Out of curiosity what would you feed to a 2yo in poor condition?????

[cariadssogreat]

I have my ideas on what to feed - but really just wanted to know what ideas you guys had?

She is a cob 2 year old who has been "done badly" IMO and needs some good grub to catch up - but in no way to over do. She is a bit unhandled so is not yet rugged. She is out 24/7 with good grass ( although obviously not much in that at this time of yer) with a big bale slice of haylage per night. But what hard feed? I think she should mature around 15hh.

Any help greatly apprecaited - at the mo she needs condition and weight.

Oh and by the way - I have only just got her.

 

[kerrylou123]

lots and lots and lots of fibre... ie high fibre cubes and hifi?!?!

 

[monica123]

what was it.......barley...lol...something like that...begining with B makes them put on weight

 

[Bossanova]

Make sure she has been wormed recently (may be worth doing an egg count) Keep her on good grass and I'd just add in a youngstock mix with a balancer

 

[Dotilas]

Baileys No.1

It's like porridge... I feed it to my TB when he gets a bit ribby.

We had the opposite problem with our cob though... So fat he was off the weight tape!

 

[TigerLilly]

feed fibre plus nuggets with stud and youngstock mix plus if still more is needed give molichaff or sugerbeet

 

[ihatework]

Alfa Oil, yearling cubes, SB

 

[gailt]

top spec balancer and alfa a, id probably give hay as opposed to haylage...

 

[sorona]

Pony cubes so he doest get fizzed up, high oil chaff, speedybeet, soya oil and blue chip and also plenty of hay.
What are you feeding him at the moment as he may only need the addition of oil and a balancer or just adlib hay as you do not want to radically change his diet.
I have 3, 2yr olds that are on the above diet excluding the blue chip and oil but that is what i would add if their conditon dropped as one of my others is on it as he is in lots of hard, fast work.

 

[Maesfen]

Been there and done that quite a few times!

Have had good results with Bailey's No 1, sugar beet and chaff; also with Burgess's Super Barley made into a mash with chaff, sugar beet added; or a normal pony mix/cube (it is after all, a cob so doesn't need anything high powered to my mind) with sugar beet and chaff. I'll also use micronised barley too.
Have to admit I like and use bran too, very comforting food in a mash if it is weakly but if you use it, unless you use a balancer like Blue Chip be sure to add limestone flour to the feed.
As much hay/haylage it will eat too with as much turnout as is possible, don't stint on that.
Whatever you feed I would definitely feed Blue Chip with it; it's the icing on the cake IMO!!

It's not going to be a quick fix, not only are you trying to get condition on it, it is still growing so it will be a slow process but you should start seeing a difference very shortly if you stick to small but regular good quality feeds - but be sure you don't overdo on the protein; fibre feeds are the better base.

Good luck, can we see pic's?

 

[cariadssogreat]

Thanks everyone, I have reared many youngsters and shown them at county level - so I am sure you can see why I am struggling a little with a poor 2 year old - because I never have let my youngsters get poor. Dont get me wrong I dont over do them either.

 

[Theresa_F]

My cob, though never in poor condition did very well last year on alfa a lite, speedibeet, high fibre cubes, youngstock supplement and ad lib hay.

This year I am changing to Simple Systems feeds and he is having green gold, lucie stalks and their supplement.

I have had a very old TB in poor condition and she came right with ad lib hay, conditioning cubes, sugar beet and chaff. She had four small meals a day and ended up very well covered.

I also gave her equimins pro-bio to get her gut in good working order.

 

[Kermie]

I would feed a balancer such as TopSpec to ensure the pony is getting the required minerals and vitamins and then top it up with alfa-a, sugar beet and, if required, TopSpec cool conditioning cubes.

I wouldn't use pony nuts as they can be surprisingly high in starch and I don't like feeding starch if it can be avoided.

 

[peapod]

We got a very poor 2 yr old colt a few months ago, we put him on (and he is still on) Bailey's stud cubes, Stud Balancer, and some Hifi Lite. Lots of good quality hayledge and good grass, and he's come on tremendously. However, it has taken a LONG time for him to come round, and he is still lacking the muscle definition of our other youngsters, who have never been in poor condition.

Just for a comparison - we got him I *think* about 8/9 months ago - when my Mum went to look at him:

And this is him at his second show - about a month ago now:

Edited to say this reply is to the Original Poster, not Kermie!!

 

[AmyMay]

Wow - that's impressive!!!!!!