Feed experts ; what would you feed...

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midnight mayhem

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My 14.2hh very good doer mare? Living out 24/7, at the moment an almost ideal weight (leaner then usual) 17 years old welsh with poor feet (can be a bit thrushy) not much grass left in paddock. She currently only gets ridden about once a week on average either schooling or
hacking.
Just curious really what people would do different. :-)
 
Sounds like she needs the good ol' "barefoot" diet (its a HHOism) clinically, or should that be: mass anecdotally, proven to improve feet :D

Hi fibre, low sugar diet <5% sugar, micronised linseed and a good vit n min supplement such as pro hoof, d&h daily vit n min.

Do a search on barefoot diet and you will find many variations on that theme...
 
Just decent forage (hay/haylage or grass if there is some) with a small amount of unmollassed beet pulp plus a balancer. That is all she needs for the amount of work she is doing. If you can't feed very much grass or hay for any reason, increase the amount of beet pulp, but keep it low sugar, natives are evolved to make the most out of the least :)
 
I'd be inclined to say nothing but your pony is clearly lacking something if feed are rubbish. I'd maybe add some magnesium oxide to a mouthful of fast fibre or look at thunder brook feeds. I would also feed ad lib seaweed as its packed full of vits and mins. I've noticed a huge inmprovemnt n hoof quality sinc feeding seaweed. My girl loves it
 
Depends on what you are feeding her already to maintain that 'ideal weight'?

If I didn`t have access to that information I would start with ad-lib good quality forage & a forage balancer/vit/min supp(pro earth one that if formulated for feet) then go from there.....
 
If she's at the ideal weight and looking and seeming well, I wouldn't change anything!

Is it just the thrush that's included in "poor feet", or are they poor in other ways as well? What do you feed at the moment? The grass will be romping through any day now, so I'd see what happens when the grass arrives before I make too many changes or it will be difficult to know what's having an effect.
 
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