How much do you feed?

[wiglet]

So, my horse is on full livery with feeds included. IMO, they are not feeding her enough. I have broached the subject but have been told for her size and workload, she gets enough… yet I can see ribs.
Horse is 15:2hh, in light work atm due to my shifts and overtime (hence the need for livery). She’s 22 (going on 4 ?) and is quite fussy, not greedy and always struggles to hold weight in winter.

Before I state what she gets fed, How much does your horse get fed, how big is your horse, what workload and are they good or poor doers? - I’d be interested to know.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I think its irrelevant what anyone feeds, each horse or pony is an individual and has different requirements.
When was the last time your vet came out for a routine visit? I'd be asking their opinion 1st, based on the horse in front of them.

Do you mean you can see all the ribs? Or just the last?
What's the top line like, how do the quarters present?

Is there plenty of forage?

I'd be looking at the overall picture.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

gelding 15.1hh no work ......... poor doer now as older 21 this year
1 timothy chop
1/2 veteran mix
1 fibergy
h/f grass nuts
haycare


mare 16.1hh in work . generally good doer 12 this year

1 fibergy
1 timothy chop
1/2 purabeet
h/f grass nuts


15hh mare not in work .......... good doer 17 this year

1 hifi lite
1 timothy chop
h/f grass nuts
1/2 purabeet



pony 12 hh 1 day work currently has IBD trying to keep weight on but good weight at the moment 17 this year

1 ready grass
haycare


To add I will not give any of mine Grain or mix with barley maize and peas

Depending on your yard policy. Ours is we offer a basic feed nuts and hifi middle diet pasture mix and hifi comp diet comp mix and hifi, our feedroom is small so if a livery wants to buy something special they are told they have to subsidize it and we will feed it.

Based on our livery charges we deem 2 1/2 scoops per feed is included.

 

[Gloi]

I'd be wanting to know she hay available all the time and make sure her teeth had been recently checked.
After that it's up to you.
My little cob is a fairly good doer in light work and gets ad lib hay plus a mineral supplement in a handful of healthy tummy chop.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

15.1hh Welsh D Rising 4yr old

Twice a day he gets

3/4 of a scoop of readigrass
Half a cup of suregrow balancer
1 scoop of mush (soaked beet pulp/alfalfa nuts/grassnuts mixed together)
100g of linseed meal.

10/11kgs of hay a night and whatever he can get from the field and the shared hay bale during the day

He looks like this at present

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

Double post

 

[Starzaan]

The thing is, it isn’t about quantity. All horses are different, their metabolisms, workloads, etc etc.
Your first port of call should be forage. She should have good quality forage available at all times, and then you think about feed.
There are some basic diets you can’t go wrong with in terms of balancer and chaff, but quantity is completely different for each horse.

 

[paddy555]

22 and not holding weight, tested for cushings? also teeth properly checked recently?

you can't really compare one horse with another, most important thing to put on weight is ad lib hay. Forget about the hard feed, how much hay is she getting?

 

[windand rain]

26 years good doer 13.1hh
250 grms grass nuts
250 grms veteran vitality
single handful of grass chaff
no hay standing foggage

17 year old 12.2 dartmoor poor doer
250 grms of grassnuts
250 grms of veteran vitality
250 grms micronised linseed
grass chaff
grass or foggage no hay can feel his ribs
not much feed and grazing 24/7 about 300 days a year they do get tiny amounts of hay in March and April if the foggage is gone

 

[Widgeon]

I was going to say forage as well, for a couple of reasons good-doer my cob does get a bucket feed in the morning (scoop of oats, scoop of alfa-a, cup of linseed and some sugar beet) but the thing that really affects his weight is not the bucket feed but the forage. He balloons on even just "reasonable" grass so I strip graze, and I have to be careful when he's getting hay in the winter. So I would definitely be another one asking whether you're 100% certain her teeth are good and that she has access to decent hay or grass all the time.

We have an older (25) TB on our yard who just had the last of his teeth taken out because they were in a bad way - the vet seemed certain that with a bit of time his gums would become hard enough for him to graze with. He can certainly get through his haylage and he gets big sloppy bucket feeds to keep the weight on. TBH his owner probably hung on for too long before having the last few out (she'd be the first to say that) because the idea of a toothless horse was a bit tragic! But he's actually put condition on and perked up since having the last few teeth out so they must have been causing him quite a lot of constant distress, which he didn't really show.

 

[BeansNsausages]

Would be good to see a picture really and to know if the horse has lost weight on the existing routine.

I would be more concerned that the horse has constant access to a good quality hay or haylage.

A bag of sugar beet is cheap. If you are concerned then perhaps just buy a bag of that and request that a scoop of that is given with each meal.

