The Ludo Logbook

Cortez said:
Gosh, he's only three; I wouldn't be too worried about a bit of twiddling around with the contact at this stage, just ride him forward and ride him straight, as they say at the Spanish Riding School....and pretty much everywhere!

Food-wise I can't help you as I don't feed mine anything at all except for hay/grass.
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'Straight is a negotiation at the moment :) He's actually easier to keep properly forward when bending. So much so that he has given me a proper shoulder in more than once.

The contact is more than a twiddle, unfortunately. It's a mouth wide open gawping and crossing his jaw, and a head thrown up and down when we disagree about which direction we are bending in. So much so that I have put the mouth closer on his Micklem for the moment, until we find a solution to what is seemingly a genuine dislike of having a bit in his mouth.

Well get him there, but he is proving a bit of a puzzle, mouth wise. Still, is always good to have new challenges :)
 
Chinchilla said:
Oh bless him. He sounds such a cool fella. Funny he is so funny about food though. Would you recommend the Speedy mash btw?
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I absolutely love it. It's really easy to handle, swells up a lot so a lot of food for little money and few calories to hide a fat cob's minerals in. Smells gorgeous, too.

Keep us updated please! He sounds as if he is coming along really well, and I'm not sure why you have such an aversion to being videoed: you're a stunningly good rider, on a stunning horse, so what's not to like?
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His work isn't fit to be seen yet, it's very inconsistent (but he is only three) :) I'm not a stunning rider. Capable, I'll accept, but my hands can be erratic, I look down all the time, and I really need someone with me yelling at me what to do :D

I don't have an aversion to being videoed as such. I was pleased with Henry's progress in his last lesson, promoted to a double bridle to help us both keep a more consistent forward contact (without using that big neck to go out through the bit!) and rhythm. He seems to really like having two bits, which I was very surprised about!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DSwkPX4tnAQ
 
Speedy Mash Stats.

I don't think there is a lower calorie food on the market.


Digestible Energy (MJ/kg) 8.0
Oil (%) 3.5
Protein (%) 10.0
Fibre (%) 24.0
Starch (%) 7.5
Sugar (%) 2.5
Vitamin A (iu/kg) 10,000.0
Vitamin D3 (iu/kg) 1,500.0
Vitamin E (iu/kg) 200.0
Selenium (mg/kg) 0.3
Copper (mg/kg) 30.0
Zinc (mg/kg) 120.0
 
ycbm said:
Speedy Mash Stats.

I don't think there is a lower calorie food on the market.


Digestible Energy (MJ/kg) 8.0
Oil (%) 3.5
Protein (%) 10.0
Fibre (%) 24.0
Starch (%) 7.5
Sugar (%) 2.5
Vitamin A (iu/kg) 10,000.0
Vitamin D3 (iu/kg) 1,500.0
Vitamin E (iu/kg) 200.0
Selenium (mg/kg) 0.3
Copper (mg/kg) 30.0
Zinc (mg/kg) 120.0
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Pink Mash is much lower. 0.5% sugar and less than 3% starch.

The ingredients for speedy mash are not great and I'm suprised he tolerates it if oats were a no go.

Nutritionally improved straw
Oatfeed
Unmolassed sugar beet
Sunflower extract
Wheatfeed
Rapeseed oil
Calcium carbonate
Vitamin & mineral premix
Salt
FOS
Lysine
Live yeast
 
Leo Walker said:
Pink Mash is much lower. 0.5% sugar and less than 3% starch.

The ingredients for speedy mash are not great and I'm suprised he tolerates it if oats were a no go.

Nutritionally improved straw
Oatfeed
Unmolassed sugar beet
Sunflower extract
Wheatfeed
Rapeseed oil
Calcium carbonate
Vitamin & mineral premix
Salt
FOS
Lysine
Live yeast
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Pink mash is more calorific than the spillers but I agree a better ingredient list.
 
ihatework said:
Pink mash is more calorific than the spillers but I agree a better ingredient list.
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And none of my horses like it, which is just as well as is more than 50% more expensive :)

It's also soya, I think? Which is a legume so not good.
 
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Leo Walker said:
Pink Mash is much lower. 0.5% sugar and less than 3% starch.

The ingredients for speedy mash are not great and I'm suprised he tolerates it if oats were a no go.

Nutritionally improved straw
Oatfeed
Unmolassed sugar beet
Sunflower extract
Wheatfeed
Rapeseed oil
Calcium carbonate
Vitamin & mineral premix
Salt
FOS
Lysine
Live yeast
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Well that's interesting. I read it was sugar beet and didn't look up the ingredients! How stupid can you get !

I can only think it's because it swells so much for its weight and is a lot of beet (you can see that) that he's hardly eating anything cereal compared to a scoop of oats or bran or a mug of linseed. I'll be sure not to feed him more than the 300g he's getting right now though.

