Feed

[Sassy!]

I’m looking for some advise on feeding for my mare who is coming out of winter looking a little lean.. she’s not awful but would prefer her to look a little rounder!
At present she is in low work
She is on spillers senior mash and Speedi beet with mollichaff
2 meals a day..
Teeth etc all ok

 

[Amymay Again]

How much hay/haylage is she getting?

Can you post a picture?

 

[Sassy!]

She’s in a night and has 2 big nets and usually leaves about 1/4

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

You say teeth all ok but is this because you haven't seen her quidding, or has the dentist come out?

I'd pop her on some micronised linseed or Coolstance Copra, both feeds high in fat so you don't needs loads of it to see a difference but they're very good for weight maintenance (and skin which is always nice).

 

[Sassy!]

dentist has been out recently
Would you add copra to mash and speedibeat as well

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

dentist has been out recently
Would you add copra to mash and speedibeat as well

Yeah, it depends on personal preference, you wouldn't want to feed it instead as you only feed a half cup, maybe a mug full, so it wouldn't make much of a feed in terms of fibre.

The senior mash has more fibre and more protein per 100g than the speedibeet, so in theory looks like the better feed, however it's combined sugar & starch percentage is 10.5% whereas the speedibeet is 5%. So you could replace the speedibeet with a little more of the senior mash but if the horse is prone to being metabolic in any way, then you don't want to do this.

Alternatively you could swap her from hay to haylage if she'll tolerate it and you can get the good stuff, sometimes this helps without fiddling too much with different feeds.

As an aside I would also check what Millochaff it is you feed her, as some of their chaff's are over 20% sugar from memory which imo, no horse should be eating

 

[HopOnTrot]

Tbh in March I probably wouldn’t bother, the grass will start to come in this month and I always found it the month they look slim as more light means more work but still not a lot of grass.

If they’re skinny in May or November that’s when I’d make changes.

 

[KittenInTheTree]

My 16.3hh mare gets 500g dry weight of Spillers Digest+ Conditioning Cubes, and 500g of Spillers Shine + Conditioning Mix, combined with 1kg of Baileys Highlight Hi Fibre Horse And Pony Cubes, and a generous handful of Dengie Alfa A Original, soaked and spilt over two feeds per day.

(I prefer not to think about how much hay she has each day on top of this, but it's measured in small bales instead of kilos.)

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

My 16.3hh mare gets 500g dry weight of Spillers Digest+ Conditioning Cubes, and 500g of Spillers Shine + Conditioning Mix, combined with 1kg of Baileys Highlight Hi Fibre Horse And Pony Cubes, and a generous handful of Dengie Alfa A Original, soaked and spilt over two feeds per day.

(I prefer not to think about how much hay she has each day on top of this, but it's measured in small bales instead of kilos.)

Conversely my 4yo 17.2hh (and growing) gelding gets half a scoop of Dengie Topline & Shine, and a 3/4 balancer cup of Rowan & Barbary Fibre Mash twice a day.. he'd be fat and hit the moon if he was fed what yours is fed. That's why it's so tricky as each horse is so variable.

 

[marmalade76]

Tbh in March I probably wouldn’t bother, the grass will start to come in this month and I always found it the month they look slim as more light means more work but still not a lot of grass.

If they’re skinny in May or November that’s when I’d make changes.

Agreed.

 

[IrishMilo]

I'd recently had really good results with Equerry Conditioning Mash. I've always been a bit skeptical of the shiny bagged feeds, but it's worked an absolute treat for getting weight on this winter for my boys who live out. I saw a marked improvement after 1 week when they were both looking a bit ribby.

They both get 1 Stubbs scoop (dry matter) mash and 2 scoops nuts split between two feeds with ad-lib hay through the day.