 

[LegOn]

Also - just from a livery point of view, if you are paying your money for a service and feed is included, and you ask for more feed... then what's the problem - your horse, your decision. I understand some yards dont want people taking advantage of the 'feed included' model, but if you include, then you have to understand that needs change for liveries and horses from time to time so if you've asked for more feed, that should be the end of it, give your horse more feed.

I echo what everyone else has said about forage but at the end of the day, you've asked for more feed - they should give it.

 

[eggs]

Has your mare been tested for Cushings?

How much turnout is she getting?

As others have said it is totally irrelevant what others feed their horses.

In light work a healthy horse only really needs forage and maybe some vits and mins to make you feel better.

How much hay/haylage is she getting and what is the quality like. I would be more concerned if they yard was restricting her forage rather than bucket feed.

You should be able to see the outline of the ribs but without a photo it is not possible to say if she is underweight or not.

My retired 21 year old who has just been diagnosed with Cushings is on daily turnout and at night has adlib hay and haylage - he is odd and some nights will eat the hay, some nights the haylage and some nights eats both. As a result of the Cushings he has to be on a very low sugar/starch diet so he gets some 1 scoop Mollichaff Molasses Free with 1/2 scoop sugar beet and 1 scoop Baileys No24 cubes when the working horses get their feed.

 

[TGM]

They are all so different! One of mine is 16.3hh warmblood, good doer, in light work with the odd days hunting. He is looking fab on just Light & Lean Balancer and a bit of Speedibeet twice a day. We have another warmblood who is 16hh and always tended to be a bit leaner. He gets the same balancer and Speedibeet but also a mug of linseed and a small scoop of alfalfa pellets. They both get ad lib haylage though, which is one of the most important things if you want them to maintain their weight.

 

[Michen]

Mine is 15hh and requires a good £75 of hard feed in the winter. Equerry conditioning mash is the only thing he consistently eats, so that fed at 2k a day plus extra linseed on top (as much as I can get away with with him then not chucking the bucket around)

 

[SEL]

The 2 poor doers with me are older boys. One has great teeth and is on ad lib hay, beet, chaff, linseed. The other has got some teeth problems and is on very sticky veteran mix soaked with topspec linseed mash. We bring in different hay for him - very fine and very sweet.

If teeth are ok then I'd ask them to increase hay

 

[wiglet]

Thanks for all the replies. To answer a few questions...
She's in good health, last vet visit was October for vaccinations and a general health check - all good.
Teeth are done every 6 months. Physio every 6 months. She's my world and is treated like a princess.

Generally, the yard is great. A good routine, turnout everyday. Quality hay and haylage - she gets both because she likes to pick and choose. It's fed ad-lib but, she doesn't (and never has) eat tonnes of it. Hay also gets put in the fields during winter.

When I was DIY, for her bucket feed she got a large scoop of chop, half a scoop of speedibeet and a small scoop of grass nuts. She maintained her weight nicely. On full livery she is getting a third of a scoop of Happy Hoof and a handful of hi fibre nuts. I don't think it's enough. I know it's not enough. I will mention my concerns again this evening and maybe the way forward is for me to by a bag of Speedibeet and have that added to the feed.

 

[meleeka]

That doesn’t sound very much, no. Apart from this issue your years sounds great and a rarity these days. If you think she needs more weight, then by all means have a conversation about supplying extra, although I’d be wary of soeedibeet becaise it relies on someone soaking it properly. How about micronised linseed as something extra to put condition on? if I was on a yard where there was all day turnout in the winter and ad-lib hay 24 hours, I’d be careful not to upset them!

 

[SEL]

@wiglet your horse is getting pretty much the same as my 13h native who is about right weight wise. I think the feeding guidelines for happy hoof are on the website

 

[jnb]

My 157cm HW cob gets two meals of:
1 250g cup of soaked Thunderbrooks Hay Cobs
1/2 250g cup of soaked Fast Fibre
Equimins Advance powdered balancer
MagOx
10g micronised linseed

More or less ad lib superb soft, quality meadow hay (I honestly have never seen better)
A handful of meadow haylage while being groomed/feet done/rug changed

Out 24/7 on unfertilised rough pasture, I move the fence every morning or night just to detect any rabbit holes and fill them in before he grazes

 

[Wheresthehoofpick]

We feed happy hoof to our good doers as carrier for meds. You have to feed a lot of it for them to get the required balanced mineral etc content. We don't use it in that way but over Christmas my new mare (not such a good doer) became hangry and I weighed it out.

I know very little about feed but if you think your mare is poor and that's what she is on from my experience a better quality chaff. Dengie hi fi senior and an appropriate balancer would be a better starting point.

