help with feeding.. it goes to his head!!

[woodlandswow]

i had a lesson on saturday and it was a nightmare.. he took an hour to "settle" and that was still jogging, not in a proper contact and generally being an *ss ..
having been told what to feed by a good friend.. she keeps show ponies.. (fat, if you dont mind me saying.. should be honest!) .. she told me to feed him
alfa a
top spec balancer
allan and page calm and condition

my instructor says its too much and it goes to his head.. she only feeds her eventers (they do novice) pony nuts and a bit of hifi and suggested i do the same.. in his old home he was fed just hay, .. i have been feeding this for a while but has been getting progressivly worse!
thing is, i dont want the fuel tank to run out half way round the xc!..
any help appreciated!

 

[BigRed]

Horses do not HAVE to have a bucket of food. The feed companies would have us all believe our horses will die if they don't get stuffed full of conditioning mixes and balancers. If your horse is being silly, stick to grass and hay/haylage, it is a far more natural diet and all the average horse really needs. Listen to your instructor, cut out the hard feed and see how he behaves then.

 

[smiffyimp]

Horses do not HAVE to have a bucket of food. The feed companies would have us all believe our horses will die if they don't get stuffed full of conditioning mixes and balancers. If your horse is being silly, stick to grass and hay/haylage, it is a far more natural diet and all the average horse really needs. Listen to your instructor, cut out the hard feed and see how he behaves then.

Ditto this. My PN eventer only has leisure mix and chaff as hard feed and has plenty energy.

 

[woodlandswow]

thanks .. thought that may be the answer.. just wanted to see others opinions.. just that because my horse was going fine, until recently.. thanks

 

[CBFan]

Erm... I think your instructor is totally utterly right!

Cut the alfa a
Cut the Topspec

and you'll have a completely diferent horse!

Cut the c&C too and save yourself some money!!

Hi-fit lite (a handful of!) and a vit and min supp sounds perfect to me

 

[vicksey]

It took me 5 years to find a feed that gave my very lazy cob some oommnph, and it was top spec balancer. It is fab stuff for my lad but maybe not if you have an already lively horse! He gets half the recommended amount daily with a hand full of hi fi good doer or lite and he is very well and fresh and working the best he ever has and I think it is down to the top spec, you might find balieys low cal better. Dont forget spring is in the air for a lot of horses too!

 

[Loika]

What your showing friend probably forgot to tell you is that she also feeds a healthy dose of calmer with all that!!!

I have never fed the recommended amount of feed except in winter and I have a typical TB poor doer, who has haylage, H&P cubes and applechaff and that is it!

Start from nothing and work your way up until you have a horse you want to ride and modify up or down from there.