Feed help!

[LouiseG]

My horse is a really good doer and has been on half a scoop of happy hoof with equivite for vits and mins since April. His coat is lovely and shiny and he has bundles of energy most of the time.

As winter is on the way I need to add something fairly basic as a replacement for losing the grass/protein, can anyone recommend anything? He goes bonkers on balancer (spillers original turned him nuts), so been looking at Spillers cool mix, Allen and page ride and relax, calm and condition... The list is endless!

Must be something extremely non heating as he is a cheeky 5 year old so excess energy is not something I want just now and quite reluctant to put him on anything with too much starch or cereals in it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[TGM]

Do you really need to give him anything else if he is in good condition and with bundles of energy? Presumably he will be getting extra hay when the grass dies back?

 

[spollard828]

I like calm and condition, or fast fibre if you want some more basic... However a none molased sugarbeat is cheaper. I feed Chestnut Horse Feeds course fibre feed to my energetic pony, seems to keep her looking good but keeps her managable.

 

[sleepingdragon10]

Do you really need to give him anything else if he is in good condition and with bundles of energy? Presumably he will be getting extra hay when the grass dies back?

Agree with TGM here.....if he'll be having ad lib forage you probably won't need anything else.

 

[LouiseG]

Thats what I was thinking, why change anything if he is healthy etc. He gets haylage just now when he comes in at night, think about 18lbs on top of his grass, and gets a little top up at 10pm so he is getting lots of haylage. I thought they needed hard feed to replace the protein they will lose from the grass? I could be completely wrong, I am not very clued up about feed and the more I research the more confused I get!

 

[Moomin1]

Is there a reason why he has even been getting that over summer? Surely the grazing is enough to provide him with everything he needs during summer months?

Personally, however, that aside, I wouldn't be looking at giving anything more than you already are tbh over winter if he is a good doer.

My mare is the same and she will just be getting plenty of forage, possibly some chaff with a vit supplement once the grazing completely goes.

 

[TGM]

Thats what I was thinking, why change anything if he is healthy etc. He gets haylage just now when he comes in at night, think about 18lbs on top of his grass, and gets a little top up at 10pm so he is getting lots of haylage. I thought they needed hard feed to replace the protein they will lose from the grass? I could be completely wrong, I am not very clued up about feed and the more I research the more confused I get!

If you are planning on feeding him haylage then even less need to give him additional feed, as haylage retains much more of the nutrients of fresh grass than hay. I would stick with your current feed for now, and reassess if you feel he is starting to drop condition or need more energy as the winter progresses. However, as he is a good doer and on plenty of haylage overnight, then I think it is unlikely that he will need more unless you start to work him really hard!

 

[LouiseG]

Thanks for all your replies! I think it's probably sensible to keep him on what he's on then, he's already a bit hyper with all the haylage so he obviously doesn't need anything further in the form of energy!