If that's not enough equerry mash is amazing stuff. Appears super palatable and has put amazing condition on my oldies. I would add the right amount of that in instead of speedibeet.

 

[wiglet]

That doesn’t sound very much, no. Apart from this issue your years sounds great and a rarity these days. If you think she needs more weight, then by all means have a conversation about supplying extra, although I’d be wary of soeedibeet becaise it relies on someone soaking it properly. How about micronised linseed as something extra to put condition on? if I was on a yard where there was all day turnout in the winter and ad-lib hay 24 hours, I’d be careful not to upset them!

Micronised linseed is a super idea - and will be much easier to feed than speedibeet.
The yard overall is very good and I absolutely do not want to upset the YO. She believes most horses only need forage hence the small rations but, my mare isn't most horses

 

[jnb]

IMO chaff is just a filler and won't do anything other than make the horse chew more. I personally feed mashes as my cob will bolt chaffs and choke given half the chance.
My mum's old horse (TBx) is now 33 and I managed to persuade her to lose the chaff and feed a mash feed a few years back as he started on Prascend and the chewing the chaff was putting him off eating at all.
Rowan Barbary ReadyMash was tasty enough to tempt him and you only need to soak small quantities to make a decent size feed.

OP if you're on full livery it's still your horse and your choice what to feed. Don't ask, tell the YO your horse now needs xxxxx in their feed at a rate of Y scoops...if you're worried about her reaction tell you've spoken to the vet about the horse's weight loss ?

 

[PurBee]

Micro. Linseed really helps my aging mare, and younger gelding , in the winter months when not eating much grass.

It gives omega 3, which is essential for lots of things…it’s abundant in grass, but not hay/haylage. Wise to feed it in winter. My mares winter woolies are extremely fluffy and shiny/soft and she holds good weight on mainly forage…good quality varied forage.

 

[Gloi]

Micronised linseed is a super idea - and will be much easier to feed than speedibeet.
The yard overall is very good and I absolutely do not want to upset the YO. She believes most horses only need forage hence the small rations but, my mare isn't most horses

I fed micronised linseed to my oldie and really rate it if they need extra calories without starch.

 

[Starzaan]

Thanks for all the replies. To answer a few questions...
She's in good health, last vet visit was October for vaccinations and a general health check - all good.
Teeth are done every 6 months. Physio every 6 months. She's my world and is treated like a princess.

Generally, the yard is great. A good routine, turnout everyday. Quality hay and haylage - she gets both because she likes to pick and choose. It's fed ad-lib but, she doesn't (and never has) eat tonnes of it. Hay also gets put in the fields during winter.

When I was DIY, for her bucket feed she got a large scoop of chop, half a scoop of speedibeet and a small scoop of grass nuts. She maintained her weight nicely. On full livery she is getting a third of a scoop of Happy Hoof and a handful of hi fibre nuts. I don't think it's enough. I know it's not enough. I will mention my concerns again this evening and maybe the way forward is for me to by a bag of Speedibeet and have that added to the feed.

It’s not that that isn’t enough, it’s that it’s the incorrect feed.
I would be giving her a good quality balancer, Alfa A Oil, sugar beet, and linseed oil. The amount will be worked out on her weight and forage ratios.
Most livery yards offer a basic diet. This doesn’t work for every horse, but they can’t possibly make any money if they do a different feed for everything.

 

[Hallo2012]

your mare is only getting the same as my out of work, slightly overweight native.

my in work not so good doer native is getting a heaped scoop (dry weight) of allen & page soothe & gain and a heaped scoop of chaff split in to 3 feeds as well as ad lib hay....

 

[Lady Jane]

I would consult an equine nutritionist, but you certainly need a balancer. If she is getting ad lib hay and haylage, and is looking poor, then you need to address the feed. Can we see a picture?

 

[I'm Dun]

Mine is 15hh and requires a good £75 of hard feed in the winter. Equerry conditioning mash is the only thing he consistently eats, so that fed at 2k a day plus extra linseed on top (as much as I can get away with with him then not chucking the bucket around)

Mine is 16/16.1hh He gets completely ad lib hay, pink mash, sensi care and extra linseed, as well as a big bucket of sugarbeet and grass chaff to pick at. Some of them do just need feed. The cob and the native get a tiny token so I'm not a crazed over feeder

 

[Polos Mum]

Would an option be for them to give her more proportion of haylage (less hay) in the stable - to get the right sort of calories in. If she's getting hay in the field.

I don't feed mine anything other than a handful of chop to get balancer in. They only have hay and winter out without rugs, one is clipped !

I would love to see hint of a rib !

OP - grass nuts, if she did well on them before are easy to add and economic. Speedibeet I can see the yard not being keen on as they'll have to soak it.