Feeding a ridden but in foal mare - what would you do?

[Gingernags]

I tend to feed by instinct, I never measure anything and currently coming out of a winter Asti will be about a 3 on a condition score. Nicely covered, can feel ribs as you brush your hand along but not see them, no guttering of back/bum but nice and round.

They came in on a night from 1 November which will hopefully be he same again this year, they have ad lib haylage on a night. We have only had to give one small feed a day as they are doing very well this year, however I know I'll have to change. Currently she gets a 1litre jug/scoop of leisure mix, 1 and a half of very sloppy speedi beet, and a large double handfull of graze on gold chaff.

I intend to keep riding as long as I can, though easing up her workload - and I'd be interested in what feeding regimes people use?

With the other two mares we simply switched to a stud mix instead of coarse mix, and fed limestone flour.

I just worry as with her being such a good do-er, I don,t want to starve her but don't want her piling too much weight on...

Any good tips? Essential supplements?

Cheers. (Oh and I know I may need to be a tad more scientific about feeding this time with weights etc!)

 

[AmyMay]

Well she won't need any 'extra' until she's in her last three months. So I would play it entirely by ear.

 

[Gingernags]

We had to switch Byter to stud mix a month before she went to run with the stallion, as she has severe food allergies, so we had to try her on it before she was actually in foal.

No such problems with Ginge, she eats pretty much anything - though she is distinctly unimpressed with speedi beet versus sugar beet, and "diet" chaff instead of the tasty stuff!!

I sooooo know how that feels!!!!!

 

[Tia]

I didn't change much, certainly nothing hard feed-wise. Cloud does have our top quality hay though which has slightly more alfalfa in it. Cloud is due in a few days and she is still being lightly ridden and she looks lovely and healthy.