Feeding a thoroughbred

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MGG

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This beautiful litle thoroughbred is new to us (about a month) in light work - ie ridden for an hour or more just about every day doing all sorts of things from hacking, flatwork in the school, a couple of dressage comps, xc schooling etc. At least one/two lessons a week, some jumping (small for now) and some flatwork lessons.

She was on 1 scoop horse/pony nuts, 1 scoop chaff, 1 sugar beet and stud balancer. She was working harder than she is now. but was only turned out a couple of times a week. I deliberately stopped the nuts and sugar beet and increased the balancer when we got her while young daughter gets to know her. She is turned out on fair grazing 5-6 hours every day and has ad lib hay/haylage when in. I thought with less hard food and more turnout this would be the best possible arrangement to keep her calm and quiet while my daughter gets to know her. Instructor and feed helplines agreed.

She is in good condition at the moment - ribs just visible, well muscled. I have weigh taped her on arrival and every week. Not surprisingly she has lost a tiny bit of weight which I put down the the reduced hard feed and the stress of the move. She has settled well, but she is a TB!

Question is what to do now I think we can risk giving her a more feed? Just put her gradually back on the nuts and sugar beet or would you suggest going for Outshine or an oil based feed (slow release, so should put/maintain condition without heating her up? We have had ponies to now - so this is a whole new ball game!
 
Hi i feed my Tb mare calm and condition with a scoop of chaff as shes drops a lot of weight in the winter and this keeps her nice and calm and helps keeps the condition on her :)
Good luck with her.
 
How is her temperament now? Are you happy that she seems calm and relaxed?

You could look at putting her on something like Spiller's Response Slow Release Cubes, which provides calories mainly from fibre and oil rather than cereals. If you feed the recommended amount per day then you won't actually need the balancer as well. However if you feed a reduced amount then you can feed a reduced amount of the balancer as well - ie if you give half the recommended amount of cubes per day then feed half the recommended amount of balancer.

If you feel she needs beet as well then best to check it is an unmollassed version such as Speedibeet.
 
I would pop her back on to her old diet and only change things if it doesn't work.

My girl is a exracer and is on adlib haylage, hifi, economy cubes and sugarbeet with a vitamin/mineral suppliement, and is the best covered TB on our yard with the right levels of energy (sometimes too much) for the activites she does.

If I find she starts to drop or her energy levels drop I then pop her on baileys endurance mix, which contains outshine which not only improves condition but gives the stamina and energy when needed.
 
I've seem TBs do very well on Simple Systems feeds- no molasses,cereals or pulses. It's based on Alfalfa, sugar beet, grass & linseed. My TB loses weight in winter & I'm putting him on this system, or using the principles of it anyway.
 
Id put her back on the old diet aswell and go from there.

My exracer is getting 2 scoops of Conditioning cubes and 2 scoops Alfa A Oil per day and he looks very well on it atm ... i am a fan of conditioning cubes :D
 
Thank you.

She is fine temperament-wise. She can get a little anxious in her stable just before turn out etc, but is improving every day as she gets more settled into the routine and is getting to know us. She is being good to ride though she is naturally quite a lively little horse which daughter is managing well at present. She started rather spooky and tense, but is significantly less so now and going out hacking quietly on her own and with others. I just want to keep her this way in the early stages as they need to get to know each other and build a solid relationship to then progress to more. I don't want my daughter's confidence damaged, but I also don't want the horse to lose condition going into winter.

I will watch out for mollassed sugar beet - thanks for the tip.
 
My 2 TBs are on good grazing and that's it in summer. Over winter they have ad lib haylage, a basic chaff and cool mix, the old boy has some barley rings too but that's it hard feed wise. Used to feed alfalfa, mix, barely rings and sugar beet but since moving yards can get away with what I listed first. In fact over summer I can't get them to eat.
 
NicoleS_007 said:
Id put her back on the old diet aswell and go from there.

My exracer is getting 2 scoops of Conditioning cubes and 2 scoops Alfa A Oil per day and he looks very well on it atm ... i am a fan of conditioning cubes :D
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Same here! + Speedy beet. He is doing ok on it. Might see if I can get a third feed in during th winter
 
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