Feeding advice please if you dont mind?

[ha903070]

With this winter starting so early and being so cold were finding it hard to keep weight on our 15 yr old tb mare.
She has been living out until now with ad lib hay and haylage in the field and a feed of Alfa-oil, Calm and Condition and a veteran mix to help her digestion.

But she's not keeping her weight on and we have had to bring her into the stable (even though in her mind she is happier out).

What do you feed your tb's who live out, and what else can I add to her feed to help her, in the past she has had barley when required so am considering adding this to her feeds also but want to know if this is a good idea or if there are any other recommendations?

She's not lived out with us before, last year she had surgery and was on box rest all winter but still dropped weight but we thought this would be partly due to the pressure she was under with the recovery etc from the op.

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[jhoward]

the alfa oil can be fed up to around 1kg per fed, so I would stick with this,

beacuse of the overal amount of feed you end up with in a bucket Id be looking at replacing the c and c with something like blue chip/equi jewel. the blue chip original contains all needed mins and vits.

You can feed a decent amount per feed id be thinking 3-4 per day even if 2 are made up of main meals, and the other 2 just the alfa.

Another product that can be fed as a chaff, or as in inbetween is the grasses.. you can get redi grass, or just grass. again, being good old doctor green a bucket a day should help.

 

[galaxy]

has she had her teeth done recently? How much have you rugged her up?

personally, I wouldn't feed CC and a vet mix together... that's not very balanced. (feed companys also don't really rceommend adding barley to "complete" feeds.) I'd feed one conditioning feed and then and a supplement for digestion if you want like pink powder. Keep up the Alfa Oil and I would second Equijewel. I had a client who bought a horse back that had been subjected to cruelty. I didn't think she'd make the winter (20's tb type). Put her on 3 feeds a day of Alfa Oil, Baileys Condit Cube and a mug of equijewel in each feed. (plus ad lib hayledge). Within 3 months they had to reduce it she'd put so much on!!