Fit horses - grass turnout

[Persephone]

I thought I would post in here as the riders are more likely to have fit horses!

I have a 16.2 7 y/o ISH and I am finding it difficult to feed for energy without her getting fat.

She is currently maintaining her weight on 2 slices of hay overnight and 5 hours turnout. I feel she needs more energy for the work she is doing as she has very little zip at the moment.

We hack, school and have a couple of jumping lessons each week. She works every day but is such a good doer that I am scared to give her hard feed because she will get porky.

My instructor says just give her a couple of hours turnout a day and give her oats!

I am at a loss! I want her to have the energy to work nicely, I'm not looking for turbo speed but a bit of enthusiasm would be nice.

How do I weigh this against letting her have down time to be a horse in the field.

Confused of Weymouth

Jo x

 

[KatB]

Mine is also a natural fatty!! He goes out all day on not great grazing, gets 3-4kg of soaked hay a night and 1.5kg of comp extra mix and 1kg of Alfa A a day

He is PN eventing, and looks a good weight in my opinion at the moment. It is the first year I havent been battling the bulge with him!!!!

 

[kerilli]

it depends how much grass there is in the field, if she's stuffing herself then a full belly will make her feel more lethargic.
i'd try a mix with a very high energy level such as Racehorse mix, this shouldn't make her fat, should give her lots of energy. Alfa A would be a good substitute for the hay, good for slow-release energy.
i'm not a nutritionist btw, i'm sure there are much more technical answers. i've always found Baileys very helpful and they give excellent free advice tailored to your horse, fwiw.

 

[kick_On]

Do you give any hard feed??

if not i would defo consider it. I have a boy who looks at blade of grass and puts weight on. He has limited turned out with small amount of hayledge and i feed 'spillers reponse instant' and then to get extra bang, i do top up with oats aswell.

But as i've found if i really want to a big bang (eg out eventing) that I keep in 24/7 at least 3 days before comp but have to exercise twice a day.......

I've found that during summer the grass do effect him and make him SO LAID back........... in winter I don't have problem.

But if your going to keep in, got to feed them little but often to keep guts working etc... plus i'll also once ridden I give him some grass in hand

 

[Persephone]

Thanks everyone, that's really helpful!

TBH I lost my Dales pony mare to laminitis a couple of years ago and I am totally paranoid about hard feed as a result.

I realise they are very different horses but it's always there niggling. I used to hack my ponies around in very light work, but I want a lot more from her.

It's good to see how "real" people keep their horses. She had hacking mix and Alfa A over the winter but still didn't have a huge amount of get up and go. Obviously it wasn't enough. I tended to fill her up on hay.

I have just ordered some Propell and I am going to bite the bullet and start feeding her.

I have a bag of hacking mix to get through first, then I'll start mixing it in with whatever the feedies recommend.

Thank you so much for your advice.

Jo x

 

[pootler]

If you are worried about lami, have a look at the Red Bag Grass pellets they are supposed to be good and are fibre based.

http://www.simplesystem.co.uk/otherforages.asp

My boy is a lazy fatty who is out on grass overnight and in in the day. I feed him a handful of Alpha A oil, linseed and apple cider vinegar.

What I found with him is that the fitter he is the more energy he has. Also canter work when the ground is good to help his fitness and keep him thinking forward. He events at intro off this combination.

The night before event I will keep him in to give his belly a rest, I will also give him a scoop of Saracen Speed Mix in his morning feed.

 

[Skhosu]

Our competition animasl liver out 24/7 in the summer and event off grass, I have yet to have energy problems and this includes poor and good doers. We tend not to have to feed very much, atm its a bit of cool muesli each

 

[Persephone]

[ QUOTE ]
Our competition animasl liver out 24/7 in the summer and event off grass, I have yet to have energy problems and this includes poor and good doers. We tend not to have to feed very much, atm its a bit of cool muesli each

[/ QUOTE ]

Just out of interest, can I ask what you compete in?

Jo x

 

[Skhosu]

jojobah-we compete in affiliated eventing, I have a neurotic tb who is a very poor doer, sister has a bratty mare who is a reasonably good doer and new super eventer who is a good doer and atm is in at night as thats what he's been used to (not even been here a week!)
We have also had numerous horses and ponies over the years, with ponies competing at pre-novice successfuly also off grass with hard feed as appropriate.

I haven't had a horse yet that wasn't best, with appropriate management, kept out 24/7
We do stable at night during the winter through necessity.

 

[SpruceRI]

I PN my pony who is usually a poor doer, but this year for some reason has got a bit fat!

She lives out 24/7 so I've just restricted her grazing - she's been in with the dieting Shetland quite a lot this year!

I've just done a 3DE on her and wasn't sure whether she was fit enough as at home, schooling and hacking to a certain extent she's rather lethargic and has a classic 'bored look' face.

But at the 3DE along with any of the ODE's I do, she flew round and was perky and lively for the SJ on the final day, so I guess if I were you I'd leave her out as much as possible on bare-ish ground. Give her a 'sparky' feed and do as much fast work and exciting schooling to keep her interested.

 

[rara007]

Ours are all off grass. Personally I have sound Lo-cal gave my boy abit of a boost (too much for me

) and his weight didn't alter.

 

[LoneRanger]

I definitely find that good do-ers need restricted grazing when the grass is lush. Otherwise they become lazy and they're no longer "up for it". It's common for competition horses to have only two hours turnout when the grass is good. Give it a go, you've got nothing to lose. Good luck.

 

[Skhosu]

Good doers obv. need their grass restricted but I fail to see why one would restrict a comp. horses turnout to 2hrs? (if its a 'normal' doer)
The only reason I can think this would up energy levels is if the horse is then hyper from not getting out?