Feeding a 4 year old Haflinger....

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carys220

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I need to put some weight onto my Haflinger Filly, she has just turned 4 and so not started doing any work yet. She is kept in a field with 2 natives who are both very good doers so the field is strip grazed. There is no other field we can put her in as we only have the 3 and she will not stay on her own. Any suggestions on what we can give her to put the weight on without getting too fat?

Merel.jpg
 
Are you giving her any extra feed at the moment? Do you bring her in and give her extra hay? Have you had her teeth checked recently? If the other two ponies are yours, can you not give them all a bigger area of grass and just muzzle the two fatties for part of the day? Seems a waste if you have good grazing and you have to pay extra for food for the Haflinger if you don't need to.
 
We aren't feeding anything extra at the moment. She was waiting for the vet to come out when the pic was taken so she had a haynet. The shetland has been muzzled before and just pulled it off within an hour - she has also had lami before so I wouldn't want to chance it. As she's still developing I thought she might need something extra but as it's been nearly 20 years since we had a youngster I don't know what would be best.
 
D & H Mare and Youngstock Mix is designed to be fed alongside grass and Hay/Haylage I feed it to my younsters come spring if they need something more. Feeding guidelines on the bag ensures they are getting everything they need without giving too much.
 
Will she not settle on her own even if she is put the other side of the electric fence from the others? What she really needs is plenty of forage - ie grass or hay/haylage. Can you bring her in once a day for a couple of hours and give her lots of hay? If you can get lots of hay into her she will probably put on weight without having to pump lots of concentrates into her. You can just feed a balancer to ensure she gets all her vits/mins.
 
have you seen HHO has posted about a feed company doing a conditioning feed trial wanting people. maybe you could call them?
 
I would be inclined to bring her in and feed her hay/haylage for a couple of hours a day in addition to feeding concentrates.
 
haylage would be my vote - my Haffy will mug me for a wisp of it as it is carried past her to the intended recipient - she has to make sure with gruel (well hay but you can tell she thinks of it as vey inferior to the ambrosial haylage!) Shes just 5.
 
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