New pony lost condition - pasture cubes instead of horse and pony?

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billylula

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He's out 24/7 and always has been, even in his previous home. They fed him 2 scoops of nuts per day plus some speedibeet and dengie chop (cant remember which one but not alfa a).

We've been giving him ad lib hay and haylage - which he doesn't eat much of. Our grass is poor so far. 2/3 scoops of pony nuts - normal dodson and horrell pony cubes, plus one feed of fast fibre.

He does look quite poor :(

I've in desperation bought a tub of pure gold, I mean Baileys Outshine (£££££ :() and giving him 700g per day.

Was thinking of changing the nuts to pasture cubes as he is being worked every day bar one - fast hacking or schooling.

Are we giving him enough?
 
Um, at the risk of stating the obvious... put him back on the feed his old owners had him on?

Providing teeth and worming are up to date, it sounds like energy out is exceeding energy in.
 
We are doing the same as them I think - apart from the Dengie - we give happy hoof but not much of it. They gave 2 scoops nuts - so do we, we give fast fibre instead of speedi beet. They restricted hay also which we do not.

He is doing a lot more work now as is old owner was at boarding school.
 
Fast fibre is a lot less conditioning than speedibeet; I'd switch back to that iiwy :). Give a decent amount as it's a good source of easily digestible fibre, and supplies as much energy as a conditioning feed.
 
billylula said:
We are doing the same as them I think - apart from the Dengie - we give happy hoof but not much of it. They gave 2 scoops nuts - so do we, we give fast fibre instead of speedi beet. They restricted hay also which we do not.

He is doing a lot more work now as is old owner was at boarding school.
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That's your problem I would have thought. He's doing a lot more work so will need more feed to fuel that work and if your grazing is poor he'll not be getting any goodness from that, it will just be a boredom breaker, nothing else so you can't count that into his diet until it improves both in quality and quantity. You can't keep taking out what isn't in there, that's why he's losing weight. He could also still be unsettled from the move and needs more time to adapt. Either stop work until he gets to a better weight or increase/improve his grazing and feed.
 
Thank you all so much. I didn't realise that Speedibeet and Fastfibre were different things :(

The woman in the farm foods shop didn't have speedibeet so she sold me Fast Fibre saying it was exactly the same. Now I feel terrible, poor pony.

Off to buy Speedibeet from somewhere!
 
I would pop some alfalfa cubes (if he's not intolerant to them) and linseed into his diet to up calories. I'm not really a fan of commercial cubes/mixes however I have seen good results with topspec cool condition and spillers condition cubes. I'm using ERS/Staypower cubes for my older horse as he's cereal intolerant, he also gets linseed and alfalfa cubes, beet pulp and for chaff spillers conditioning fibre and he's looking good, I just up the levels of lunseed and alfalfa or add a third feed if he drops due to work :)
 
Speedibeet is great stuff! Also, for conditiion i swear by Baileys No.1. My guys also get dengie healthy tum, garlic chaff, pink powder, pony nuts. hay and mineral licks! If you haver uped his work then you must up his feeding.. what about a slow release energy mix?

I dont really rate fast fibre- Feed shop tried to sell me it too :rolleyes:
 
Ok - now he's getting 2 x speedibeet around 600g per feed, with a small scoop of outshine in both feeds, a scoop of nuts at breakfast and a scoop of hi Fi lite (it's what I have for the other pony) for supper and a carrot. Plus haylage and hay.
 
It sounds to me like he might not be getting enough fibre. Although he is out 24/7 after the winter we have had grass is pretty crap and you say he doesn't eat much haylage either. I would address that issue as that will make a huge difference.
 
I was thinking about that watching him today - sellers said they had been checked a week before I bought him but think I will do it again
 
if you still get weight problems i deffo recommend baileys no. 1, in the winter my horse started losing condition so i put her on it and she was almost too podgy by the time it was spring!
 
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