Feeding advice pls

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agreenhalgh

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Hi guys, this is my 15hh sec DX (shes abit fatter now, this was taken in July last year)

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She has just been brought back into work and i am trying to get to the bottom of feeding her correctly. She is a very lazy cob...(but will happily gallop away from you when you are trying to catch her)
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and she will happily hack/trot out for hours, but when it comes to energy for schooling, showing, jumping etc, we really struggle.

I have to keep her feeds quite small because she is a good doer, but now she will be coming into work 5 days a week, if not more,and im wondering how much to feed her. she is currently getting a handful of chaff and a handful of instant response mix, which was recomended to me. How much should i be feeding to give her the energy she needs? Another person mentioned feeding oats? i am pretty clueless when it comes to feeding and wouldnt know what to buy, so any help is greatly recieved.
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Merci buckets for reading, and thanks again xTx
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Can you not just feed a simple horse and pony cube with alfalfa (like Dengie hi fi lite) Feed to the manufacturers recommendations.

Feed according to work. She will be lazy if she's not fit, so build up slowly.
 
How long has she been in work for? What is she currently doing?

If she has just come back into work, I'd be inclined to not fiddle too much with her diet- as her energy levels may well increase the fitter she becomes and the more used she becomes to working properly again.
 
shes only had 5/6 weeks off due to the snow etc, but thats good advice, i will get her fit and then see how her energy levels will be.. but even when she was fit last summer she was very lazy, so was thinking about her feed, and was i giving her enough etc
 
Bear in mind also that some horses are just naturally more laid back/lazy than others and no amount of go faster food pumped in makes a difference to them.

I know a few D crosses who are similar - will go all day with gusto unless you ask them to go and school in the arena and all of a sudden you need spurs and legs of steel!

I think the others are right, once she becomes fitter she will be more enthusiastic to work and then you can guage more easily if you need to start feeding a mix of some kind.
 
to be honest, while she's still fat you don't want to be feeding her too much!! I would echo what has been sugested already and feed an unmollassed chaff like hi-fi lite and shove in a handfull of oats for some energy. add to this a broad spec vit and min supplement.

Sections D's are prone to being a bit porky so comming into spring I'd be particularly keen to get her weight down...
 
Welshies are notoriously good doers. In Wales they live out on cold mountainsides without rugs. They are also wiley - so they will be lazy if for some reason they don't fancy working.

If you are new to feeding - then speak with your vet first. As a private owner the risk is that you will over feed and not underfeed.

Americans actually test the calorific value of the grass on which the horse grazes. Too much rich grass will cause laminitis - too little might be one of the reason for colic.
Chaff (HiFi light is excellent stuff - all bulk no calories)
Low risk pasture mix + chaff + maybe plus a tablespoon or to of vegetable oil is great stuff but only if the horse can't get enough grass.

The 2010 grass crop is growing as we speak. In March it will be green and dangerous. Your horse will wake up because the nights are getting shorter and Spring is on its way.
If you want instant energy just a few carrots or an apple or two should suffice.

But Oats - I would not give rolled oats to cobs unless I had good experience of my horse's reaction to them - especially in the Spring.

Measure the horse's belly, take photos of his flanks and his butt. Keep records of what you feed. Horse's need feed
for maintenance, for exercise, and for warmth. Welshies eat because that is what they like to do.

Do take care - laminitis - a possible outcome from over feeding especially of sugary ingredients - is nasty and can
leave your horse permanently lame. Not funny.
Colic can kill and is highly unpleasant to watch.
Look up laminitis and colic on the internet.
Talk with your vet.
Don't routinely feed high energy feed to a cob - use it sparingly

Take care and watch your horse - every day.
And buy a tape measure to regularly measure the diameter of the belly.

