Feeding advice for 6year old tb please :)

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GypsyGirl

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Hey everyone,

I have a 6year old tb ex racer mare, I have recently moved yards and she has gone from living out for 10months to now coming in at night, we lost our fields this is the only livery around and all horses have to come in at night which is a shame because atm she'd be fine living out! anyway ..

When I got her she was very tiny and went down to about 420kgs on weigh tape and is a now 500/550kgs but looking very very well! ..

Now since coming in at night she has ALOT of energy and at the moment I cant ride her out on a hack because shes too excited and she wants to run as soon as her hoofs touch the grass on the fields .. she also dances sideways down the road .. so im taking to schooling at the moment ..

anyway .. weve been on this yard for 2weeks tomorrow and shes got so much energy my instructor has said to change her feed ..

She is currently on Allen and Page Calm and Condition and Alpha A oil .. she has been on this since feb time as she was living out .. The grass is also a lot better where we are now and shes also on a haylage net at night (but starting to change her onto hay .. but has to have haylage and hay atm as she refuses to eat just hay!) ..

So my RI said to change her on to something just for roughage she said peagus mix and a chaff would do .. But im not sure what to change her onto? Im no good when it comes to feed!

I have also been reccomended the Allen and Page Fast Fibre? I need something completely non heating as shes started to be a bit of a handful .. ended up with rope burn last night naughty horse!!

Can anyone reccomend anything? Ridden work .. at the moment were schooling 1 a week and try to get out 2 a week but starting monday shes going to be lunged before going out into the field or in the walker aswell as getting in the school a lot more .. so atm shes in light work but shes going to be doing more from monday.

Sorry if this post makes me sounds very thick I just need some advice, ive tried to ring allen and page but got to ring on monday as there closed!

Thank you in advance!
 
If she is like my half tb i would cut out all feed apart from Haylage overnight and maybe just a scoop of alpha A or simialr to give her a supplement in for vit and minerals. She is only worked 1 or 2 times a week then with grass and haaylage this will be plenty for her. I use fast fibre in the winter with mine and it is great esp as you can give it to her warm (use warm water and it is soaked in about 30 seconds.) I use about 1/3 to 1/2 scoop nuts to 2 scoops water. If she is being really silly i would cut out all feed and just give supplement and haylage. feed companies often over estimate.
 
scribble said:
If she is like my half tb i would cut out all feed apart from Haylage overnight and maybe just a scoop of alpha A or simialr to give her a supplement in for vit and minerals. She is only worked 1 or 2 times a week then with grass and haaylage this will be plenty for her. I use fast fibre in the winter with mine and it is great esp as you can give it to her warm (use warm water and it is soaked in about 30 seconds.) I use about 1/3 to 1/2 scoop nuts to 2 scoops water. If she is being really silly i would cut out all feed and just give supplement and haylage. feed companies often over estimate.
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Yes I agree. My TB has only ever had grass/hay and Alfa-A, Top Spec balancer, salt, and magnesium. In the winter I add extra micronised ground linseed and maybe a little sugar beet. He actually put a little weight on following this regime when I bought him which was a good thing as he was a little underweight. He looks fabulous even now at 20.
 
I meant to add that I've had fellow liveries look at me in horror when in winter I've fed him 2-3 scoops of Alfalfa as it looks rather a lot. Also good for ulcers which I suspect my TB possibly had. Good feed, very much underrated.
 
You don't say what amounts you are feeding, my initial advice would be to stick with what you are feeding her, but reduce the quantities of everything.
 
Oliver12 said:
I meant to add that I've had fellow liveries look at me in horror when in winter I've fed him 2-3 scoops of Alfalfa as it looks rather a lot. Also good for ulcers which I suspect my TB possibly had. Good feed, very much underrated.
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I love the AlphaA .. Im also one where I get lots of horror looks as it does look alot.
Sorry forgot to say she is on half a scoop of C&C and half a scoop of Alpha A oil .. She was on a full scoop but shes looking so well at the moment so ive started to cut it all down .. I can take her down to quater scoop starting tomorrow and then gradually ease it out and give her a little something so that she has had breakfast and dinner
 
Just reduce the feed and get rid of the haylage pronto! You could perhaps change to a simple feed like pony nuts, that is totally non heating if she still doesn't settle. My advice would be to get off the haylage asap, soak the hay if you need to but it sent my 6yo TB crazy.

ETA: how big is she? My TB is 513kg and 16.1, he is a little lean.
 
Shes a 15.2, here are some photos .. the first ones of her very poor when she lost LOTS of weight as she got an absess in her neck and was on antibitoics 4times a day poor girly! So this will give u all a rough idea.

