Suggestions please on feed for extra energy

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mellymoo27

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I have a 5 yr old cob gelding and this is our first winter together. He lives out 24/7 on restricted grazing but plenty of hay (good doer) and currently has a small feed of speedibeet and good doer chaff, which he picks at. The problem I have is he is not overly fit, however when I ride he runs out of steam quite quickly, so its catch 22, I need to ride to get him fit but he just doesnt have the energy. I am looking to change his feed, not to blow his brains , but just to give him that little bit more energy to help us on the journey to fitness. Any recommendations? Thank you
 
You are in a very selenium-deficient area of the UK. See the second map on this page, which is a map showing soil selenium status in all areas of England and Wales.

Dark blue is very deficient. Mid-blue is deficient. Turquoise/green/yellow/orange/red are adequate to high.

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/nercsoilportal/maps.html

So your cob will definitely need a full ration of a good vit/min supplement or balancer containing around 1mg of selenium (in the form of selenium yeast, which is more bioavailable than the cheaper sodium selenite used by some feed companies).

The balancers I like best in this respect are the Blue Chip balancers and Dengie Alfa A balancer.

Selenium is a powerful antioxidant. People are more familiar with vitamin E as an antioxidant, but both are needed - they do different jobs to protect cells from damage. Vitamin E helps prevent damage, whereas selenium (in the form of an enzyme) helps neutralise chemicals that would otherwise cause damage.

If you start him on a balancer, you can expect it to take 4 to 5 months to start to have an effect as it takes several months to be incorporated into new red blood cells are they are generated, and seems to take a bit longer to incorporate into muscle cells.

My guess would be that this is the problem. I've had to look into this extensively because I ended up with a yardful of 6 ponies, none of whom could do a day's work. At best, one was reluctant and stressy. Mid-range, they were just ridiculously slow and unenthusiastic. At worst, they would grind to a halt from different paces, particularly canter, but the some of them also grind to a halt from walk.

I found that the least affected one could do a reasonable ride once or twice a week, but if I did several days in a row, he would struggle to the point he started saying no.

So, like I say, I would just go for one of those balancers and hopefully look forward to a more energetic cob in spring. You could also test your hay/grass to check whether the selenium status really is low (anything less than 0.1mg/kg DM is deficient. Mine is around 0.04-0.05mg/kg, which is a level associated with muscle disease in a variety of species worldwide. On the map, my area is mid blue.) You could also have a blood test done to include muscle enzymes CK, AST and LDH, but if you go that route, then make sure to ask for a copy of the blood report and check the levels for yourself, as most vets do not recognise that elevations of a few hundred units in CK can be significant.

Good luck whatever you decide to feed.

Sarah
 
My cob is a good doer also . . He's fed on hi fibre cubes or horse and pony nuts both spillers brand

In the past he's been on every kind if feed including racehorse cubes wen his old owner was trying to gee him up . .
He was 1 stride earlier to canter . . N Excatly the same no food seems to give him more energy he's just him . . Must to her annoyance

My cob is lazier wen he's been out as he has a good fool around . .
I usually give him longer to debloat 2-3 he's n this sometimes makes the difference but I look foward to winter wen I don't have to work as hard :)

If try n do lots of walking and hill work to get his fitness up n hopefully wen it becomes easier for him to work hell b more willing ;)
Sorry if not much help bit didn't want to read and run ;)
I'm sure someone more knowledgable will b along soon
 
flintfootfilly said:
You are in a very selenium-deficient area of the UK. See the second map on this page, which is a map showing soil selenium status in all areas of England and Wales.

Dark blue is very deficient. Mid-blue is deficient. Turquoise/green/yellow/orange/red are adequate to high.

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/nercsoilportal/maps.html

So your cob will definitely need a full ration of a good vit/min supplement or balancer containing around 1mg of selenium (in the form of selenium yeast, which is more bioavailable than the cheaper sodium selenite used by some feed companies).

The balancers I like best in this respect are the Blue Chip balancers and Dengie Alfa A balancer.

Selenium is a powerful antioxidant. People are more familiar with vitamin E as an antioxidant, but both are needed - they do different jobs to protect cells from damage. Vitamin E helps prevent damage, whereas selenium (in the form of an enzyme) helps neutralise chemicals that would otherwise cause damage.

If you start him on a balancer, you can expect it to take 4 to 5 months to start to have an effect as it takes several months to be incorporated into new red blood cells are they are generated, and seems to take a bit longer to incorporate into muscle cells.

