MegaBeast
Well-Known Member
After an intensive summer competing my TB mare is looking a bit on the lean side although well muscled and I'd like to get her ribs covered before Winter so have been reading up a bit on feeding
The general consensus seems to be that you ahould feed no more than 2kg of hard feed in any go. Now my (underweight but well muscled) mare has always had 2 round scoops of cool cubes both morning and night.
However, I haven't weighed the feed, it's two scoops of generic cool cubes which I'm guessing would weigh around 3kg if not a bit more so based on what I've found this is two much to give in one feed. Two round scoops is what has been fed to a lot of the TBs on the yard in one feed for many years and they all look well.
I'm wondering if she'd be better off having a smaller amount of cool cubes in each feed, would this actually help her gain weight as it won't be pushed on through the gut so quickly?
And before anyone suggests changing the feed, it took 6 months to find one that she'd eat consistently and she's now eating fantastically well so I'm not changing it. She's turned out for 7hours a day and has ad lib good quality hayalage the rest of the time.
Her lunch is 3 scoops alfa a, ½scoop cool cubes, two cups of top spec balancer and 200ml oil. Only started this recently (building up gradually) and in the last two weeks the weight is starting to go on nicely.
Basically, if I reduce her morning and evening feeds to 1½scoops cool cubes will she get the same benefits as the 2 scoops? Or possibly better benefits as it won't be pushed through the stomach so quickly?
Sorry it turned into a bit of an essay.
The general consensus seems to be that you ahould feed no more than 2kg of hard feed in any go. Now my (underweight but well muscled) mare has always had 2 round scoops of cool cubes both morning and night.
However, I haven't weighed the feed, it's two scoops of generic cool cubes which I'm guessing would weigh around 3kg if not a bit more so based on what I've found this is two much to give in one feed. Two round scoops is what has been fed to a lot of the TBs on the yard in one feed for many years and they all look well.
I'm wondering if she'd be better off having a smaller amount of cool cubes in each feed, would this actually help her gain weight as it won't be pushed on through the gut so quickly?
And before anyone suggests changing the feed, it took 6 months to find one that she'd eat consistently and she's now eating fantastically well so I'm not changing it. She's turned out for 7hours a day and has ad lib good quality hayalage the rest of the time.
Her lunch is 3 scoops alfa a, ½scoop cool cubes, two cups of top spec balancer and 200ml oil. Only started this recently (building up gradually) and in the last two weeks the weight is starting to go on nicely.
Basically, if I reduce her morning and evening feeds to 1½scoops cool cubes will she get the same benefits as the 2 scoops? Or possibly better benefits as it won't be pushed through the stomach so quickly?
Sorry it turned into a bit of an essay.
