feeding for more 'oomph'

[Ahrena]

Now my horse is coming into harder work (eventing) I feel he needs a bit 'more' really.

He just feels he is lacking a bit of oomph or spark if that makes sense. He's perfectly healthy, just his workload has increased and he's very laid back anyway and he just needs a bit..more I think.

He is currently on 1 scoop hifi lite and 1 scoop comp mix am and pm, ad lib hay overnight and out all day. Still plenty of grass in his field tho probably not much nutrientwise but he's at a good weight.

I don't really want to up the comp mix as I kind of feel I shouldn't have to be feeding 2 scoops of it per feed, makes it a huge feed and I'd rather feed something more concentrated in energy if that makes sense.

He's on 2 supplements for joints and a general multivit designed for horses over 14 (he is 15).

What would you give him?

 

[4x4]

Take some out and replace it with oats - trial and error a handful at a time.

 

[Milkmaid]

You are quite right to keep the feeds small. Little and often is best to ensure you don`t get starch overspill into the Large Intestine which can cause lots of problems.

In fact you should keep the starch per meal to 1g/kg of liveweight & competition mix is around 30% starch.

So a 500kg horse max would be 0.5kg of starch per meal and @ 30% would mean around 1.5kg of competition mix. A Stubbs scoop weighs 1kg, if you are using that then you are well within the safe limits But 2 scoops would be too much. The stomach is only the size of a rugby ball too (and rigid not stretchy) so I would be careful how much chaff you are putting with the mix, you just need enough to encourage chewing.

But what I would say is check you are feeding the recommended amount to make sure all the other nutrients are being fed in sufficient quantities. D&H recommend 3 kgs a day so if you were only feeding the 2kgs of this then a third feed or an exta 0.5kg per feed if this not possible would be need to be added to meet daily nutritional requirements.

If you don`t want/need to feed more then maybe look at a specific energy supplement to top up vit/mins, especially B vits.

ETA i`ve just seen you are already adding a vit/min so maybe swap this for one designed for energy as above?

 

[Milkmaid]

If you go for the take some out and add some straights approach be wary of the starch rule, oats are 40% starch & the most digestible, Barley 60% and Maize 70% (any cereal must be processed in some way to enhance digestability to prevent hind gut disruption but this is especially important for Maize)

 

[Fintan]

What level of eventing?

In my experience it is better to keep "older" horses also during the winter time at least in light work because when there off for a longer time it takes a massive afford to "rebuild" them.

An older body wont pick up that fast again after a break like a young body.

More or too much "energy" is not every time beneficial. Only extra hardship on the metabolism. It has to be the right balance and the right amount for the weight and work of the horse.
So hard to tell what to change.

I do for an example 10 - 12 mile intervals on the galopps with a 650 KG horse.
She gets hay ad lib, 1 kg of beetpulp (dry matter weight), 400 gram soybean meal, 1.5 KG of oats, 300 ml rapeseed oil and of course a high performance balancer (concentrate only no extra calories.

And she is gaining weight (muscles).

My P2P horses will get a bit more Oats but they have to work with about 800 meters a minute.

It depends on your work and also on the weight of the horse.