Condition feed for pony

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Scot123

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Hello, would like some thoughts and experiences on this one please!

I have a pony who has lost a lot of condition/weight over winter. Just discovered he had a fairly high worm count, so he's been wormed. Looking to now get his condition back up.

Being a pony and being this time of year I'm thinking about laminitis. So am wondering what (if any) conditioner you might recommend? I was thinking either Baileys No 4 but this might be a bit too 'much' for the pony but also has probiotics which might be good for his post-worm insides, or Alfa-beet which is Laminitis Trust recommended.

Any thoughts on these, or any others you might think of? Thank you!
 
Hi. He lives out 24/7 and is still getting hay as well as two small feeds a day of Hi-Fi Lite and Spillers Lite Balancer. He's not been in much work over winter...
 
I would feed high fibre low sugar/starch

For weight gain, micronized linseed, Saracen equijewel

There is a conditioning feed aimed at cushings horses/ponies called cushcare by Dodsen and Horrel

I feed mine Saracen super fibre pencils with micronized linseed and cushcare and alter the amounts depending on weight requirements

Might be an idea to test for cushings if he had weight loss ?
 
I too agree with the fibre low sugar starch route you could just up the chaff and add micronised linseed alongside the balancer, or you could opt for a higher calorie chaff like a chopped grass or just the regular hifi molasses free, you might find that is enough now the grass is coming through.
 
Thanks! Yes, definitely agree about starch/sugar - I've been looking at all the nutritional information on the conditioners and just getting confused! Hadn't considered linseed. I like the idea of maybe just upping the chaff and adding linseed - sounds as though it's a generally good thing to feed, anyway?
 
Scot123 said:
Thanks! Yes, definitely agree about starch/sugar - I've been looking at all the nutritional information on the conditioners and just getting confused! Hadn't considered linseed. I like the idea of maybe just upping the chaff and adding linseed - sounds as though it's a generally good thing to feed, anyway?
Click to expand...

That way you can increase/decrease as necessary, mine currently has half a cup in each feed morning and night but gets a full cup in the winter
 
The best thing I have ever fed mine is fibre beet. He got fibre beet for the fibre - it is high fibre low sugar low starch and I also bought him some top spec cool balancer for the vitamins - he never looked better! - Worked better than some of the conditioning feeds I've tried
 
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