Feed suggestions

[Myloubylou]

I am feeding my 450kg Welsh d mare twice daily a large handful grass chaff,mug top spec lite, mug grass nuts, 3/4 mug micronised linseed and 1/2 scoop of yumove supplement. She gets about 5 hours of ok grazing and 8kg hay overnight. She is in pretty light work (6 days mix of mainly hacking & schooling with bit of jumping) but think she's in need of a little more of something for when do jumping or schooling. She's very laid back & after very careful management she's probably 3 out of 5, can see her ribs when clipped if she moves in certain way. I have owned her for 11 years & for most of that she's been fat as is very good doer. What would you up/change if anything? She can get footy on cereals or alfalfa. Thanks

 

[supsup]

To be honest, I don't think I'd change anything. 8kg hay plus grazing sounds like plenty of forage for a good doer of 450kg, and it sounds like she's getting getting a balancer already (is the top spec lite fed at the recommended dose?). If it has taken careful management to get her weight down to a sensible level, then she's likely to just use any extra calories to pad out, not show more energy when ridden.
I'd probably look into all the other things that could help to get her more engaged: fitness, clipping to keep her cool enough for her work, get feedback from an instructor to make sure you're effective with your aids. Also maybe worth a critical look at her feet/shoeing to make sure she's 100% comfortable, since she sounds like she might be the sensitive sort.

I have a similar type of pony and found that keeping him fit and clipped was the most helpful thing I could do. I tried starchy feeds to give more energy, but I either got no response, or his extra energy went all into jumpy spookiness, and none of it gave me sensible forwardness.

 

[NOISYGIRL]

I am feeding my 450kg Welsh d mare twice daily a large handful grass chaff,mug top spec lite, mug grass nuts, 3/4 mug micronised linseed and 1/2 scoop of yumove supplement. She gets about 5 hours of ok grazing and 8kg hay overnight. She is in pretty light work (6 days mix of mainly hacking & schooling with bit of jumping) but think she's in need of a little more of something for when do jumping or schooling. She's very laid back & after very careful management she's probably 3 out of 5, can see her ribs when clipped if she moves in certain way. I have owned her for 11 years & for most of that she's been fat as is very good doer. What would you up/change if anything? She can get footy on cereals or alfalfa. Thanks

You could cut down the linseed and muzzle when turned out, are the grass nuts really needed if only feeding a mug ? or give nuts and not chaff to you need both ? Mine is allergic to alfalfa he is on topspec fibre nuts (5 feeds a day as I needed weight gain) with their senior lite balancer, I'd just stick to high fibre and the balancer