Novice owner Q: What if anything are you feeding your grass-kept pony at the moment?

[billylula]

(sorry have posted this in Stable Yard also but wasnt sure where it should go)

Billy (13.2 NF) is kept out 24/7 (with field shelter). Grass in the paddock looks very good still (not much variety tho). We've been putting some hay down, sometimes he eats it, sometimes he doesn't. Also giving a couple of scoops of Happy Hoof a day which he wolfs down, plus the odd carrot/swede. He looks fine, but being a typical mum I am worried he isn't getting enough to eat/is getting too much other stuff Old owner said he didn't feed anything except the odd bit of hay.

 

[NeverSayNever]

(sorry have posted this in Stable Yard also but wasnt sure where it should go)

Billy (13.2 NF) is kept out 24/7 (with field shelter). Grass in the paddock looks very good still (not much variety tho). We've been putting some hay down, sometimes he eats it, sometimes he doesn't. Also giving a couple of scoops of Happy Hoof a day which he wolfs down, plus the odd carrot/swede. He looks fine, but being a typical mum I am worried he isn't getting enough to eat/is getting too much other stuff Old owner said he didn't feed anything except the odd bit of hay.

does he look well in himself? If the answer is yes then you have nothing to worry about. If it makes you feel better, as a new owner years ago I used to faff and stress with various supplements and mixing feeds... nowadays my 2 welshies live out in a rough paddock and get a couple of slices of hay a day with the odd carrot. If I ride, my Sec D gets a handful of happy hoof with a vit supplement powder in it. Thats it. My 2 look grand and now we are only a couple of months from spring Id be careful about upping intake, if anything you want them going into march/april on the leaner side. Hope that helps.

 

[Mare Stare]

I'd just add a mineral lick if the grass is still plentiful and the horse wasn't losing condition.

Mine are all on a couple of sections of hay and a scoop of conditioning mix each because the grass is starting to disappear on my fields.

 

[forestfantasy]

does he look well in himself? If the answer is yes then you have nothing to worry about.

This ^^
I would stay with the hay, you may find he doesn't need the happy hoof, just as much hay as he likes and a mineral lick should be fine.

 

[Clodagh]

If you buy a mineral lick don'y get a molassed one, they pig on them and all that sugar is not good! I use rocky road, they look like house bricks. You can get a big one with a hole through the middle that you can tie to the fence using baler twine. (To stop baler twine cutting through it cut off a few inches of hose pipe and put baler twine through that first.).

 

[be positive]

I have several out 24/7 , 2 in one field with plenty of rough grass are getting nothing,not even any hay and are extremely well, read a bit fat, 2 others are on less grass getting haylage each day and no hard feed again doing very well and have lost a little weight, which they needed to lose.
The other 2 are getting fed daily as they are needing it, one boy is 33 and I dont want him to lose any weight.
Your pony, if a good doer, most New Forests are, should ideally drop a little weight over winter so that he needs less restriction in the spring, if he was mine and looking good I would stop the feed and hay unless the weather gets bad or he is working hard enough to need a little more food. If he was really hungry he would eat his hay, they will always eat hard feed, hungry or not.

 

[marmalade76]

My sec B (12h, not in work) is having a couple of mugs of soaked beet, a mug of oats and a coulpe of handfuls of Hifi once a day. She also gets a carrot and sometimes an apple plus any available veg peelings and trimmings. She also gets 2 slices of hay but there is not an awful lot of grass in their field.

My other pony, (14.2) also not in work ATM due to an injury, has a scoop of soaked beet, a scoop of oats, a couple of handfuls of Hifi, linseed, brewer's yeast, calmag, MSM (in the hope that it will help his injury) and friut/veg once a day. He get three slices of hay and is turned out with the above pony.

We also have an old TB here who I recently moved into a fresh field with plenty of grass and he is not bothering with his hay at all.

All the above are out 24/7.

 

[Brandy]

My two natives that are living out get a small feed twice a day - this is really only becuase the TB gets one and it keeps them quiet! They have a handful of Aplha oil and a splat of fast fibre. They get hay as the grass is barely there, and have a red rockies mineral lick.

Two scoops a day of happy hoof is quite a bit I would say, I certainly wouldnt; up it with spring on the way and grass still being quite good.

 

[billylula]

Thank you so much - very helpful. He has a dodson and horrel uniblock (non molasses) in his field which he loves. He looks great. To be honest the happy hoof is really so that my daughter can give him something after they have been for a ride, while she is at school this week I haven't been giving him any as he seems so well - not fat, but nice condition. I might section off a bit off the field come March as I am petrified of him getting laminitis.

 

[AFlapjack]

My 14.1hh connie gets half a scoop of chaff and his recommended amount of topspec lite balancer once a day.

He shares a field with 2 shetlands and a 13.3hh welsh cob X (they don't get any hard feed at all) and together they get 6 slices of hay a day (which I've just upped from 4) as they are eating it all and the grass has been churned up from the wet weather.