hows her condition.

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madeleine1

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i realise she is a bit underweight and she has gained a bit but is she really bad or just a bit under.

i would know if i saw someone elses horse but you get so used to seeing your own you can tell the differance on a daily bais.

shes ridden 3 times a well for a quiet 40 mins. but i am now lunginging her the other 3 days a week.

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she lost a bit through stress and hasnt done to well this winter. she is 15 and 10 months. i feel like a clueless and mean mummy
 
She looks a little bit poor but this will definitely be helped by spring. Maybe give her a little conditioning mix to see if that helps. Spillers conditioning fibre is pretty good works even better with spillers conditioning cubes. I am having trouble getting my 17h to beef up so i have him on the above feeds and already am noticing a difference.
 
She looks poor but like others say grass is on the way.

How much hay/hayledge does she get?

I would feed adlib before I up hard feed. True adlib means she has as much as she will eat ie she never runs out.

If she hasnt done well this winter I would make sure you feed adlib through most of next winter.
 
Yes she is a bit poor but spring/summer will get some condition on her. What are you currently feeding her? Honestly don't worry too much, my oldie is looking a lot worse but is still perfectly healthy and happy.
 
My bet (looking at the walls of her stable - if it is her stable ) is that she's bored as she's not getting enough fibre. Try and give her ad lib hay or haylage, if she eats it too fast buy a small holed hay net or double or treble bag it.

I am sure she will soon be piling on the pounds with the grass and you will soon be worrying how to lose the weight.

I'm guessing you have had her teeth rasped and she has been wormed? I know how worrying it is having a horse that will not put weight on having had this with a previous horse. I used to get filthy looks off people at shows and loads of people would ask why he was so thin. I hated it. He just had a fast metabolism because he used to eat me out of house and home! In the end it was constant ad lib fibre in the form of hay, grass nuts and barley rings that did the trick but he still looked too thin even then! He was a super stressy horse who would canter sideways the whole time so I reckon that didn't help the weight situation either.
 
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this is the thing she gets addlib hay which is soaked and there is always some left in the morning so i no she is getting enough. i cant give her hayledge as it send her barmy. she did chew the walls but this has now stopped.

shes on two cups (normal mug sized) calm and condition and a handful of pasture mix(otherwise she doesnt eat the calm and condition.) twice a day. i think she didnt have a good start to the winter as she was stressed and she has complecated seasons.

im glad people are seeing the same as me. because as i say you cant tell when you see the same thing everyday necceserly.

shes just had her teeth done about a month ago and she had a sharpe on but nothing serious and her back was done and all fine. she was wormed when due but the next one is soon so might bring it forward a bit.

she is happy in herself and still has lots of energy
 
She is on the lean side, but imo it looks worse than it is because she doesn't have a great deal of topline. Assuming its been lost over winter & teeth, working up to date I wouldn't worry, like others have said, the grass will soon sort that out. It's preferable to being overweight going into spring imo
 
madeleine1 said:
this is the thing she gets adlib hay which is soaked and there is always some left in the morning so i no she is getting enough. i cant give her hayledge as it send her barmy. she did chew the walls but this has now stopped.

shes on two cups (normal mug sized) calm and condition and a handful of pasture mix(otherwise she doesn't eat the calm and condition) twice a day. I think she didn't have a good start to the winter as she was stressed and she has complicated seasons.

I'm glad people are seeing the same as me. because as i say you cant tell when you see the same thing everyday necessarily.

she is happy in herself and still has lots of energy
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Why are you soaking her hay (she needs the nutrition) and feeding so little hardfeed?
 
