Feeding for extra sparkle

[PeggyPatch]

On a day to day I'm quite happy with my Pony's energy (she us in very light work and I enjoy her attitude). However, when I take her out, the stress of the journey and being in a new place (although she doesn't seem obviously stressed I'm just guessing that's what it is) makes her lose the umph she usually has at home. It was suggested that perhaps I give her some oats the night before and on the day to give her that Extra energy.

Has anyone used them before and what are their experiences?

 

[NZJenny]

Yes, I feed them all the time, but I wouldn't recommend feeding them just for competition, espeically if you are travelling as well, as tying up could be an unwanted side effect if she isn't used to them.

It could be that she is just a bit uncertain away from home and this makes her a bit "shy". I have a lovely Arabian gelding who is the biggest ponce at home, but get him out of his comfort zone and he tries to hide behind me. The sparkle he has at home, he hides under a bushel when he is out.

By all means feed the oats, I love them as a feed, and mine get them every day, but I wouldn't be using them in the way you are looking too.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

There are two points to think about, is the amount of regular work enough to have pony fit enough, she may have enough natural fitness to cope with 30 mins or whatever at home, but away from home you have used up this energy in travelling, so she is out of energy by the time she arrives. So my first plan would be to increase her regular workload a bit.
As NZJ has pointed out, it is not a great idea to suddenly load the tummy with a new food, if you want to try this approach, I would recommend a tiny feed every day which includes some oats, this will accustom the intestinal flora to the feed. We don't tend to think about feed for ponies in summer, but I might try a balancer to provide minerals, and increase the oats on comp day -1 and, comp day. You could also consider removing from field overnight [ obviously, plenty of hay in stable], so she builds up a bit of energy, and is not stuffed full of grass, again you have to be careful she does not rush out and gorge herself on grass after the event, so make sure she has a a haynet to eat on the way home.
The amount of oats to feed must be in relation to size of pony, a pet scoop may be enough for something 13.00hh, really difficult to know how much is too much............... you need to be cautious.

 

[Shay]

Not all horses respond to oats - one of mine does and one doesn't. Predictably its the one we want to fizz up who doesn't!

Don't forget that traveling is the equivalent to the horse of walking the time you have traveled because of all the adjustments they make to balance. So by the time you get to the show or wherever she will have already being "walking" for some time. She might just have no energy left if she is only in light work.

IMO oats a a bit of a coarse way of dealing with this - There are other feed options which might work better if that is the route you want to go. What about oil for long slow release energy for example? Mrs D is right about keeping her in - we used to keep my daughter's cob in for 24 hours before a show. But what we did find really worked for us - and Cob is super fit, in medium / heavy work, hunted weekly in season but being a "cold" horse lacks oomph show jumping - was NAF EnerG. We would add to feed from 3 days before a show carry on to show day and he would be fine. It also got him through pony club camp in much finer fettle - and anyone who does PC Camp knows how tired the horses come home!