oldie a bag of barley rings which got me thinking about getting some for Mist. The I started looking at A&P Calm & Condition, so am a bit confused now lol! Just bought her a small bottle of vegetable oil to put in her feed as well, how much should I be giving her?
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C&C is soaked before use so should be easier on her gnashers and I know people with poor do-ers, who sear by it. Barley Rings are very good for weight gain but they may be a bit hard to digest for a senior citizen like yours. They'd be easier to eat if you soaked them. It can also have dire effects on some horses and ponies - anything from skin lumps to frazzled brains (my very placid ID put me in hospital when he was under the influence!!) Oil is good but don't overdo it as too much can lead to the leaching of other nutrients from the gut.

Have you tried any of the specialist veteran feeds? They are designed to be easily digested while giving all the goodies that elderly horses need. We've used Pink Powder at times with ours as it seems to help with digestion and I noticed the other day that NAF have brought out a version for seniors called (not surprisingly) Pink Powder Senior. As she is all but toothless you might find Readigrass useful as a partial hay replacement. It's chopped, freeze-dried grass (not hay) and very tasty (well, it smells delicious and Horse loves it) It should be easy to chew and would probably stimulate her appetite.

Would it be convenient for you to split her daily food ration up into three or four smaller feeds? She might find it easier.

Oh, and don't worry too much about the teeth. So long as their feed is soft and moist they can learn to cope with few or no teeth. My cousin is on a yard where there is a 37 year old with no teeth at all and he seems to have hardened his gums so he can even eat the odd carrot, never mind hay!
 
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TwoStroke said:
Horses really haven't evolved to eat starchy feeds; I'd increase the speedibeet (300g isn't much) and add, as TGM suggests, hay replacers such as fast fibre. You can feed more than a mugful of linseed for weight gain; I'd feed two.
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It depends on whether the 300g is dry or soaked.
 
Ellen durrow - I don't think it really does. 300g dry weight is not much when you want to increase calories imo.

OP if you feed much oil it may be wise to add vitamin E to mop up the free radicals produced from the digestion of the oil.
 
Thanks for all your helpful replies :) Some very varied opinions! :D

Just to clarify Ellie, Mist has roughly 3 x 4kg haynets = 12kg a day, sorry if it wasn't clear.

Jessi&Magic said:
I had a 22 yo newforest pony and he has oil for weight gain. Vet recommended 50ml per day. I split this into two feeds (:
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Thanks for that, sloshed a bit in her speedibeet today and she didn't seem bothered.

Ellen Durow said:
It depends on whether the 300g is dry or soaked.
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It's the dry weight I'm measuring :) Not sure how much to give her, but am definitely getting some grass nuts to soak anyway as she always does fine in the summer on just grass :)
 
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