Feeding question

katie_southwest

katie_southwest

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Just after some advice..
My mare is 14.1 welsh cob x
Slightly overweight at the moment.
Ridden up to 5 times a week(hacking) due to work sometimes only 2 or 3 times a week.
Lives out 24/7 all year.
Lat winter was my first winter with her and she dropped weight a bit too fast so I was feeding alfa a and a small handful of mix twice a day.
What would you suggest to feed her this winter as I dont need her to lose much weight just a bit more. She will be in for a few hours during the day with hay.
Is sugar beet better to add to her alfa a than a mix? She doesnt need more energy but I dont want her to drop as much as she did last winter...any suggestions?
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Suggest lots of forage (ad lib hay/hage etc) and give the feed company helplines a call as they are really good I am told (have not tried myself, but plenty of glowing reports on the forum?)

Good quality forage and a supplement for vits and mins if your pasture is anything other than very well looked after "old pasture" that has its own herbs etc already in it. I feed my cob lots of quality hay, Readigrass and a bit of sugar beet and a handful of mix (more to make it look nice to me than for him!) and he is fine on that. Forage is the key with these "old fashioned" types of horses.....
 
hello there
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i would have thought sugarbeet would be a good avenue to go down, slow release bulk, that should help her keep on the weight. Wills on it all year round, and its relitively cheep (5.45 a sack) a handful of mix here and there probs wouldnt make much difference, but you could feed her a cool mix that wouldnt heat her up, or maybe no mix, and give her a supplement powder so shes getting all the vits/mins, mines on pink powder so he gets all the necessary stuff, and it alows the horse to make the most out of the food it is getting, as its a conditioning feed balancer
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ill PM you
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would suggest alfa a and sugar beet until it comes out of her ears and a vit and min supp plus ad lib hay. if you think she needs more condition then try something like baileys outshine, saracen equijewel or full fat soya that it high in oil and low instarch. works really well with fibre and the fibre will help keep her warm.
 
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