Feed Advice

KatWuh

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Joined
17 April 2022
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Hi

I have a 6.5 year old Connie gelding who I got in June this year. He's the most laid back pony (which I love) however can be lazy. He's currently out for the majority of the day (probably in for 4-5 hours) but will soon be coming in overnight for winter. He currently gets one feed a day of a scoop of Dengie Alfa A molasses free plus hay when in his stable. He's a good weight at the moment going into winter. I just want to make sure he's getting all the vitamins he needs - any recommendations for supplements/balancers which won't send him loopy? Thanks.
 
I'd just add some soaked grass nuts or alfa-beet to his current chaff and leave well alone. I have one who's intolerant to soya (it turns him horribly sharp), and one who's allergic to cinnamon (her skin literally breaks out in welts), so feeds here are kept very plain indeed!
 
I feed my 13 year old Connie 3/4 scoop Alfa or any cheap chaff and 2 cups of balancer. Currently spillers daily balancer as it’s the cheapest but they are pretty much all the same. He’s in full work, ridden 4/5 times a week and does 20-30K endurance rides regularly. Very laid back, on ad-lib hay and grass approx 10 hours a day though that is dying off sadly. He’s 420kg xx
 
My connie doesn’t agree with Alfa so she’s on a half scoop of honeychop lite and healthy and a half scoop of grass nuts split between two feeds. In winter she has equimins advance complete balancer.
 
He's currently not getting any extra vitamins, so a balancer that has all those would be a good place to start. TopSpec Lite, Spillers Daily, Baileys Lo Cal etc. There's plenty to choose from.

You could go down the route of getting his hay and grass analysed but it's a bit of an expensive journey.
 
My advice is to careful with balancers, read the ingredients carefully. We have had horses react to alfalfa, linseed, seaweed, Brewers yeast. Now we are just adding salt, oily herbs and Aloe Vera to Agrobs Weisencobs and they are doing fine.
 
I found Equine Answers 365 balancer to be good. I changed my horses from Top Spec balancers and there was no difference in performance or condition in them. The EA365 was much more cost effective and being a powder it wasn't bulked up with fillers.
 
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