Had The Vet Out Today Instead Of Next Week :)

Hopefully a round bale could last me about a week :)
Id usually spend £30 every 2 or 3 weeks in the winter, but i could spend like £5 or £10 per week (sharing the costs with the other owners) on the big bale, working out cheaper and getting more ;) sounds ideal x
 
JadeyyAndLadyy said:
Oooo ok :) well theres 4 horses at my field all living out 24/7 so was thinking have a big bale in one section of the field during the day then put the horses in another section over night with a bit of hay to munch on before they toddle off to sleep....would that be ok?
Plus Feed morning and night
x
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This is a good plan, except horses are different to us in that they don't sleep overnight - they nap throughout the 24 hr period. If they have access to ad-lib hay 24/7 they won't gorge on it, they will eat as much as they need.

If one horse is getting bullied, maybe a good idea to have the big bale and put some smaller piles of hay elsewhere.

My friend's arab is doing exceptionally well on feed shop own brand conditioning cubes, along with alfalfa chaff and sugar beet. The mare was far too skinny coming out of winter, and has been getting loads of positive comments, she looks fab.
 
DiablosGold said:
This is a good plan, except horses are different to us in that they don't sleep overnight - they nap throughout the 24 hr period. If they have access to ad-lib hay 24/7 they won't gorge on it, they will eat as much as they need.

If one horse is getting bullied, maybe a good idea to have the big bale and put some smaller piles of hay elsewhere.

My friend's arab is doing exceptionally well on feed shop own brand conditioning cubes, along with alfalfa chaff and sugar beet. The mare was far too skinny coming out of winter, and has been getting loads of positive comments, she looks fab.
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Oh really? i didnt know that about the sleeping thing :p
Lady will most probably be bullying the other mare so yeah think it could be a good idea to have some hay a little away from the big bale so she gets her fair share :)
 
JadeyyAndLadyy said:
Oh really? i didnt know that about the sleeping thing :p
Lady will most probably be bullying the other mare so yeah think it could be a good idea to have some hay a little away from the big bale so she gets her fair share :)
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Yes horses do not sleep like us. They need to eat for around 18 hours of the day, and will probably nap for short periods throughout the day, sometimes they will go into a deeper sleep (lying down). So probably best to allow 24/7 access to hay, they won't gorge on it for the full 24 hours of the day.

Good idea to have the big bale, then dot smaller bales or piles of hay around the field for the horses that may get bullied :)
 
heather_bambi said:
Yes horses do not sleep like us. They need to eat for around 18 hours of the day, and will probably nap for short periods throughout the day, sometimes they will go into a deeper sleep (lying down). So probably best to allow 24/7 access to hay, they won't gorge on it for the full 24 hours of the day.

Good idea to have the big bale, then dot smaller bales or piles of hay around the field for the horses that may get bullied :)
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Ahhh Yes Yes Good Plan ;) :D
 
Well done for getting the vet as soon as you could, and its great news about what they said. :-D

A horse i used to ride for someone was on bluechip and it made a HUGE difference to her. She looked amazing after going onto the bluechip. I would definately reccomend it to anyone.

Keep up the good work she is looking soooo much better.

Also good idea re the big bales of hay/haylidge for winter, they definately work out a lot cheaper, which will help give you extra money to put towards feed.

Hope you have a wonderfull summer of fun with ponio
 
Good news on the vet visit. We had an old horse who was very arthritic but gentle work did her the world of good. Ditto someone on the saddle fit though - vets do no training at all on saddle fitting so do get a good fitter out to double check.

As for feeding hay:

Putting adlib bales in the field will save you SO much time and effort and probably food money too.

You MUST get a round bale feeder though - just rolling a bale in without a feeder will waste almost 3/4 of a bale each time, so a huge amount of money. I got one made by a blacksmith for £150 (7ft wide by 3ft high) and it's an absoulte godsend - our waste now isn't more than a large armful per bale, literally. It's paid for itself twice over this winter already.

