Feeding advice.

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tilly49

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I have moved to a DIY yard with assistance with my 6 yr old mare and I want to check I'm doing right I have moved to a DIY yard with assistance with my 6 yr old mare and I want to check I'm doing right regards feeding. To start with she is having turnout on good grass 4-5 hours daily and is in a muzzle as we had poor turnout where we used to be. Feeding wise I have cut down to 1/4 am and pm of horse/pony cubes and 1/4 am and pm of hi fi lite. (by 1/4 I am using the round measuring bowls) she then has a 14lb haynet overnight which is doubled to last longer. She is 16.2 and we generally do 45 mins ridden or 20 mins lunging 5 x a week. We will be hacking once I get a permit for where we are.
 
If she is ok at the moment I think on that diet she will quickly start to drop weight as we go into winter, 14lb of hay is not very much for a horse of her size to last up to 20 hours, the time she is not out.

I would increase the hay and think about removing the muzzle, the grass is less rich now, she should be on about 2% of her body weight to maintain condition and at the moment she is getting nowhere near that.
 
Agree that 14lb of hay is not a lot for a horse that size, which is why I asked whether she needed to lose weight! If you want to maintain her weight over winter then I would start to up the hay, both from the point of view of keeping her weight up and giving her plenty to munch when she is in the stable.
 
Thanks for the advice - I have upped her hay tonight and given her 2 slightly smaller nets, I've kept her nut allowance the same but added an extra handful of hi fi lite to each feed. The muzzle will come off once the fascination of the grass has gone due to lack of grads where she was before.
 
Ok, so I've worked out she needs 25lb food a day. 30% concentrate and 70% forage which works out as 8lb and 18lb. I've worked out she is having 2.5 lb per feed and 2 x 9lb haynets a day plus 4-6 hours grazing on decent grass. I want to maintain her weight now so is this looking ok? It is new to me working out feeds myself and I want to be doing right for my horse.
 
To be honest, I don't think she is doing enough work to justify having 30% of her ration as concentrate. I would make the majority of the ration hay, and just give her the small amounts of nuts and chaff that you were giving previously. Hay takes longer to eat than hard feed, so the more hay you feed the longer she will be kept eating and the healther her gut will be, plus she will be more content and less bored when in the stable.

You can always increase the hard feed if you find that she is lacking energy or losing weight, although I would always increase the hay before increasing hard feed.
 
Thanks TGM. I have reduced her to handful nuts and 1/4 hifi lite twice day and given her 2 smaller haynets at night rather than 1 large. There is minimal wastage in the morning.
 
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