Need feeding advice please....

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Michelle73

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I have a cob who is ridden at least 6 days a week, he's very fit, did a 16 mile round trip (hack) to a show a the weekend and is currently having a well earned two days off! I have him on restricted grazing as he is a very good doer. I also feed him on Hi-Fi Lite, Sugar Beat and he was having Pasture Mix (think Dodson & Horrells). I was told by a friend that horses are unable to digest cereal - with this in mind I wanted to change the Pasture Mix - What would you recommend - I'd say he's in medium to hard work being worked at a decent intensity for at least 1 hour per day and gets up to 2 and a half hours at the weekends. He coped exceptionally well with Mondays adventure so I've realised that he is fitter than I had anticipated. I want him to have plenty of "controlable" energy. I have thought about upping his grass quantity and leaving him just on Hi-Fi Lite and Sugar Beat???? Not sure what to do next as he looks fantastic and want to keep him looking that way. Thanks in anticipation for your opinions.
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i'd ditch the pasture mix and give him a bit of Alfa A instead. maybe with a good all-round vitamin/mineral supplement or balancer such as Bailey's Stud Balancer (which i really rate), especially if he's getting on a bit... you don't say how old he is.
horses can digest cereal, but it's not part of their natural diet, and causes a lot of problems. Alfa A is a type of grass so is very digestible. They love it, it gives energy without fizz (compare protein and fibre percentages to pasture mix, straight cereals etc), and doesn't cause the complications cereals can.
 
If hes doing fine on what hes on then i wouldnt change it. However as hes a good-doer why are you feeding sugar beet? As this is generally fed for weight gain.
 
As said if he looks well and he is going well I would leave his diet alone. If he was getting hyper or lazy then I would change it
 
Thanks everyone.

He's about 10 or 11 years old, don't have any history on him.

The amount of Sugar Beat fed is negligable, he doesn't like garlic so the Sugar Beat is to disguise the taste of garlic!!! I'd bought the Pasture Mix thinking it was Baileys Meadow Sweet which I'd used years and years ago. I've done a search on the WWW since writing this thread and discovered that Meadow Sweet still exists so plan to swap him to that.

I only give him hard feed because of the amount of work that he does, as a reward and so that I can get the garlic into him (and isotonic on the rare occasions that he's worked exceptionally hard like the day before, during and after the show at the weekend).

He's really well muscled, wish I could upload some photos!
Sometimes he feels sluggish but the way he powered home from the show on Monday I have decided he's just a bit lazy and I could let him have a little extra grass for a bit of fizz!!! Last year I tried him on some Instant Energy mix and I got thrown off but don't have any recollection of what happened - as he's the safest horse on the planet, I put it down to the Instant Energy mix and want to stay away from high energy foods now matter how sluggish he gets!!!
 
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