If your field companions don't need adlib hayledge then you could shut Lady (and anyone else who require it) in with the bale during the day and just give the others small piles to keep them occupied. But most horses will be fine on adlib - it's only small fat ponies who don't need it.

If you're feeding adlib I'd go for hayledge over hay - much cheaper and easier. Up here a large bale of hayledge is £25 - hay is £30-35 for the same size, and you'll need to be able to store it. Hayledge can be stored outside, uncovered. Hay will need to be covered.

We have 5 medium sized horses eating bales adlib over the winter. They last 4-5 days in the coldest, wettest weather, and 6-7 days when the grass starts to grow again. For works out at about a £1 per day per horse roughly - MUCH cheaper than feeding small bales at a bale a day each @ £5 a bale!

Feeding from a feeder will ruin the ground it's on, but just sacrifice it. Put it on the driest, highest, best drained part of the field and move it around a little every bale. The ground will get trashed but it does recover ok for the next year. Or you could get a big pile of road chippings dumped to help.
 
Kallibear said:
You MUST get a round bale feeder though - just rolling a bale in without a feeder will waste almost 3/4 of a bale each time, so a huge amount of money. I got one made by a blacksmith for £150 (7ft wide by 3ft high) and it's an absoulte godsend - our waste now isn't more than a large armful per bale, literally. It's paid for itself twice over this winter already.
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Oh how come about 3/4 is wasted? :confused:


Kallibear said:
If you're feeding adlib I'd go for hayledge over hay - much cheaper and easier. Up here a large bale of hayledge is £25 - hay is £30-35 for the same size, and you'll need to be able to store it. Hayledge can be stored outside, uncovered. Hay will need to be covered.
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Oh i think its cheaper for hay down here....like £15-£20 for a round hay bale and £25 for haylage i Think

:)
 
Fab news that she's got the all clear.

Just thought I'd ditto the saddle check - Saddlers don't profess to be vets, so vets shouldn't profess to be saddlers ;)
 
JadeyyAndLadyy said:
Oh i think its cheaper for hay down here....like £15-£20 for a round hay bale and £25 for haylage i Think

:)
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I'm coming to live where you are! Hay is usually more expensive for the same sized bale. We always use hayledge - it's much easy to get ahold of (the supply is less affected by the summers weather) it's easy to store (we don't have anywhere to store multiple large round bales inside and at almost 2 a week it's not practical to get the farmer to deliver it one at a time) and it's cheaper. The local hayledge is really good, dry stuff and it easily keeps for a week+ once open.

As for waste - if you roll a bale in and leave it unprotected they rip it to pieces and trample the majority into the mud. We tried it without a feeder and a bale lasted 2days :eek: They stand on it, pee and poo on it and end up sleeping on it! It makes such a mess! The bale feeder has been a godsend.
 
Good news.... a young girl coming on pictures videos ...critiscim , advice, opinions good and bad... well done for acting mature and hanging around and coming out the other end someone somewere will always have something to say good or bad about a horse we all have these comments made to us its up to you to take them ,listen or ignore or be bullied , but you have proved your doing things right.For what its worthx
 
JadeyyAndLadyy said:
As My Vet Said "There is nothing wrong with lady, i should know that as ive been with her from the start. You know Lady better than anyone in the world and dont go listening to complete strangers on the internet because they dont know Lady and dont know what shes been through
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I'm delighted Lady is well and sound, but is she not in a much better condition precisely because you took advice from some complete strangers on the internet?
That seems a rather unfair dig at those who genuinely tried to help you.
 
PapaFrita said:
I'm delighted Lady is well and sound, but is she not in a much better condition precisely because you took advice from some complete strangers on the internet?
That seems a rather unfair dig at those who genuinely tried to help you.
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Indeed! :rolleyes:
 
If it wasn't for the peeps (who used to be on here
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) I wouldn't have had the extra years with Polly that I had. The vet didn't mention Cushing's... and it was screaming at us. I take my hat off to those who cared enough to offer advice and suggest helpful management tips, right down to saving me hundreds of pounds on medication. I wouldn't have credit given to anyone else.
 
