Feeding advice needed

Bettyboo222

Bettyboo222

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I have an old mare 43-ish, at the moment she is on half scoop of sugar beet, 1 scoop of ready mash, two handfuls of molli chaff and fresh veg, She has this 3 times a day but I split each feed into two buckets so technically she gets 6 small feeds. I also give her extra mollichaff and there is haylage in her stable but she barely eats it because of her teeth. I am trying to improve her condition, so what do you think of this amount off feed ? Am I giving her too much? , too little ? I make the feed a day before so it can soak
 
She has done really well to last to 43!!! The oldie here (we lost him last week was 40) had a combination of high fibre nuts, unmolassed sugar beet, Mollichaff Veteran (contains linseed and is soft for their teeth) and EquiJewel.

Has she been checked by the vets recently? As I said our oldie started to struggle with his condition this year for the first time and the vet found his organs were starting to fail. Please have her checked to see everything is working ok.
 
Yeah vet was out few days ago to check on her. I'm sorry to hear about youes Slinky (((hugs)))) her condition is down because she had mites over the winter really badly and its pulled her down quickly
 
If your horse is struggling to eat any hay or haylage then this needs to be replaced in the form of a hay replacer.

As a guide, your horse needs to consume between 1.5-2.5 % of its body weight in fibre depending on whether it needs to lose or gain weight.

My mare who is 27 stopped eating hay/haylage and grass this winter and so I gave her a hay replacer.

Allen and Page Fast Fibre is an excellence source of fibre and as it soaks in 30 seconds to a mash they can slurp it up without any difficulty. To this I would also add unmollassed sugarbeet and some form of chop if your horse can cope with this. Mollichaff Veteran and Spillers Chaffs were the softest I could find. Adding micronised linseed is also brilliant as it acts as an anti inflammatory so will help with any stiffness. Oil is also calorie dense so the same weight of linseed compared to a cube/mix will contail x2.5 more calories.

So to summarise, I would feed

Chaff
Fast Fibre
Sugarbeet
Micronised Linseed

I used to feed my mare a large tub trug of this at night and leave in her stable instead of a haynet. She never gorged on it and I was advised by a nutritionist that this was correct. You could even split the ingredients into different buckets so that your horse can graze from the different buckets. This mimics natural grazing and can prevent boredom.

Hope this helps. 43 is a grand age! :)
 
I agree that you need to feed some sort of hay replacer to make up for the fact that she can't eat hay or haylage. I would suggest you contact one of the feedlines such as Dengie or Spillers as they can advise what sort of quantities of hay replacement feeds you require for her size.
 
Ditto the fast fibre by A & P. We have an exmoor on our yard who is 40. Last winter he really struggled with hay as his teeth are very poor so we stopped all hay and fed him FF with a few nuts mixed in. He had 5kg dry weight per day split into one small morning feed, out all day and then a big trug of this mix instead of hay. As smartiebean said he didnt gorge himself, in fact he often had a bit left by 10pm so actually lasted longer than the hay nets in the other boxes. He came through the winter looking the best he has for a long time and still has a small feed twice a day although he is out 24/7 on nice sweet grass and can manage to nibble this. He is a bit doddery but can still canter across the paddock when he wants to and we will be using the same feed this winter, all being well.
 
add soya oil and linseed amazing for condition
also you could try some redi grass can be fed on its own or with sugar beet or something,
simple systems have a great range of soak-able feeds
 
My horse is 32, and has just started to struggle a little with long fibre i.e. hay, haylage and long grass. He does still have the ryegrass haylage from Horsehage, as this is the most calorie dense and he seems to manage ok with this. If he left it, as yours is doing, I would stop feeding it to avoid the risk of choke and/or colic. Together with the haylage, he has four Stubbs scoops of Happy Hoof, which he loves, but as above, doesn'y gorge on it. They seem to learn very quickly that it is not just a big feed and to "graze" on it. He always has a little bit left of this in the morning, as he seems to eat this until he gets bored then switches to his haylage. I did have him on Dengie Hi-Fi Senior until recently, but he left a lot of this overnight and seems to prefer the Happy Hoof; it seems slightly softer and is a little sweeter!

My horse has lost condition over the last month or so due to the grass shortage in this hot, dry weather so has started on the above and is coming in at night. As a hard feed, he has:

3kg of Bailey's Top Line Conditioning Cubes
1kg (dry weight) of Alfabeet
est. 20mls of Corn Oil

Split into two feeds; plus he has Pink Powder in his evening feed.

You can safely feed up to 60ml per 100kg of bodyweight per day, and is a very safe way of gaining weight, plus a lovely shiny coat. Linseed would probably produce a similar result, together with the added benefit to the joints.
 
can you give her a big (full) bucket of soaked speedibeet or alfabeet or fibrebeet instead of hay? that would give her lots of calories in a way that is easy to eat if her teeth are poor...

the other stuff sounds about right to me, but you could increase her ready mash or change to the extra to increase her weight if you needed to in the winter.

You've obviously taken good care of her to get her to 43. well done.
 
The mollichaff will be fine as part of a hay replacer.:)

Our oldie had a trug of 'hay replacer' in his field/stable and it just got topped up when necessary. His was a combination of A&P Fast Fibre, Mollichaff Veteran chaff (has herbs and linseed in it) Speedibeet and EquiJewel and well soaked.

Just make a mix of high fibre foods for her that she will eat - thats what matters.:)
 
slinkyunicorn said:
Just make a mix of high fibre foods for her that she will eat - thats what matters.:)
Click to expand...

Well it is slightly more complex than that. Because the hay replacer is such a huge part of the diet, it is important that is balanced in composition - ie correct amount of protein, minerals etc. For example, some owners have had problems feeding alfalfa on its own as a total hay replacer as it can result in excess urination and other problems. Likewise I wouldn't feed a cheap molassed chaff as a total hay replacer as it would be lacking in many of the nutritients that hay or haylage provides.

The other factor is that it is important to feed enough of the hay replacement diet - it is very easy to underestimate how much is needed and a lack of condition is often the result. That's why it is probably best to ring one or several of the manufacturers' helplines to find out exactly what products are suitable as total hay replacers and also what quantities are required to ensure the animal gains the correct amount of weight.
 
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