Feeding a Welsh Sec D?

T

tanyajade

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 July 2013
Messages
146
Visit site
Hi All,

I have a spooky Section D Mare, she's 15.2, 10 yrs old. She's well covered, infact, she's got a bit of a belly on her.

I went to see my old instructor on Sunday, and she told me to stop feeding her hard feed, and that's she'd live on grass/hay/fresh air. Any hard feed is energy and will contribute towards to spookiness.
She's turned out for about 7/8 hours a day. This will probably be reducing over the winter.
She currently has a breakfast and tea, comprising of calming chaff, hi-lite horse & pony nuts (or cubes, whatever they're called), garlic and a scoop of D&H's Placid.
She then gets 3/4 big slices of hay over night.
I ride her about 3 times a week, W/T/C.

Thoughts?

Thank you
 
She's not hugely overweight, just that my RI said last week 'ooh she getting a bit of a belly there'. Hehe.

More hay than now? Same?
 
With that workload she won't need any hard feed. If she gets fussy at feed time give her some plain chaff (ie unmolassed) in a bowl. Up the hay if you feel she is getting hungry but as most Sec D's are good doers don't worry if you need to ration that too. They're built to survive on less than non native breeds.
 
My Welsh D lives very well of hay, limited grass and chaff to put a supplement into. I would never feed him hard feed or mixes because he would pile on the weight or get even more daft in the head than he is already. Cut out the feed and see how you go and monitor weight with a weigh tape each week....it is amazing how it creeps on without noticing.
 
Thank you :) Do you think this would help with her spookiness at all?

I think I'll have to give her a minimal scraping a chaff at feeding times, she'd
feel left out and get moody when the others are eating.
 
I feel you're wasting money feeding her that, you'd be better off on hay alone. My D has soaked lucerne, linseed, seaweed and rosehip plus her hay (lives out 24/7). Those nuts particularly are of low feed value so you may as well ditch :-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top