maintaining condition

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savvyblue1

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Squire is looking well at the minute ( best have seen him looking since i owned him) and at 23 I want to make sure he goes into and comes out of Winter looking well.

His diet is currently out on decent grazing 24/7
and fed once a day: 1 stubbs scoop hi fi
1 stubbs scoop pony nuts and his joint supplement

He is shod in front and barefoot behind. Out naked, unless weather turns colder or have heavy showers in which he will have a L/W to.


I am going to start feeding twice a day soon to help maintain his condition.
When he comes in he will be on a small baled hay so 1/2 to 3/4 bale a night ( he usually has some left overnight)

I am thinking about adding barley to his feed and my question is do I keep on with the hi fi or do i change to speedi beet? Or add speedi beet as well?

He is still ridden in light work, mainly hacking and his teeth are fine and I have plenty of rugs for him.

Reason I am asking this is because I am down to just under half a sack of hi fi

Thanks in advance
 
I would really play it by ear... the grass is still growing like mad at the moment (more so than normal for this time of year so I wouldn't be worrying about making great changes to his diet yet. Continue with what you are feeding and IF he starts to struggle with his weight why don't you try mirconised linseed? You will only have to feed a VERY small amount per day to see a difference - I feed a mugfull a day for maintenance to my 17.2hh boy.

Speedi beet is good for weight... I would probably feed slightly less hi-fi and nuts and top the feed up with speedi beet if needed :)
 
Have a look at grass pellets which you soak; Northern Crop Driers do a decent one called Graze-On. They are excellent for helping with weight and you could feed them with anything else but you wouldn't really need a chaff as well. They're under £7 a 20kg bag and you'd only need one scoop a day before soaking.
http://www.northerncropdriers.co.uk/products

Echo the linseed too; a 20kg bag should last you a couple of months at least I would have thought and remember, that could be good for his joints and coat condition too.
 
Personally, I would prefer to add linseed and/or speedibeet rather than using barley. A lot of older horses start to develop Cushings as they age, and can be prone to laminitis even if they look lean, so feeds where the calories come from fibre and oil, are preferable to starchy feeds like barley.

If you find he keeps his weight on easily on grass in the summer, it could indicate that his teeth are making it hard to eat enough hay for weight maintenance in the winter months, so you might want to look at substituting some of his hay for higher calorie, or more easily chewed, forages, such as haylage or tubs of soaked grass pellets, or grass chaff. And obviously a visit from the dentist if he hasn't had one recently.
 
It has been a case of trialling what feeds work for him really, as he was in a poor condition when I originally got him. But teeth are fine and he has settled in really well, with relocation and yard move.
He is looking good now and I just want to start thinking about what to feed come winter, as opposed to him dropping weight and having to build back up again.
 
This will be my 3rd winter. He was in a very poor state when I took him on.
Recently relocated several hours away and he has thrived, is the best have seen him look, has settled in well and is not being bullied by the other horses as he was previously at another yard.

He was so fussy when I first got him it was a struggle to get him to eat on own, preferred if I was there with him, would go off certain feeds, wouldn't eat ad-lib hay/haylage.

Now he has settled really well, is the best have seen him looking, have had all the checks done too. teeth recently, worm counts come back clear and vet came for vaccinations and gave him all clear too.

I have also tried a range of conditioning mixes/ cubes and veteran feeds and once he started to improve condition wise, he would go a bit loopy.

I am trying for the prevention rather than cure approach, he would loose it mainly on his hindquarters and round his belly, I know some of it would have been muscle too, but I just would rather not have another struggle this year with weight if it can be helped.
 
If he is fussy with his hay/haylage then I would definitely try giving some additional mash or short chop type forage (soaked grass nuts, grass chaff) in a tub trug alongside his hay/haylage. This should encourage him to eat more forage overall (as more tempting and more like summer grass than hay/haylage, plus studies have shown that horses eat more if offered a range of forages) and means you don't have to rely on hard feed so much, so less likely to get loopy. Definitely don't add barley if you are worried about loopiness!
 
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