Feeding Query - Good doer!

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joos66

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Hi, can anyone recommend a good economical feed balancer for my 15.2 irish fatty? She honestly seems to live on fresh air. At present have her on Baileys Lo Cal which is excellent, but quite expensive. She is going to be out at night and in during the day next week and I was planning to just feed one section of hay and a balancer. She is bedded on straw at the moment but will have to change that as she just noshes though her bed! Or can I supplement the hay with straw to increase fibre intake? Her droppings are quite small and hard which is not good. She is hacked out around 5 times a week so feel she should have some sort of feed. Her grazing is quite sparse at the moment, but they are due to change fields shortly, unfortunately am unable to restrict her grazing at all. She has never had laminitus but it is always a worry for me. Any advice welcome, thanks.
 
Agree with Toast and why not let her carry on eating the straw? It will keep her busy while she's in without providing loads of calories. Oat straw is best for feeding and will be much cheaper than hay.
 
Pink Powder is cheap and brilliant! Have been recommended Equimins Advanced Concentrate too which comes with a money back guarantee after 2 months. Equimins is about £33 for 2 months.

I have used Equivite in the past which is excellent but is just a vit/min supplement.

If you would like proteins and pre/probiotics then go with a balancer.
 
If you are worried about her vit/min intake then, as said above, you can just give her a vit/min supplement (such as Benevit or Equivite) in a tiny bit of chaff, which will be much cheaper than a balancer. Another option is Dodson & Horrell Equibites which are a vit/min supplement fed by hand in the form of a 'treat'. As she is on spring grazing and is a good doer I doubt she needs the protein or probiotic content of the balancer!

I would be concerned that your horse's droppings are dry and hard, particularly as he/she has been consuming a lot of straw bedding, as straw has been linked with cause impaction colic. As your horse is only getting one section of hay, it is possible that she is eating a lot more straw to make up for the lack of fibre in her haynet. It might be easiest to change to non straw bedding and then feed more hay, but soaked for at least 12 hours to try and reduce the sugar content of the hay, or mix hay and straw in the net. (At least with the second option you can control how much straw she eats in relation to hay).

If you are unable to restrict her grazing then I would try a muzzle to slow down her grass consumption.
 
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