This is her about Jan/Feb time living out and had an abcess very very poor!
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Then this was taken about may
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This was taken end of june (she had a bady eye)
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And then this was taken about 4weeks ago .. but she is now living in at night and have no recent photos all these photos were taken at out previous fields.
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Sorry for the over load of photos .. I just wanted to show you all really so you can see what a battle ive had .. but weve finally got her at the right weight she just needs more muscle on her neck, her topline and over her bum muscles but shes only been in work since about march time because I done very little with her over the winter .. please dont tell me off of her photos ive owned her 11 months x
 
My TB is ok on haylage, rich grass however is rocket fuel for him!

If I was you I would cut out the feed and just give a handful of the Alfa for now and if she calms down you know it was the feed! Mine went bonkers on lots of Alfa oil over the winter.

I'm feeding mine fast fibre at the moment. He loves it, it's good stuff and totally non-heating. Unfortunately it isn't quite enough for the work mine is doing and he's started dropping off so I've added a balancer to it to see if that helps as he did well on a balancer over winter.

Finding the right feed is a royal pain in the arse I find!
 
Hm, it's tricky because you don't want her to drop off really. But i would really get off the haylage i'm sure that is the biggest problem making her fizzy. Keep her on the feed and take her off the haylage, see if there is a difference.
 
firewell said:
My TB is ok on haylage, rich grass however is rocket fuel for him!

If I was you I would cut out the feed and just give a handful of the Alfa for now and if she calms down you know it was the feed! Mine went bonkers on lots of Alfa oil over the winter.

I'm feeding mine fast fibre at the moment. He loves it, it's good stuff and totally non-heating. Unfortunately it isn't quite enough for the work mine is doing and he's started dropping off so I've added a balancer to it to see if that helps as he did well on a balancer over winter.

Finding the right feed is a royal pain in the arse I find!
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Hm see Major lost the plot on haylage, depends on the horse i guess!
 
Aw bless her, I can see why you are worried about her dropping off again.
She's obviously feeling a lot better now! She will be fine if you cut the feed down as long as she has as much hay/haylage as you can fit in. If you think she is dropping off you can always give her more feed again. I do think balancers are good as it makes sure they are getting everything they need even if you aren't feeding much :).
 
Yep Jaes fine on haylage. I don't give him the really rich, wet stuff though! He gets the drier more fibrous stuff :).
 
Okay so im thinking to start changing her over to normal hay, she doesnt eat hay she refuses to eat it so going to do it half and half and gradually take out the haylage, feed wise im going to take her down to 1/4 scoop of the Calm and Condition and the AlphaA .. and see if that starts to make a difference, if I notice that she starts to drop off weight ill probably put it back up again OR try and find something else for her maybe the fast fibre?

Shes going to be lunged for 20minutes before going into the field or ill put her in the horse walker depending if the schools booked to try take some of the edge off her before she goes out into the field.

My instructor said for me to lead her in a bridle at the moment until she stops messing around, last night i took her out she span around was up in the air down bucking spining around I was a couple of inches nearly going into the electric fencing and bushes .. managed to hold onto her thank god! and held onto her head collar and she went down to her stable sideways! Good old rope burn on my hand ;) lol
 
i would cut out the calm and condition it really is only calming when considered against other conditioning feeds - its 20% starch. try fast fibre or spillers slow release cubes - or Alfa A oil is brilliant - gives protein for muscles and oil for slow release energy - haylage depends on what its analysed at - i have last yrs second cut and mine is fine on it. wouldnt feed her first cut though.
 
firewell said:
Aw bless her, I can see why you are worried about her dropping off again.
She's obviously feeling a lot better now! She will be fine if you cut the feed down as long as she has as much hay/haylage as you can fit in. If you think she is dropping off you can always give her more feed again. I do think balancers are good as it makes sure they are getting everything they need even if you aren't feeding much :).
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Yeah she is deffinatly feeling very good of herself at the moment, shes all "look at me look at me" in the field with her tail held high and her head up calling around dancing around the field lol!

My yard owner says shes very fresh! lol
 
Hi
I have owned an ex race horse for over 7 years and the best feed for him is Alfalfa Hi Fi Lite and Baileys No.4. Baileys No.4 is a top line conditioning cube and is excellent at adding that extra bit of condition over the top line...but without adding any fizz.... I also use Equistro Equalizer which is a great caling supplement..
Best of luck..
 
www.simplesystemhorsefeeds.co.uk have a very good non-heating fibre-based system of feeding for all types, for weight gain, loss or maintenance.
They are very helpful and will devise a suitable diet for your horse if you give them a ring. I know from another forum that quite a few ex.racehorse owners have found their system very successful and inexpensive.

Brewers Yeast is also a very cheap and effective supplement. It improves the digestion system, thereby having a calming effect on the horse.

Haylage is like rocket fuel to a lot of horses, so good luck in weaning him off it!
 