With the caveat that photos can be deceptive, I wouldn't be overly concerned by her condition. She lacks muscle, certainly, but she's not skinny. I might be tempted to increase her hard feed to ensure she has enough going in to lay down muscle (if she's not laying it down on present rations and light work), but not to pump her full of feed and make her fat. The grass is coming through, I'd rather they were on the slim side at this time of year anyway.
 
amymay said:
Why are you soaking her hay (she needs the nutrition) and feeding so little hardfeed?
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because shes not good with the dust and its relatively good hay. and see i get differant opinions from everyone. people have said thats alot of hard feed. its half the pink bucket full when soaked. please correct me if you think im wrong im just trying my best.
 
im not sure if my last comment reads right. she has good hay but even when its good shes not coping brilliantly unless its wet
 
madeleine1 said:
because shes not good with the dust and its relatively good hay. and see i get differant opinions from everyone. people have said thats alot of hard feed. its half the pink bucket full when soaked. please correct me if you think im wrong im just trying my best.
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It is a reasonable volume, in my opinion. If you want to up it, can she get a third feed at lunchtime/ later at night?
 
madeleine1 said:
because shes not good with the dust and its relatively good hay. and see i get different opinions from everyone. people have said that's a lot of hard feed. its half the pink bucket full when soaked. Please correct me if you think I'm wrong I'm just trying my best.
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C&C is designed to be fed in rather large quantities - and certainly what you're currently giving her will have very little if any benefit at all.

Two good dry round scoops soaked, is what I would feed, as a minimum.

And if you need wet the hay because of dust, then it's not good. But I would give it a sprinkle of water rather than a soaking.
 
amymay said:
C&C is designed to be fed in rather large quantities - and certainly what you're currently giving her will have very little if any benefit at all.

Two good dry round scoops soaked, is what I would feed, as a minimum.

And if you need wet the hay because of dust, then it's not good. But I would give it a sprinkle of water rather than a soaking.
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she does really well on grass. and she wont eat her food dry, i think in regards to the hay she is just fussy. i will try and get away with damping it as little as possible and will look at uping her feed.
 
madeleine1 said:
She does really well on grass. And she won't eat her food dry, i think in regards to the hay she is just fussy. I will try and get away with damping it as little as possible and will look at upping her feed.
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C&C should not be fed dry, so remember to always soak.

I think if you stop soaking her hay so much and give her the appropriate amount of C&C you'll notice a difference very quickly.
 
madeleine1 said:
because shes not good with the dust and its relatively good hay. and see i get differant opinions from everyone. people have said thats alot of hard feed. its half the pink bucket full when soaked. please correct me if you think im wrong im just trying my best.
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Everyone at my yard comments on how much hard feed my boy gets, his bucket is just about full.. But then they comment on how well he looks from it :D He gets 1 stubbs scoop of C&C in every feed, it expands to look like quite a lot! And 1 scoop of Alfa A with it.

Do you soak the hay for a long time? Could you just dampen it instead?

Mine gets adlib hay or haylage (depending on what the yard has) and I find this helps a lot. The spring grass will obviously help a lot.

I don't think she looks badly skinny or anything, just on the thin side :) Mines on the thin side too. I wouldn't worry about it too much
 
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amymay said:
C&C should not be fed dry, so remember to always soak.

I think if you stop soaking her hay so much and give her the appropriate amount of C&C you'll notice a difference very quickly.
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i dont feed c and c dry i just ment in the past eg when she was just on pasture mix she wont eat it unless wet.

right so plan is up the c and c a bit and try to get away with damp hay not wet. and bring on the summer
 
To be honest she doesnt look as bad as some are saying. A little under but she needs musle build up so once that starts she would look better, you want to see a shimmer of her ribs while moving.

Soaking hay is fine, my little on needs it soaked as he has a cough and damping doesnt work. My sisters exracer is on the same c&c for his dinner, what about adding a chaff like alfa oil? Or similar, mine put loads of weight on with that.

Xx
 
personally I have never found CC a very good conditioning feed. Have you tried swopping it for a coniditioning mix (like Build up) or a cube equivalent? Do you mix it in with any chaff like an Alfa Oil?

Equijewel only has to be fed in small quantities (as in a mug in each feed) and it brilliant for adding weight if you wanted to give her a boost.
 
I would add a cup of micronised linseed for condition to the feed (could be split) per day to gibeve condition. It's non bulky and good for condition and gut health.
 
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