PapaFrita said:
I'm delighted Lady is well and sound, but is she not in a much better condition precisely because you took advice from some complete strangers on the internet?
That seems a rather unfair dig at those who genuinely tried to help you.
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Of course, but it was aimed at those who wrote the hurtful comments (my mum told him about some of the nasty things that had been said and he told me not to take any notice)
im genuinely grateful to those who helped though i didnt mean for it to sound like it was aimed at the people who helped :) sorry x
 
juliette said:
Blue Chip sent my friends gelding a bit loopy and aggressive! Think I'd try something else if possible
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Did the same to my friends horse but did wonders for my girl. She needed some more weight on her towards the end of last year. I changed her from Alfa A to Alfa A Oil, upped her 16+ and put her on Bluechip, she only needed 2 bags and she was up to weight. I dropped the Bluechip when I was happy with her but kept her on 3 meals a day. She has a scoop of Alfa A Oil and 3/4 scoop of 16+ three times a day, plus adlib hay and a slice of haylage a day. She looks great at the moment :D
 
Kallibear said:
You MUST get a round bale feeder though - just rolling a bale in without a feeder will waste almost 3/4 of a bale each time, so a huge amount of money.
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My horses must be greedy because I just roll the bale into the field and they eat every last scrap. I leave the wrapping on and just roll it down a bit so they can pull the hay out.

Blue Chip is good for weight gain but different feeds have different results with each horse. I've had success with Alpha-A Oil, TopSpec balancer and fibrebeet.
 
Just seen this and not read all the replys (to lazy sorry :p ;) :D)
Just wanted to say well done and thankyou so much for posting an update. I always wonder how you two are doing and it's great to hear she is doing so well. I'm glad you don't let certain people put you off posting on the forum ;) :)
 
I'd be worried about them getting it stuck round their shoes/hooves though or getting hooked up on it somehow.
 
I didn't comment on your last post but I just want to praise you on how maturely and level-headedly (is that a word) you took all the comments on board as I thought some people were just plain rude and not constructive at all. So good on you and well done for doing the best thing for Lady.

With regard to Blue Chip I love the stuff. Yes it appears to be expensive but remember you aren't using massive scoops of it a day. We had all of our horses on it from the old semi-retired pony to the competition horses and found that it reduced the amount of hard feel we had to use. I also noticed an improvement in things like the quality of my horses feet (he had nightmare hooves!). I can't recommend it enough!!
 
Katikins said:
I didn't comment on your last post but I just want to praise you on how maturely and level-headedly (is that a word) you took all the comments on board as I thought some people were just plain rude and not constructive at all. So good on you and well done for doing the best thing for Lady.
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Aww thank you :D x
 
Binky01 said:
I'd be worried about them getting it stuck round their shoes/hooves though or getting hooked up on it somehow.
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im sure itll be fine, T is there morning and afternoon and im there in evenings and theres an old couple who live on the field who constantly watch the horses so if theres anything wrong im sure they would ring :) x
 
Very happy to be told I'm wrong ;)

Regarding the Blue Chip - think about it by all means. But the D&H build up cubes are excellent - and fed alongside Alfa A Oil - should work brilliantly in getting the weight on her.

If you want more going in again - you will need to hay her, as your grazing is sparse.

And for the winter - a round bale will cost around £15 and will last your 4 horses around a week. Split between all the owners, that's not much at all - and will certainly be a better system than the one you operated last year.
 
Really glad all is well with her.
Must admit that I haven't tried the blue chip (I'm not too easily parted with my £!). I have used calm and condition to put weight on with sucess in the past, and without any mental-ness! It is mainly sugarbeet, but has vits and minerals too, without sugar and barley. If you need more calories than that then I would add microionized linseed or linseed lozenges. The oil with all the goodness in is more easily absorbed by the horse feeding in this way than pouring an oil into their feed. That along with plenty of forage should do her very well indeed. For the most benefit I would give in several small feeds over the day, depending on how many you can fit in!
 
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