Feeding poordoer oldie!

Laura dunn

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Hi all! I have a 19 year old welsh cob mare who was until August out at pasture all the time, stabled only in bad weather. She would always have a few slices of hay out with her in the morning and was fed cool mix in the evening. Lots of carrots for treats too.
We have recently had to move her to a livery yard where there is no access to pasture and she is in a dry lot with access to an open stable/shelter. She has adlib hay and has this filled twice a day with huge amounts of premium hay (it is never empty) and she is fed a mix of lo-cal balancer by baileys (1 and a half mugs) which is what the yard prefer her to be on with lots of molichaff in the evening. She still gets maybe a small bag of carrots and 2 apples as a treat per week. Worming very up to date. She has lost a lot of condition since arriving at the yard (can see ribs) and has the dentist coming out very soon to check her teeth and float them. I am at my wits end over what to feed her? Any ideas? I can't move her back on to the cool mix which she seemed to do good on as the yard won't allow it. She isn't prone to lami so not concerned on this aspect.
 
Good Lord! Whyever are you letting the yard dictate what you feed!

It is none of their business. They are, in effect, causing a welfare issue.

Do they feed for you? I would be having words, in fact, I (being a bolshy old bag) would not have gone somewhere that dictated what I feed in the first place.

I have had very poor keepers for years, I fed 12% mix, sugar beet, and soy meal and that has been keeping the weight on for mine, saying that, what works for one horse doesn't necessarily work for the other. If she did well on cool mix, put her back on it, you are surely paying for the facilities not their dietary regime -which isn't working obviously.
 
Good Lord! Whyever are you letting the yard dictate what you feed!

It is none of their business. They are, in effect, causing a welfare issue.

Do they feed for you? I would be having words, in fact, I (being a bolshy old bag) would not have gone somewhere that dictated what I feed in the first place.

I have had very poor keepers for years, I fed 12% mix, sugar beet, and soy meal and that has been keeping the weight on for mine, saying that, what works for one horse doesn't necessarily work for the other. If she did well on cool mix, put her back on it, you are surely paying for the facilities not their dietary regime -which isn't working obviously.

This, with knobs on!

After a nasty week long bout of colic, our oldie dropped a lot of weight, we got her back up with grassnuts, grass chaff and Speedibeet with linseed oil. Then she had a lesser amount to maintain her weight. She lived, at a good weight, on this diet with ad-lib hay, for another 6 years.
 
Hi
I'm currently looking for other yards where I can DIY :) when we moved to the yard (a quick move as the land we were renting, we were told we had to be off because they were going to build houses) she didn't dictate however after a week or so she said our pony was too fizzy on the cool mix and that we would have to come off it otherwise she wouldn't be able to manage her. She has also suggested total removal of all other feed in favour of just feeding adlib hay which I refused because she must have some kind of top up feed - she's always had it since being young. They feed for us on an evening but I'm going to make the time before work to go and give her another to build her up and another at lunch time. What can you recommend to feed to build up? Any ideas. I'm on a waiting list for a lovely yard with stables and lots of lovely pasture.
 
Aha.

Whilst you are waiting for the place on the other yard yes, go up and feed your horse as you suggest at morning and lunch.
 
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