Feed advice for youngster!

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telfs

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I've got a 3 year old ID and I'm a bit worried about her weight going into winter. She's recently gone from a field with a lifetime worth of grass to a field with relatively little grass but she's in on a night with haylage and a feed. In her feed is Stubbs scoop of soaked sugar beet, stubbs scoop of Alfa a oil and a small scoop of regular pony nuts. I'm on full livery so her feed is included so price wise I'm a bit reluctant to change it too much. Can anyone think of something I could add like a supplement to aid weight gain?
 
Hopefully you have her on a full ration of a good balancer like Blue Chip so that she is receiving all the vits/mins she needs each day? That should also give her some good protein which may help her with weight gain.

Is she actually thin at the moment? If so, can you ask that she has ad lib haylage?

Sarah
 
If it's unmollassed sugarbeet, that's a decent diet.

Is she on adlib haylege? ID can eat a phenomenal amount! They can sometimes be stingey on full livery.

An overall general balancer will help her get the best from her food. Haylege Balancer by NAF worked well for our ID.

If she needs more weight, swap the pony nuts to something like Calm and Condition. Also make sure she's warm enough.

Do bear in mind that she's 3yrs old and still growing so should be lean, not 'well covered'
 
If she's ID, then what she's having is plenty enough because you don't want her piling the weight on as it will affect her limbs in the future, at her age she should be lean but not poor as she's still growing. If I was going to give her anything extra it would be a balancer of some sort so that you don't feed calories, just the goodness she needs to build on or I'd use micronised linseed.
 
She's getting a standard size haylage net full at night. I that enough? Or does she need a trawler type net?

She's not really thin as has a grass belly (has been wormed etc) but shes not fat. I'd say she was more lean than thin. I know a lot of the places she looks thin will just be a lack of muscle as she not in any work but I'd prefer she just has a little more coverage going into winter.

Is there anything specifically that you'd all reccomend to put her on. I'm on a bit of a limited budget but if it works then I don't mind spending a little extra on a good product!
 
One normal sized net is a tiny amount for a large growing horse. I'd give that amount to a small fat cob overnight! Our ID will easily eat three large haynets a night.
Why not try giving her twice as much, on the floor (in a haybar or similar to reduce waste) or large holed nets, and see how she has left in the morning. Keep increasing it until she's got about quarter of a net left in the morning. As an idea of amount, Rebel will easily eat 3/4 of a small bale in a night.
 
Ideally you should weigh your haylage but if her net is empty in the morning she's probably not getting enough.

Also, a stubbs scoop of soaked sugar beet isn't enough (although it looks like a lot by volume) for a large, growing horse. As a guide, British Horse Feeds suggest 100g dry weight speedi-beet per 100kg bodyweight.

So a very cheap way to add condition would be to up her haylage and sugar beet, before making any other changes to her diet :)
 
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