feeding a heavy type horse

[janeprince]

Hi

I thinl I am in a position to own a horse and give it a good home sometime in the future but the one thing that bothers me is all the conflicting advise I hear aroung the issue of feeding.

I really like the heavy breeds the shires and percherons but I keep hearing of different feeding systems for instance near me is a Percheron breeder who only feeds his horses hay and grass with 24hr turnout. These horses look really well on this and are beautifully turned out.
Then I speak to others with shires who have them out but feed them speedibeet and alfa a and winter them on this with a small amount of oats/barley?
With all these variations though the horses I have seen seem to eat far less than the tb's that I know. So could someone tell me what they feed there heavy horses? Generally do they seem to be able to deal with there food better?
Thanks
J

 

[Happytohack]

I have a pure bred Russian heavy draught horse and a Clydesdale x. They are fed ad lib good quality hay and are turned out in the day on good grazing. They are also fed on high fibre feeds, with no cereal or sugars. I would definitely not feed any mixes or molassed feeds as you wouldn't want to heat up a heavy horse of 17.3 or so. Mine are in great condition on this regime. Hope you enjoy your heavy horse - they are fantastic animals, but do make sure you have a farrier that is happy to shoe for you, as not all farriers like doing heavy horses and some of them charge a lot .

 

[WishfulThinker]

Mine is part shire and he just gets grass and haylege! and in the winter sugar beet and chaff with turnout and haylege. His feet are brilliant, and he is full of energy and looks and feels really good.

 

[amzy]

My large Irish Cob just lives on minimal grass and a couple of handfuls of Hi Fi Lite (to mix supplements in) in summer and has hay at night in winter when stabled. These breeds are really cheap to feed compared to most thoroughbreds.

 

[fairhill]

My shire x clydesdale has grass and a round scoop of happy hoof in summer, and haylage and 2 scoops happy hoof over the winter. She's never lost condition, has fantastic feet, and more than enough energy for what I do with her (hacking/schooling/RC competitions in summer). She needs a lot less food than a TB would, as she would become obese otherwise. And she is a lot better at conserving her energy (i.e. standing still most of the time) compared to TB types.

 

[Judie]

Depends what you are planning on doing with him?? How old he is, etc etc..

 

[Theresa_F]

This is what our old clydie has and he is in light work, he is not huge, only just 16.3. This diet has him looking very good and he has plenty of energy for his work. I found he has been far healthier and more lively since keeping him on a pure fibre diet.

Summer, good quality nibble rather than lush grazing. If in, ad lib hay.

Then two feeds a day of

1 heaped scoop (weight is about 1/2 kilo) of either hi-fi lite or hi-fi depending on how he is looking - normally lite in summer and hi-fi in winter.

1 mug of black sunflower seeds

Large handful of carrots (essential according to Mr C)

Salt

Benevit and garlic supplements from Feedmark.

He also has cortaflex and pro-bio from Equimins as he is getting old.

In the winter he has the same plus 1 kilo of economy cubes in his ball in the afternoon and about 1/4 kilo dry weight a day of speed-beet in each of his two feeds.

He will eat up to 2/3s and occasionally a whole bale of a bale if kept in of hay in 24 hours.

He is kept very trim, especially now he is 20 - a fat heavy horse will be an early dead horse - their joints cannot take being overweight and they will end up unable to get up from lying down.

If you are looking for the most active of the heavy horses, then the Clydie is the breed for you. Our old boy has done a bit of everything from XC to dressage and won at low level competitions.

Once hooked, there is no going back - I too was a speed freak TB person until we met Cairo and for us the clydie is the breed to have (plus the odd gypsy cob for me

)