Change in food

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ClareGilby

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Hi All, our Nina should be with us soon and she is currently on just Haylage and nothing else. She could do with losing a bit of weight eventually, but I think that will happen when she is being ridden regularly.

The yard we are going to give two feeds a day which is what we will do and they all get fed at same time which is nice. Obviously we need to introduce her to food gradually but I am unsure of what I want to feed her yet. We have bought apple chaff and pony cubes and horse and pony mix.

Do you think this is a good starting block for her. The lady at the feed shop suggested a balancer for her. There are so many different foods out there it is confusing.

My vet suggested a bran mash for her at night as well. Everybody says different things, tad unsure now. Can I get it horribly wrong or is it just a matter of choice?
 
Just give her a low cal balancer (at recommended rates, topspec lite is one mug am and one cup pm) you don't need to mix the balancers with anything. Otherwise a small handful of chaff (pref low cal, apple chaff is full of sugar) with a vitamin and mineral supplement in. If overweight horse won't need anything other than good quality forage (hay or haylage) possibly soaked if wanting weight loss and either the balancer or vit/min supplemtn in a bit of chaff.
 
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Would definitely agree with a balancer (I use Saracen Stamm 30 or Baileys but there are many good ones) and perhaps some sugar free low cal chaff just to mix in. If she is still fat, hay has less calories than haylage but yes, perhaps with work she will trim down a little anyway :)
 
Another vote for a balancer, I like Topspec balancers and feed. Im surprised at your vet recommending bran mash though.

Just so she has something when the others do if she doesn't really need feed, I'd give something high fibre, low sugar/starch would steer clear of mollassed products and wouldn't think you need 3 feeds, you could just give some cubes (wetted or soaked into a mash mine loves this) or chop Top spec zero

Re evaluate when she has had the benefit of regular exercise, feed for what she's done not what she might do
 
Id go with pink powder, its a cheap balancer, contains most of what horses need and also contains pro biotics for a healthy gut. If she is a good doer personally I would def the apple chaff which is full of sugar, and stick her on Good Doer or similar.

And the mix I would substitute for either a high fibre cube (to fill her up and warm her up in the winter) or a speedi beet which is a slow release energy food and can be mixed with hot water or cold water and is ready in a few minutes (no soaking overnight like the sugar beets of years ago and for you to come up the next day and find a drowned rat who had been practicing his front crawl - yuk!) :) :)
 
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I wouldn't feed her. If she's not used to getting a bucket feed, then in theory she wouldn't expect one when others get fed. I admit it is more of an issue when in a barn setting, but it's still possible. And from my experience, if you give a feed of a handful of chop, the horse eats it and realizes the others are still eating and creates merry hell and threatens to call Pony Line :D

If there is absolutely no getting away from having to give something, I would use a treat ball with some cob nuts or the likes (Thunderbrooks do a nice alpine mix nut thing) to keep her occupied while the others are being fed.
 
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