Is my feed enough?

H

Hairy Horror

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I have a HW cob who holds is weight well, he is just right but lacks a bit of energy. He is fed a cup of Top-spec lite, 2 large handfuls of dengie healthy h hoof twice a day and 3/4 of a cup of speedi beet soaked between the 2 feeds. He has two large hay nets of haylege at night and is turned out every other day during winter. On his days in he also has two nets of haylege. He is worked 5 days a week, 1 hack which is a couple of hours, 1 hour lesson, 30 mins lunge once a week and two half hour schooling sessions. Do you think he has enough in his feed and he is just being lazy?
 
try him on something that adds more energy and see how you go. you can always cut it back if you think its too much. I personally think you are doing a reasonable amount of work so try some more cereals to add energy. add a bit of mix
 
Mine when in hard work, and my definition of hard work is more than yours is currently doing. but I found he did need something extra. I give him oats. The rest of his diet is very low sugar and starch, but I find these work ok for him. Well they do now I've established he was behaving like a lunatic as he hurt his back rather than because he was eating oats, but thats another story!

I do find he takes longer to get fit and that he finds faster work harder than more blood horses as well, so try upping the work a little bit and doing some interval type training. If he doesnt pick up then you can revisit the feed.
 
If he has to stay in every second day i'd be wary of increasing starchy cereals unless you can up the work on those days in particular. What about schooling? E.g. more transitions to get him more forward?
 
You could up the chaff to something with a higher energy content? Perhaps Alfa-A oil? That has 12.5MJ/kg, as opposed to 8.5MJ/kg for the Healthy Hooves.
 
My heavy weight cob is fed a cup of top spec lite and a scoop of top chop lite balancer with salt. She has a large net of soaked hay in the morning, same again on an evening, turned out 24/7. In winter she is schooled for 30 mins 1 day, hacked for around 1 hour another day and then we do groundwork exercises the rest of the time. She is in good condition but does lack energy, I do think it's down to fitness. In summer I have no issue with her energy as she is ridden 3-4 times a week but due to lack of facilities I can't maintain it in winter.
 
Mine is in 24/7 worked 6-7 days a week, hunts once per week, lesson X1 per week and hacked min 45 mins the rest of the week. On ad lib haylege and twice daily alpha a and topspec cool balancer. Plenty of energy, topline etc. Last winter when I bought him on the same routine he was lazy and nappy it is the lessons and schooling on hacks which have changed him
 
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