Feeding my mare

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Beth-b

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Hi! I was just wandering if some one can help me! I have a irish draught x warmblood mare, 5yrs, she's being worked 5/6 times a week.
Im feeding her alfa a original, spillers conditioning mix, and a cup of baileys balancer twice a day then eve she gets extra garlic and equivite powder. I have no grazing and when the grass dose grown its nothing so shes also on haylage.
I was wandering what was other peoples opinion on this as I'm not an expert on feeding.
Thanks
 
Without knowing the quanitities you are feeding or her current weight it is hard to help

But as a guide a balancer or equivite are only required if they are not getting the recommended quantity of a complete hard feed, for example 2 1/2 kg of Spiller Conditioning Mix for the average 500kg horse would provide a balanced diet without the need for the addition of the balancer and equivite, you're at risk of over dosing on certain vits & mins by feeding all 3

If she is only getting a token amount of Conditioning Mix then either add the balancer or the equivite - not both, they are both full of vits and mins and again you risk feeding too many!

Alfa A is fine to add bulk to the feed and provide fibre, it doesnt contain any added vits and mins so doent need to be included in the diet in that respect

Lack of grazing is not an issue if she has adlib haylage
Hope that makes sense :-)
 
Hi! Thank ye makes perfect sense. Sooo im gonna be a pain now what would you feed her?
She doesn't have good condition after winter and im finding it hard to pht weight in her! She is work 5/6 times a week which is schooling, jumping and hacking so a bit if everything.
Thanks
 
If shes not getting the recommended quanitity of around 3kg of Spillers conditioning Mix (this will be 3 large round bowl scoops) i would increase to this for a start (split between 2 feeds = 1.5kg in morning and 1.5kg in evening) along side a double handful of alfa a- this will be a completely balanced diet and should aid in weight gain

Although people believe speedi beet is good for condition, unless you were to feed huge huge quantities you wont see any benefit as 80% is water once soaked, so you are bulking her food out unnecessarily, unless she is a very fussy eater i would leave this out

If she is already getting a large quantity of the mix then i would look to add in micronised linseed into her diet, a couple of cups per day should help see a difference (add in gradually over a week)

Best place to buy if feed stockist cant order in for you http://www.charnwoodmilling.co.uk/mail-order/Horse_Food.html

If she is underweight, adlib forage (haylage) is essential too

Hope that helps :-)
 
Ahh ok! I been giving a lare scoop of alfa a and speedy beat (speedy beat to soak it more than anything) and a large scoop of the mix, but i feel am feeding more of the conditioning mix than the cool mix she used to have and she looks no different! Thank u very much by the way
 
I found that once I just cut the speedi beet out of my mares diet she had more appetite for her hay/haylage and gained weight!
 
Alfa oil, linseed, Speedibeet and the calm and condition or condition cubes would be my first port of call. you can slowly introduce them to take the place of the feed you are using. I dont tend to use mixes as they are full of cereals which can cause all sorts of problems Adlib haylage should see her gain weight
Oil is your friend it supplies energy, weight and a shiny coat so any oil based diet will help a lot
 
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