My guess would be that this is the problem. I've had to look into this extensively because I ended up with a yardful of 6 ponies, none of whom could do a day's work. At best, one was reluctant and stressy. Mid-range, they were just ridiculously slow and unenthusiastic. At worst, they would grind to a halt from different paces, particularly canter, but the some of them also grind to a halt from walk.

I found that the least affected one could do a reasonable ride once or twice a week, but if I did several days in a row, he would struggle to the point he started saying no.

So, like I say, I would just go for one of those balancers and hopefully look forward to a more energetic cob in spring. You could also test your hay/grass to check whether the selenium status really is low (anything less than 0.1mg/kg DM is deficient. Mine is around 0.04-0.05mg/kg, which is a level associated with muscle disease in a variety of species worldwide. On the map, my area is mid blue.) You could also have a blood test done to include muscle enzymes CK, AST and LDH, but if you go that route, then make sure to ask for a copy of the blood report and check the levels for yourself, as most vets do not recognise that elevations of a few hundred units in CK can be significant.

Good luck whatever you decide to feed.

Sarah
Click to expand...
I got a 4 year old out of racing, and her feet were all ridged, in a mess generally, we used one of the more expensive supplements with selenium and gave her all the other things a horse needs, within four months she won her first race.
When a former jockey came to see her to give her a pre race canter, he said he was sure this was not the same horse as they previously had to canter her between two horses in order to make her work at all.
 
I can recommned Spillers Instant Response. They do an instant energy for laid back competition horses and an slow release for fiery horses!

It is very effective, I have my horse on eight mugs a day and can see a difference in his behaviour, attitude to work, his stamina improves, so he has more CONTROLLED energy for longer. It is brilliant, but it is £12 per bag :( and only lasts me about three weeks :( Here is the link http://www.spillers-feeds.com/products/response-competition-feeds/instant-energy-mix/
 
My good doer lazy mare gets competition cubes which gives her a bit of a spark, enough to work her a bit harder.
And if you can building up stamina with hill work, walking walking and walking as much as you can!
 
Mine gets oats...

the spillers instant energy was also ok but produced areas of bruising in his feet as too sugary.

He doesn't seem to put weight on as the increased energy levels mean it gets used up.

They wouldn't really be something I would feed if fitness was low though, he only gets them when I think that for the quantity of work I require of him he needs a bit more- and he can do a fair amount without them even if he would rather not :p.

Definitely look at adding a good vit/min supplement though. I have recently been using equimins advanced complete- which comes in pellets or powder and (although they smell a lot!) the pellets are very palatable even to be fed alone- and he is quite fussy about these things!
 
MrsD123,

that's really interesting about the ex-racehorse. Out of interest, what product was it that you gave her (just wondering whether it too has selenium yeast in it?). Also, were you local to her former training yard? Just wondering whether some of the success may have been down to different mineral composition of her hay, if it was grown in a different area (mind you, I guess that's difficult to say because in some areas, the soil selenium levels can change dramatically within a few miles, whereas other much larger areas may all be a similar level).

Interesting, anyway, and well done for getting her comfortable doing what she couldn't achieve easily in racing.

Sarah
 
flintfootfilly said:
MrsD123,

that's really interesting about the ex-racehorse. Out of interest, what product was it that you gave her (just wondering whether it too has selenium yeast in it?). Also, were you local to her former training yard? Just wondering whether some of the success may have been down to different mineral composition of her hay, if it was grown in a different area (mind you, I guess that's difficult to say because in some areas, the soil selenium levels can change dramatically within a few miles, whereas other much larger areas may all be a similar level).

Interesting, anyway, and well done for getting her comfortable doing what she couldn't achieve easily in racing.

Sarah
Click to expand...
Sorry, I didn't see the post, I can 't recall the product it was in a small tin and expensive.
She had been through a number of trainers in her life, had raced all over Europe, was bred to win the Derby, so at one stage was sold for £150,000, we paid £700
It was obvious she need food, and lots of it, she also needed tlc, and confidence.
We had her racing in flapping races [no drug testing or other rules], and I actually rode her in her first race as I didn't want anyone to know [if] she had talent, we led for 5 furlongs, which she thought was super, it was a six furlong race and I was about two stone overweight!
I think she had been banned for bad behaviour cos she got up on her hind legs on that first occasion, and whenever she got overwrought, which would not enamour her to any jockey, she only did this when in hand and not when ridden.
 
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