Can I have some feeding advice please

naza

naza

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So pony is currently fed competition mix and sugar beat, I think he looks okay condition wise, he's out at night and then in in the day with some hay but I worry that he needs something extra. Either a feed or supplement to give him a bit more energy? As I'd say he's in quite hard work, I event him (okay only at be90 level) but I work hard to keep him fit, he's ridden 5/6 times a week with a mix of schooling, hacking, jumping and maybe a lunge.
So what I'm probably asking is what do you give yours? Or what would you give him? He's 14.2 btw
 
You are feeding a lot of starch and sugar, both will potentially make him fizzy or fat depending on how he utilises the feed, he may benefit from less sugar/ starch and more fibre/ oil which should give him more real energy and stamina. He is not really working hard in the true sense, more like light to medium and should be able to do that on very little hard feed if he has plenty of grass and or hay.
The event horse in my yard, competing 90/ 100 was originally on competition mix, that is what his previous owner gave him so used it for the first few months, when he was changed to Calm and Condition with Alfalfa pellets and oil his energy levels became better, his weight stopped yo -yoing and his temperament improved generally, he was more relaxed and ate up better, his topline also improved and maintaining his weight over winter has become much easier even on a reduced amount.
For your pony I would cut out the mix and replace it with a high fibre feed and linseed or oil, getting rid of the mix may help fairly quickly, give a balancer to add vits and mins if you are not feeding a supplement or enough of a compound feed. Don't forget to give him access to salt as he is probably sweating a fair bit.
 
I agree that it does not sound like your pony is in hard work at the moment, by the proper definitions. Hard work is usually things like racing, top level eventing etc. Does your pony actually feel lazy?
 
I'm another who would cut out the mix, can course havoc with the hindgut and so many better way to provide energy as stated about in ( be positive reply) fibre and oil are better.
 
Wouldn't say he's fizzy or fat
Okay I guess he's not in hard work but in comparison to others my yard, in my eyes he is but no not by the proper definition he isn't.
In the winter he gets that plus Alfa a btw
A high fibre feed such as calm and condition? Think I've always just seen the calm bit and mistook that for slow and just assumed that competition mix would give him the needed energy as did actually ring up some feed company's, told them what I did, what I wanted ie more energy and they suggested competition mix
How do I go about finding a balancer for him? And yes was thinking about getting him a salt block.

Tgm- it's hard to say what he feels like of I'm honest, he can sometimes feel a bit slow off my leg and missing that spark hence me asking if I should add a supplement if he's missing something in his diet and the grass he's on also isn't really anything great.

Also, sorry if this is silly to ask, but when you say oil do you mean like cod liver oil or like Alfa a oil?

Thank you for your replies, I do appreciate them.
 
Are you feeding the mix at the recommended rate for his size? If not it would definitely be worth feeding a vit/min supplement or balancer to ensure he is getting his daily requirements, especially if grazing isn't brilliant. You need to reduce the dosage of the supplement according to how much of the recommended rate of mix, he is getting. So if you are feeding a quarter of the recommended amount of mix, then add three quarters of the recommended amount of supplement/balancer.

Obviously not all lack of energy problems are feed related, low grade physical problems (esp things like spavins etc) can first manifest as laziness, so try and rule that out too.
 
naza said:
Wouldn't say he's fizzy or fat


I wasn't implying he was fizzy or fat but often the high energy mixes just give them an instant buzz which is not what you want for eventing or they just store the excess which can become fat which means they require more work to keep them fit, not being off your leg is an example of the feed not really working for your pony and lacking spark much the same.
One of my lazier types was worse on comp mix than just plain grass nuts as he came out for 5 mins full of energy but even when fit did not remain forward, he did well on C&C with oats and oil for the extra if required.
Oil such as plain veg oil or micronised linseed is good slow release energy that they can use well when they need some stamina.
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Okay he used to be on baileys top line conditioning cubes would that be better to go back onto?
and he used to have 'energy' by naff but took him off that because i didnt really see/feel a difference and he went through 2x bottles so was enough time to test it.

how much oil? like a table spoon?
 
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