Feeding conundrum... help!

[Hels_Bells]

Also in NL and CR..

This year Remy has switched from being a poor doer to a good doer and is just a little more porky than I would like (show horse rather than event horse) he has also been having a little bit of heat in his hooves (though showing absolutely no lameness) so I am a bit concerned he is getting too much grass etc.

He has previously lived out 24/7 in summer on (what is usually) moderate grazing but this year there seems to have been a lot more grass than in previous years. He is a 16.1hh WB and currently getting 2 scoops of D&H Comp Mix per day plus 1 scoop of healthy hooves and 2 mugs of balancer. He is Novice Eventing fit and works 5-6 days per week including gallops every 4-7 days.

So I have decided to bring him in overnight (5pm - 8am) to try to reduce and control grass consumption but am aboslutely tearing my hair out trying to figure out how much haylage I should give him.

In winter he has always had ad-lib haylage as he's dropped so much weight. So this evening I tried to figure out how much haylage he should be getting but am not sure if it's right and what I did give him (despite being double netted) lasted all of 10 minutes!! 2% body weight is about 11 kgs. He gets about 5kgs of hard feed per day and I *estimate* that he must get a good 3 kgs grass in the field from grazing on short grass all day (8am-5pm). So that leaves 3 kgs of haylage which is what I have given him, but it means he's standing in on his own (other 2 have to be turned out) with nothing to eat from 6pm until 9/10pm ish!!!

Other problem is I really feel he doesn't have enough "oomph" for me to reduce the hard feed (see older posts) I've struggled to get him to sparkle this season!! He manages his work but is pften pretty laid back and lazy about it.

 

[AngieandBen]

Might be wrong on this, but don't you have to feed more haylage because of the water content? Can you bring him in during the day and out at night? Much better for them as the sugars in the grass are lower and they don't usually eat as much hay during the day!

I'm not a fan of mixes, mine are both natives and just have some Fast Fibre with supplements. Could you cut out the competition mix? I would rather give energy in oil form, so maybe swap the healthy hooves for alpha oil and just feed this with a balancer. You could give more haylage then!

 

[Miss L Toe]

I don't get the balancer when you are also feeding a complete mix?
I would rather feed linseed meal instead as is great for skin and hooves and gives a slow release energy, as a straight you know what is in it and no heavy costs of brand advertising [Charnwood Milling]
Try a scoop of oats to keep him going OOOmph!, but really you need to balance his feed. I would ask D and H or Allen and page for advice,
Plenty of haylage as you don't want digestive problems or stable vices. Can he get an extra feed at 9.00 pm?
I would re think his diet completely,
You can walk off his condition, but it seems to me he is probably not getting enough work for his feed intake, most owners overestimate the work there horse are doing, fit eventers are doing two hours per day including an hour of walking and hacking and an hour of schooling, and they barely break sweat.

 

[Miss L Toe]

Be aware that fit NH racehorses do 90 minutes exercise per day including three fast canters uphill [all weather] over seven furlongs per day, they are "worked" twice a week, . a fast gallop in company twice a week, schooled over fences once a week, go on the horse walker twenty five minutes every afternoon,, they get three or four stubbs scoops of hard feed and two or three feeds of haylage every day, as your is not doing so much work it can take more haylage.
I would fill a haynet at night, enough to keep him going till 10 or eleven pm, 3 kg is nowhere near enough.
If he has too much condition do more road work [walk] and simplify his feed: I would rather he got more haylage and less high protein mixes.

 

[Nari]

Try double netting his haylage in the smallest holed nets that you can find, I find the Castle MC Horsehage Net shown here http://www.olddairysaddlery.co.uk/acatalog/Haynets.html is good. If you can hang it away from a wall that's even better as it will take him even longer to eat.

I'd cut out the Healthy Hooves, it isn't really doing anything except providing a few unneccessary calories as all his vits & mins are met by the balancer. I'd try at least reducing the competition mix & seeing what the minimum is you can get away with, getting some weight off him may liven him up a bit (but I can't remember all your previous posts). Also how close to his recommended amount is the competition mix? You may be able to reduce the balancer as some of his requirement will be met by the mix.