Planning ahead for winter...

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phoebe.and.bonnie

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My field turning to mud with all this rain has reminded me that the days of feeding my mare next-to-nothing and turning her out rug-less are numbered...

This will be my second winter feeding Bonnie for myself, everywhere else she has been kept, the yard owner has been in charge of her feeding. At the moment she's just getting a little of Baileys High Fibre Mix, general vits + mins and Newmarket joint supplement, and a few handfuls of chaff to slow her down. Last winter, I managed to keep condition on her fairly well, but I think that was more due to luck than judgement. She lived out most of the winter apart from when the snow was horrendous, and got hay and feed (Spillers Senior Conditioning Mix, Speedibeet, supplements and chaff) morning and night.

I'm starting to plan ahead with my budgeting for winter, especially seeing as the price of hay seems like it's going to stay put at about £5.50 a bale in my area. So here's my vague plan...

- Morning feed of Baileys Top Line Conditioning Cubes, Speedibeet (she likes her feed to be still hot when it's cold :) ) and chaff.
- Medium sized trug full of cheap unmolassed chaff and sugarbeet during the day.
- Evening feed as above but with supplements
- Big haynet for overnight
- When stabled, feed ball full of high-fibre nuts.

But I've still got a few questions :)

Do you think the Top Line Conditioning Cubes would give her enough energy to see her through the winter? She did well on the Senior Mix last year but these cubes are significantly cheaper from my feed merchant.

Do you think replacing her hay for chaff and sugarbeet during the day is a good idea? And could you recommend any good chaff products for this that aren't too expensive? I would be reluctant to feed her masses of Applechaff, as I'm under the impression it's quite sugary?

Btw, I've looked into things like Horsehage and I think with the amount she would go through, it would simply not be affordable :)

Thank you for any help you can give!
 
You haven't said how big she is, what work she's in or if she is a poor do'er. (I assume she is)

Your feed plan looks OK - a bit large, but if you're trying to keep condition on her then that would work.

I know you need to budget and you are right to do so. But you can play with the amounts if you need to. As a general rule of thumb fibre helps the horses heat themselves as the digestive process generates heat. Also the more you rug her the less feed she'll need to keep herself warm.

You could possibly replace hay with haylage if her condition is dropping. Price wise they'll probably be much of a muchness by winter!

The only other addition I could think of is oil - good for calories and easily digestible.

If on the other hand this is a young relatively fit good do'er you'll have a bowling ball of a ned come spring!
 
I'm thinking about winter too - must get in a few round bales of straw soon. It feels like winter's almost here in Co Durham right now, cold and wet. Thinking about rugs too... URGH !!!

I'm lucky in that I just feed Healthy Hooves, friends with poor doers were feeding Dengie Alpha A oil stuff, and that worked a treat, with good haylage. sm x
 
Im also planning ahead for the big freeze :p
Going to MK next week to collect 3 new rugs :D Going to be double rugging Lady This Winter.
Also will be feeding D&H build up cubes, sugabeet, alfa A oil, oil plus garlic :D
AAAAAnd planning on seperating the field (Put good do'ers in one side and poor do'ers in the other) and put a big round hay/haylage bale in the poor do'ers side :)
 
Mine come in for the winter and are fed on Winergy low energy + carrots and hay, turned out everyday. I'm slowly collecting differant winter rugs (droole) cann't think why as they cost a fortune having cleaned. I just up the feed and hay if they drop off a little and cut down if they start looking like ballons:D:D:D
 
Sorry took a while to get back to this thread. Was a bit silly of me to forget to mention anything about Bonnie at all. She's a semi-retired 13 year old Tb type, she was diagnosed with minor arthritis in her hocks last year. She had steroid injections which made her much much much much lamer and she's still not right over a year on, although she seems better when turned out 24/7, hence wanting to keep her out all winter!

She's never been a particularly good doer, and tends to drop off weight quite quickly once it gets colder despite the zillions of rugs I put on her, although she did seem better last year as it was the first year she wasn't clipped. I know I must seem weird thinking about all this now but I would really rather up her feed before she loses weight rather than fighting all winter to put weight back on her once she has. Haylage isn't an option for me as I have nowhere to store it, literally all I have is a field with a stable, and I can keep one or two small bales of hay at a time in my garage, hence why I'm trying to look for alternatives to hay :)

I'm going to have a look at some of that Just Grass stuff too :)

Thanks for the input guys!
 
really pleased with myself, today I sourced some huge round good quality straw bales for £15 each, delivered. Three of those will see me right. Very early I know, but one less thing to have to sort out.
 
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