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Pony is very lean at the moment - not thin, just not an ounce of fat on him and v muscly as super fit from hunting all winter. Was feeding him about 2kg TopSpec Conditioning nuts, 0.5kg Outshine, 250g (half rations) TopSpec feed balancer with some alfa-a oil and a tiny bit of soaked alfalfa pellets/speedibeet as he doesn't really like them. This was all in the evening after riding and he wasn't eating up very well.
People suggested feeding full rations topspec and feeding 2 meals of the above.
Now he is coming in at lunchtime and eating 1kg Outshine, 500g TopSpec balancer, 1.5kg CC cubes and 1.5kg Saracen ReLeve. Then in a separate bucket he has Alfa-A oil/Readigrass/speedibeet/soaked alfalfa pellets and a haynet. The hard feed is all fibre/oil so there's no problem with feeding more than 2kg in one go and having it pushed through the stomach into the hindgut. He eats all the hard feed and about third to half the bucket of alfa/grass, plus around a third of a haynet in the afternoon. I then ride about 7pm and at about 8pm he gets another 1.5kg of CC cubes/Re-Leve. So, that's a total of 6kg of hard feed plus plenty of forage. There's then plenty more hay out in the field overnight. He is in hard work, hunting weekly and dressage comps in between. Should this be enough for him? He weighs about 500kg, is a 15.2hh leggy Welsh Cob and is rising 7. 2.5% of his weight should be his daily requirement in feed which would be 12.5kg a day and he's getting about 50% of this in bucket feed, the rest in hay/grass. I was always taught not to feed more than 50% as a hard feed, but not sure if it applies when just feeding fibre - presumably he still needs plenty of long fibre to keep his guts healthy though.
So, he has been on this regime for 10days now and still looks the same to me. Am i being impatient or am i wasting my money (lots of it!) by putting this much feed into him. I'm sure there's nothing else wrong with him - he's bright and lively and has bundles of energy and is always playing in the field!
People suggested feeding full rations topspec and feeding 2 meals of the above.
Now he is coming in at lunchtime and eating 1kg Outshine, 500g TopSpec balancer, 1.5kg CC cubes and 1.5kg Saracen ReLeve. Then in a separate bucket he has Alfa-A oil/Readigrass/speedibeet/soaked alfalfa pellets and a haynet. The hard feed is all fibre/oil so there's no problem with feeding more than 2kg in one go and having it pushed through the stomach into the hindgut. He eats all the hard feed and about third to half the bucket of alfa/grass, plus around a third of a haynet in the afternoon. I then ride about 7pm and at about 8pm he gets another 1.5kg of CC cubes/Re-Leve. So, that's a total of 6kg of hard feed plus plenty of forage. There's then plenty more hay out in the field overnight. He is in hard work, hunting weekly and dressage comps in between. Should this be enough for him? He weighs about 500kg, is a 15.2hh leggy Welsh Cob and is rising 7. 2.5% of his weight should be his daily requirement in feed which would be 12.5kg a day and he's getting about 50% of this in bucket feed, the rest in hay/grass. I was always taught not to feed more than 50% as a hard feed, but not sure if it applies when just feeding fibre - presumably he still needs plenty of long fibre to keep his guts healthy though.
So, he has been on this regime for 10days now and still looks the same to me. Am i being impatient or am i wasting my money (lots of it!) by putting this much feed into him. I'm sure there's nothing else wrong with him - he's bright and lively and has bundles of energy and is always playing in the field!