Make sure she is not fed any hard feed, Fast fibre will be fine though as long as you keep it to a small feed. Personally I would try to keep her out 24/7 for as long as possible, or out at night in during the day to let her relax, be aware that she may always be a handful so give her plenty of regular exercise, that is to say an hour and a quarter of work per day.
Lots of walking out on hacks, plenty of pole work, nothing exciting like jumping. Lots of serpentines and 20m circles, figure of eights and loop, half halts, and so on.
Re forage, soak all hay and try to avoid haylage if possible, make sure her teeth have been rasped so she can cope with a fibre based diet.
I feed Steady up [feedmark] which has Mg, Ca, yeast and herbs, it helps, but takes 6-10 days to kick in.
 
Blooming heck, that is a very very major change in horse. TBH I wouldn't even have tried looking at the first pictures!

all vey good feed advice, just something else to add to the mix - I have always found that any of mine, be it TB or TB x need to be "bottomed out" from time to time. This could be going out to a competition, or a mega long hack or a pretty fast hack (I don't mean galloping around and blowing brains - I mean onwards with a lot of trot and canter work). So as an example 5 year TB x ID has started to get idiotic going out on hacks (airs above the ground and fly bucking), so this weekend, I took him XC schooling which he loved and then out for a 2 hour amble yesterday. Hack wasn't particularly fast but there were lots of hills. Perfect mannered horse today and after 10 minutes yesterday was mooching along like an old hand. I also don't want to cut his feed down as he is still growing and muscling up (he is on blue chip as well now). My old event mare would start to play up if there was too much time in between "parties" too. Young horse is in contant and varied work so needs this from time to time..
 
My ex-racer TB mare was a pain in the backside to get her feed right too.

She's on:

Dengie Hi-fi original (1 scoop)
Allen & Page C&C (1/2 1L jug)
Dodson &horrel pasture mix (1/2 1L jug)
and one small handful of linseed lozenges

she is on this for moderate work and seems to be ample however she is out day and night most days of the week (on quite scrappy pasture) at the moment and ridden most days and if she is out of work for more than a day or two the amounts are cut down even more.

If condition of you horse isnt an issue then i would perhaps suggest cutting out the hard feed and just feeding ad-lib hay/haylage and then starting from scratch with a feeding regime. So just feeding a chop such a dengie initially (hi-fi original or lite though the oil or molasses in the others will be a little fizzy) then gradually introducing the C&C back a handfull per week until you notice the energy levels getting a little too much.

My mare could probably exsist on her grass and still have enough energy to be ridden most days but her condition would then drop, what enables me to feed her what i do is the 24/7 turn out which in my case is essential.

All the best :)
 
Luci07 said:
Blooming heck, that is a very very major change in horse. TBH I wouldn't even have tried looking at the first pictures!

all vey good feed advice, just something else to add to the mix - I have always found that any of mine, be it TB or TB x need to be "bottomed out" from time to time. This could be going out to a competition, or a mega long hack or a pretty fast hack (I don't mean galloping around and blowing brains - I mean onwards with a lot of trot and canter work). So as an example 5 year TB x ID has started to get idiotic going out on hacks (airs above the ground and fly bucking), so this weekend, I took him XC schooling which he loved and then out for a 2 hour amble yesterday. Hack wasn't particularly fast but there were lots of hills. Perfect mannered horse today and after 10 minutes yesterday was mooching along like an old hand. I also don't want to cut his feed down as he is still growing and muscling up (he is on blue chip as well now). My old event mare would start to play up if there was too much time in between "parties" too. Young horse is in contant and varied work so needs this from time to time..
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Photos were to show what ive gone through with her weight lol!
Ive started to do more with her now, were doing lots more schooling now having flatwork lessons once a week for an hour, then half an hour we do some jumping (only small) and go out on hacks etc and shes actully chilled out a lot!

Ive taken her down to 1/4 C&C and 1/4 alfaAoil .. shes still on haylage at the moment untill the hay bales turn up (ment to be this week at some point) I was asked to try out for the dressage team for next year aswell im quite chuffed about, so were going to be doing a lot more schooling work but vary it as she does like to jump but she also likes flatwork keeping her mind busy!

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This is my instructor riding her for 2mins yesturday :)
 
kezimac said:
i would cut out the calm and condition it really is only calming when considered against other conditioning feeds - its 20% starch.
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Actually it's 12% starch, but I agree to cut it out as she doesn't really need a conditioning feed any more. Speedibeet is a good alternative if you just want to add a vit/min supplement. Other than that I'd keep her on a completely forage based diet. Well done on getting her weight back, though, she looks smashing in the last photo!
 
calm and condition can heat some horses, i have just put my highly strung mare on simplesystems, they have a great advice helpline and its not too expensive.
Their feed is all grass based so no sugar, and basically just roughage! you can feed straight before/after exercise!
working for my girl so far!!
 
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