Chaff/Alfalfa suggestions for veteran pony?

K

katieddunn

New User
Joined
15 October 2008
Messages
5
Location
South
Visit site
Hi,

Could anyone recommend a chaff /alfalfa that we could feed our veteran pony this winter as a grass and hay replacement please?

He is your typical ancient grey Welsh B who has been recycled through the pony club so many times that even the instructors had owned him during their childhood! He's now very much retired living the life of riley in our paddocks at home but has lost most of his teeth so finds grass and hay near impossible to eat. At the moment he is out sucking on the long grass in the fields and having "porridge" for tea each night made of fast fibre and sugar beet. He is completely well in himself, still snorting at the vet and racing laps of the field with his tail in the air when the fairrier comes to catch him in to trim his feet!

We are just concious that in the winter he will be sheltering in his stable for a lot of the time and I don't want his digestive system to be inactive for long periods of time between meals. He has had Hi-Fi Senior but even that is a bit of a chroe for him now.

Any suggestions will be greatfully received! Thank you
 
how about mollichaff veteran? all the golden oldies are on it at my yard

one owner treats it like sugar beet adding hot water and leaving it before feeding it and says her horse loves it, and says its more digestable, don't know if other people to this??
 
fibergy is good as it is v v short chop and can be fed in large amounts.

Even better though, I always recommend Grass pellets/cubes (not alfalfa cubes) as a hay replacement for geriatrics. Plenty of my clients horses are v healthy on them. For the average sixed 500kg horse, i would recommend you feed 1/2-3/4 bucket of soaked every 4 hours (only needs to be dampened for an hour or so to make them more palatable - the consitency of sugar beet if you were to take a handful of soaked beet, sqeeze the water out and you are left with the pulp-thats how you want it).

If he cant cope with that amount then feed less, if he eats it all then feed more - each horse is individual!

This feed is designed so the horse can pick it up and swallow without the need for chewing so would be great for your horsey. They like it as well!

He can still have his hard feeds of chaff/fibre cubes/SB mash as well
 
Have you tried Molli veteran chaff?

You can use it as a complete forage replacer, has mint and stuff in and smells lovely. Plus its cheap
grin.gif


http://www.horsehage.co.uk/MC-Veteran.html
 
Agree with the Mollichaff Veteran - the oldie here has it (35+ and not much left in the way of teeth!!).

You can also add high fibre pony nuts and sugar beet to it in a big trug to make a hay replacer. Just keep the trug filled so that he always has something to munch on. Its lovely and soft and contains everything oldies need and as poppymoo said smells lovely!!
 
My veteran (23 and still happily in light work) is fed Mollichaff Veteran Chaff and he loves it. Packed with antioxidants and very very palatable. I add wet speedibeet to it for bulk and a handful of Baileys Lo Cal as a balancer. He's doing really well on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top