Feeding advice for a 16.2 horse

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hotcrossbun13

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Hi I'm after some advice please. We have a thoroughbred/Hanoverian who is 16.2 and is 15. He is prone to putting on weight you can currnetly just see his rib outline but has a pot belly underneath! He is mostly living out but comes in for some hay for a time most days. He is in medium work but my daughter is taking him to pony camp soon where we have been told the horses must be fed and their feed increased as they will be doing around 4 hours a day work for a week. He is currently just given chaff with cherry oil flavour along with his biotin and joint supplements. I'm really not sure what to feed him on as when he has pony nuts he is very "hot" and gets very silly and won't work well. Any suggestions please? We are also thinking of feeding him a calmer as he isn't working well when he goes to comps etc but fine at home. Thanks
 
You need to take into account the extra work and the fact that at camp the horses usually live in with no access to grass so it is a shock to their system and you really need to make the changes as gradually as possible.
He really only needs a fibre based feed, Dengie fast fibre is non heating but will fill him up as well as help get some fluid into him as it must be soaked before feeding, it is also a good base to add supplements to.
Introduce it gradually over the next few weeks to allow time for him to adjust, keep him in a few hours a day so he can get used to having hay every day, you could soak the hay to reduce calories as well as help keep more fluids going in.
A magnesium based calmer may help and is worth trying, again introduce gradually over the next few weeks, some salt in his feed each day is a good idea to encourage drinking, lack of fluids is more of a problem when working harder than usual, otherwise he should be fine with plenty of hay, by the sound of it losing a little weight will do no harm.
 
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