I need some advice on feeding....

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Tayto

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So - I have been googling this so much but there is so much advice out there I thought I would just start a thread! There are so many feed companies too - who do you trust to give you non sales pitch advice?!

Anyways - I have an 8 year old cob x clydesdale mare. We have had a very up and down year including nearly 3 months out of work for various reasons but I am finally getting her back into "proper" work. She has come out of winter VERY well and needs to lose some weight. I have been doing lots of hacking and she is dropping weight - need to buy a smaller girth so thats good! We are having flatwork lessons and really working hard on building up correct muscle etc.

My question is - should I be feeding her? At the end of this month she will be turned out 24/7 (with a grazing muzzle if required). She is such a good doer I don't think she needs hard feed at all during summer but then I wondered if she needs something to support her muscles while we go through this training period. I doubt we will ever make the olympics (haha) so maybe I am over thinking it?!

Advice much appreciated :)
 
You could feed her a lite balancer ie spillers or topspec, (less than the amount they recommend on the bag) if you wanted to keep her vits n mins topped up.
 
Definitely NO hard feed for a fatty native type!

If you need to give her vitamins, feed a powdered supplement in a handful if HI FI Lite. I would steer clear of balancers as they have calories in them, even the Light versions.
 
Spillers lite/topspec lite balancer has all the correct levels of vits n mins your horse needs and they are very low in sugar and starch ( i use them for my PPID horse) less than advised on the bag. Def muzzle when grazing or strip graze, you dont want to end up with a laminitic ponio :) Keep exercising :)
 
on the topic of muzzles - can anyone recommend a good one? I hear mixed reviews about the greenguard ones but a few people speak highly of the shires one.....
 
Agree with the others - no extra feed. If you must feed a balancer only give half the amount. Horse is fully grown and on good grass and not doing much = no hard feed necessary. In general people always feed far too much, to the delight of the feed companies.

In H & H there was an article on feeding some well known horses and one show cob was competiting at driving events, working during the week and hunted with the draghounds in winter, all on hay and grass.
 
Personally I too would just feed a supplement plus a handful hifi light or fast fibre. I like the equimins tip top, it's got a comprehensive range of vits and mins in there, it's what I fed my boy as he was a pretty fast grower.
 
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