Feeding is not an easy task to get right. The temptation is to over feed. Every horse is different and each needs feed
according to the time of the year, the climate and the work load. Personally I vary the food I give my mare on a daily basis but her favourite is still a lucky dip - ie a bucket of hay,
mixed with chaff, a cup of pasture mix and a chopped up carrot. SHe hunts for every granule of the mix and every last
bit of carrot and usually the hay is left over. Now I notice that after the snow the grass is growing again - so she is going to get less and less in the stable - but she will alway gets something.
Be careful
B G
 
You shouldnt feed a fat horse any extra hard feed, just fibre.

Horses can be lazy because that is just them and being fat also makes it worse. Schooling is harder work than hacking in a straight line, hence the horse can feel lazier.

To encourage more forwardness slim the horse down and do some schooling so she is off your leg, nagging kicks makes horses switch off because the aid ceases to mean anything.

One handful of anything wont make a difference to energy for riding and just increase the chance of staying fat. Get the weight off, start schooling (even out hacking) and then ring a feed company for advice. Feeding the horse hard feed to try and give more oomph will not help you get the horse to a healthy weight. Energy from starch gives more sparkle but this is totally unsuitable for your horse and asking for trouble. The timing of feeding for maximum response from starch energy sources is also a factor because of glucose peaks and troughs following hard feed. This is complicated and irrelevant to your horse.
 
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Personally I vary the food I give my mare on a daily basis

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I feel this is very dangerous advice to follow. Horses digestion systems are very sensitive to change, hence why any changes to diet should be made gradually to enable the gut flora to adapt to the different feedstuffs being introduced.

I'd give your mare a basic vit/min supplement in an handful of chaff and go from there. Increase her work and fitness levels before you add anymore feed
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I would cut out the mix and feed her a balancer such as bailey's lo-cal or topspec antilam/topspec lite. The lack of energy is more than likely down to an imbalance of vit/mins coupled with excess weight. That tiny amount of mix won't be doing much for her vits and mins anyway as they are designed to be fed in larger qunatities. The trouble with natives and native crosses is that anything you feed them tends to get stored as fat! Oats will probably just make her put on more weight.
 
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I would cut out the mix and feed her a balancer such as bailey's lo-cal or topspec antilam/topspec lite. The lack of energy is more than likely down to an imbalance of vit/mins coupled with excess weight. That tiny amount of mix won't be doing much for her vits and mins anyway as they are designed to be fed in larger qunatities. The trouble with natives and native crosses is that anything you feed them tends to get stored as fat! Oats will probably just make her put on more weight.

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Totally agree with this a low calorie balancer with a low calorie chop is the way I would go.
 
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Personally I vary the food I give my mare on a daily basis

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I feel this is very dangerous advice to follow. Horses digestion systems are very sensitive to change, hence why any changes to diet should be made gradually to enable the gut flora to adapt to the different feedstuffs being introduced.

I'd give your mare a basic vit/min supplement in an handful of chaff and go from there. Increase her work and fitness levels before you add anymore feed
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Sudden changes in feed are definitely not to be recommended
 
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Try ringing the feed helpines. D & H have one as far as I know. If you tell them about her they will be able to reccomend you feed
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Second this, Allen and Page's helpline are excellent
 
Wow guys, thanks so much!!! i have ordered some Hi Fi Good doer and I will introduce a low cal balancer and phase out the other, carrying on schooling her and hack her, get her fit, and i am sure i will see a difference. Thanks for your advice!
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Sounds like my boy, I had no sucess with Oats, they just put the weight on him. was reccommeded Red Cell.....never looked back. He's on 2 scoops hi fi good doer, v sloppy alfabeet and red cell.

Feels and looks great, works on the flat and jumps well now (6 months ago couldn't get him over a simple cross pole for him being so lazy).

Very hard it find what suits you and your horse esp if they are good doers, but this combo seems to work for us. Good Luck
 
And to add, he did do very well on bailys low cal and the dengie balancer but taken him off them now and he's just on the above, has endless energy and a good spark in his eye x
 
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