sweaty horse..

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showaddy1

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Hi all,
I have a lovely 16 plus Irish draft... I have been feeding her stud mix and alpha (as advised by feed store) for the past few weeks for oomph as she's a very lazy girl, but unfortunately it hasn't had the desired effect.. she is now sweaty and spooky but still as slow!
So, my question is, from experience, what have you fed for energy and what was the outcome??
 
If she is sluggish to ride then it is more likely down to fitness and schooling than feed. Work on getting her fitter and reacting quickly to the leg.
 
The ID I've been working with for last 3 years is fed Allen & Page Power & Performance. Seems to give him the energy he needs without altering his calm attitude.
 
My girl (ISH) is v chilled when less fit and when it's mild.

If her fitness is good then I would consider clipping her. Obv if she isn't fit or is overweight then she will need that working on rather than looking at feeding her more.

My girls first clip has almost grown back and I'm needing to clip again as she is getting v warm (despite being fit and in medium work!). She is just a warm one!
 
I'd get her off the food and fitten her up, sounds exactly like a heavy cob at our yard who's owner stuffs with maise, oats and high energy mixes but then rides for 20 minutes every other day and complains he's got no go or power. There is no food in the world that will make an unfit animal (or person) fit...that's down to exercise only.

The fitter the horse the more energy and go they'll have, my lad is ridden 6 days a week with combination of schooling, jumping hacking for hours at the weekends and whatever else we can find to do (weather dependent of course!) he's on lo-cal balancer and bounces into his work!!! He's spooky but that's his nature and if I fed him high energy mixes he'd kill me!!! Lol!! If I stopped his exercise he'd become a slow boring plod...I know cos when he has his month off in January Febuary is blummin hard work!!!!

As said clip her, change to a good quality feed that suits her temperement, I hate how feed places try to flog food that will change temperment rather than compliment it, and make a schedule of fittening work...boring but worth it in the end I promise!!
 
I ride for about an hour a day,mostly fast paced hacking.. she's only young so I am trying not to do too much schooling till next spring, don't want to bore her!!
She is being clipped Sunday... hopefully improving the sweatiness ...
I was advised, by a well known feed supplier, to try Top spec with alpha twice daily and then soaked oats an hour before I ride for some extra energy... any thoughts on this??
Thanks for your advice, its greatly appreciated x:)
 
showaddy1 said:
I ride for about an hour a day,mostly fast paced hacking.. she's only young so I am trying not to do too much schooling till next spring, don't want to bore her!!
She is being clipped Sunday... hopefully improving the sweatiness ...
I was advised, by a well known feed supplier, to try Top spec with alpha twice daily and then soaked oats an hour before I ride for some extra energy... any thoughts on this??
Thanks for your advice, its greatly appreciated x:)
Click to expand...

Honestly? I'd rather get her fit and school her to be quick off my leg. Would be my preference to feeding her so much, esp if she is younger.
 
My mare is a warmblood x and sometimes she can be quite lazy in the school. If I ask for say halt to trot and she isn't quick enough then I give her just a tap with the schooling whip, I then ask again with just a light touch of my legs and if she's quick I praise her. My mare has just had her second clip and this morning she was quite sweaty.
 
How young is young? ID's are slow developers and I'd be wary of stuffing her full of high calorie stuff. I'm no fan of schooling either but it does have it's place and as a youngster she does need to learn, boring as it is. ;)
 
Rising 4... apparently born at christmas time...

I tend to do my schooling whilst out and about in the beginning, we are all different (thank god!) with our own techniques... the sand school is a lil deep and very hard going.

I was told to try the topspec feed balancer, but now all confused!! I find the world of horse feed a mysterious place, and unfortunately like many other businesses, just out to make money....
 
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