Feeding ponies! Sugar beet, fast fibre or both?

Fiona

Fiona

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Hi folks

I know lots of you are very clued up on feeding here.

At home we have one horse (21yo ID with poor teeth) and two ponies who are good doers.

For the last couple of years they have all done reasonably well on differing combinations of grass nuts, grass chaff and fast fibre (with the ID getting Veteran Vitality instead of the fast fibre over the winter.

That's the background. However the grass was very good this summer, and as they were all out 24/7 I stopped feeding hard feed completely, and by the end of August the ID started to look a bit poor.

I contacted the lovely lady from the Veteran Horse Society, and she suggested hard feed of Calm and Condition, Veteran Vitality and Sugar beet, with an extra 'forage feed in a bucket' of grass huts and chaff once she comes in at night as she doesn't eat enough hay for her size.

This is working wonderfully well, and she has already put on some weight and is looking much better.

My dilemma is for the other two ponies who are 12hh and 13.2 native breed good doers.

Should I feed them their tried and tested combo or grass chaff, grass nuts and fast fibre, or should I give them a bit of sugar beet as well(as I'm already soaking it for the ID mare), or can I stop buying the fast fibre (we have only a small feedroom) and just use the sugar beet.

Sorry for the vast essay....

We used to feed sugar beet years ago, but cut it out one summer, and never went back to it.

The bag I have bought is molassed if that makes a difference.

Quite happy to be told that molassed SB shouldn't be near a slightly chubby pony, I genuinely can't decide......

Fiona
 
No feed for fatties. Unless they need a supplement. In which case speedibeet and oat straw chaff. I add a grated carrot if we're being a bit fussy.

I wouldn't feed molassed sugar beet to fatties anyway.
 
Maybe calling them fatties is a bit unkind of me, slightly chubby might be more accurate, and as the grass value has dropped off in the last couple of weeks, they have both lost a couple of cm round their girth which is normal and welcome for them at this time of year...

They aren't getting any great amount of feed (the wee one especially), but I do like to rationalise my feed room, and at least attempt to feed everyone the same (though in very different quantities)

FIona
 
Being perfectly honest I’d just give them a wet handful of sugar beet and a handful of plain grass chaff for all the molasses and calories will be in those handful if you feel you need to feed anything at all.
 
Thanks guys

I've a bag and a half left of fast fibre, and I think when its used up, I won't get any more, and will see how he smaller two get on with just the sugar beet and their grass nuts. It will be well past Halloween by then (they only get a cupful of FF each) so they will be slimmer by then too.

It will free up a bit of space in my feedroom!!!

Fiona
 
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