Feeding a young horse

NooNoo59

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 December 2011
Messages
1,145
Location
kent
Visit site
I have just purchased a 4 and a half year old section D. I like to keep feeding as simple as possible so will give him unlimited hay and a handful of chaff as a token feed. He will be turned out every day. Is this enough or do people feed a more specialised diet to their young horses. This is the youngest I have ever owned so want to do it right
 

windand rain

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 November 2012
Messages
8,517
Visit site
At his age high fibre low carbs is the way to go. So he should be fine on good hay and a good vitamin mineral supplement. Mine live out 24/7 and have a small feed of grassnuts, grass chaff and micronised linseed and a broad spectrum vitamin and mineral powder. we have rough grazing so dont use much hay hence the small feed
 

ImmyS

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 April 2012
Messages
2,262
Visit site
I have a 4 and a half year old Welsh D part bred. He has ad-lib hay, on rubbish grass and has a small feed of grass chaff, hi fibre nuts, micronised linseed and equivite supplement. He’s a little bit on the tubby side but he looks well, feet and coat in lovely condition, he’s unrugged so hoping he will come out of winter a good weight. As above, high fibre low carbs 😊

You can see how shiny his winter coat is here

a7ks6NK.jpg


And this is current weight-

hNrNTB6.jpg


It’s hard to keep him trim as he’s currently in very light work - just doing groundwork with him at the moment, but will be upping work load after Christmas.
 

Roasted Chestnuts

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 July 2008
Messages
7,940
Location
Scotland
Visit site
My Welsh d youngster (8months) is getting his ration of suregrow twice daily wetted down with a mix of grassnuts and beetpulp soaked together. He’s doing great on this :)

7363FF22-CDFD-4813-80E0-9F376065AE00.jpegF89D6637-9722-4D20-A09F-5BA140BEA0D3.jpeg

He gets five mins at the vitamin lick daily whilst I pick out his feet as he’s a bit fidgety with one of them and he stands like a rock at this ;)
 

Annagain

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 December 2008
Messages
15,506
Visit site
I think it's always better to build up slowly than to feed, have problems and then have to cut back. I'd stick to just hay to begin with - maybe some grass chaff if he needs to be kept busy while others eat. If you find he's either dropping weight or needs a bit more oomph when working, you could then start building the feed up. As others have said, high fibre is definitely the way. If you do start adding feed I'd do it one at a time so you know if he reacts to it either physically (e.g one of mine gets a scabby rash if he eats sugar) or in terms of behaviour. It's much easier than trying to work out what has caused a problem retrospectively.
 
Top