Thanks for that LW.
 
BIG progress on the bitting front tonight. I popped on him for five minutes because I can't ride tomorrow, with a plastic straight bar on him. There was a very big difference. So at the moment we don't know if its because it's straight with no movement in it at all, or whether he also hates metal in his mouth. I'm happy to ride him in plastic if he is settled in it, so we'll stick with that for now.

I can't describe how relieved I am to get rid of the crunching!

As it happens, it was also a very big test for him because the others were loose in the fields and he could see them all. He took almost no notice, excellent for a baby.
 
Leo Walker said:
Spillers market it as sugarbeet but they are very crafty at hiding the fact their feeds are full of fillers and crap.
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Well, to be fair to them, it does look, feel and have a calorie count as if it is primarily de-sugared sugar beet pulp, with the other main ingredients used in small quantities to pelletise it.

There are probably millions of horses worlwide which are being fed happily on oatfeed and/or wheatfeed. (aka most lower priced cubes) I fed own-brand cubes for thirty years until I got horses/activities that don't require supplementary calories.

I'm just so happy to have finally found a low calorie feed that all four mine will eat their minerals in.
 
ycbm said:
Well, to be fair to them, it does look, feel and have a calorie count as if it is primarily de-sugared sugar beet pulp, with the other main ingredients used in small quantities to pelletise it.

There are probably millions of horses worlwide which are being fed happily on oatfeed and/or wheatfeed. (aka most lower priced cubes) I fed own-brand cubes for thirty years until I got horses/activities that don't require supplementary calories.
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But its not sugarbeet, the main ingredient is NIS straw, then oatfeed. And you have to go looking to find that out, and why would you when it looks and feels like sugarbeet and they advertise it as sugar beet. Its misleading and thats what I dont like.
 
Leo Walker said:
But its not sugarbeet, the main ingredient is NIS straw, then oatfeed. And you have to go looking to find that out, and why would you when it looks and feels like sugarbeet and they advertise it as sugar beet. Its misleading and thats what I dont like.
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I agree with you. But it's the only feed my cob will eat his minerals in that won't expand his waistline, so it will have to stay.
 
ycbm said:
I agree with you. But it's the only feed my cob will eat his minerals in that won't expand his waistline, so it will have to stay.
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If it's the starch he's reacting to in oats then I believe oat feed is more husk so likely significantly less starch, esp in tiny quantities.If it's working.....

Good news with the bit. I went through a lot before finding one mine was happy in as a baby.
 
Success! He's a different horse to ride in a plastic straight bar with full cheeks. Just normal three year old twiddling. No head tossing, arguments about bend, jaw crossing, bit crunching etc. Brilliant, we are back on track. That's a relief :)

He was such a good boy today!

The haylage was being unloaded in the yard and he was quite twitchy about it while I was tacking up. So I took him to look at the machine and the bales, and he was quite interested. Then I rode while it was still going on within sight and hearing, and he was just like normal. It's far more than I would normally expect of a three year old. In fact I probably wouldn't have even got on most three year olds until it was finished.

He's achieved everything I was looking for for this year, so from now until spring I'll only be riding if the weather is fine, and we'll begin hacking out because he feels strong enough for the hills now. I also plan to take him to my trainer to have her assess him and give me her opinion of what I should be doing in the future.

Very pleased today, my spotty wonderpony is back on track :)
 
ycbm said:
Success! He's a different horse to ride in a plastic straight bar with full cheeks. Just normal three year old twiddling. No head tossing, arguments about bend, jaw crossing, bit crunching etc. Brilliant, we are back on track. That's a relief :)

He was such a good boy today!

The haylage was being unloaded in the yard and he was quite twitchy about it while I was tacking up. So I took him to look at the machine and the bales, and he was quite interested. Then I rode while it was still going on within sight and hearing, and he was just like normal. It's far more than I would normally expect of a three year old. In fact I probably wouldn't have even got on most three year olds until it was finished.

He's achieved everything I was looking for for this year, so from now until spring I'll only be riding if the weather is fine, and we'll begin hacking out because he feels strong enough for the hills now. I also plan to take him to my trainer to have her assess him and give me her opinion of what I should be doing in the future.

Very pleased today, my spotty wonderpony is back on track :)
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Such brilliant brilliant news about the bit. This little horse of yours is so cool! Enjoy him before one of us HHOers ponynaps him in the night :tongue3:
 
Chinchilla said:
Such brilliant brilliant news about the bit. This little horse of yours is so cool! Enjoy him before one of us HHOers ponynaps him in the night :tongue3:
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Hold hard on the 'little', he's heading for 16.1 and looks likely to make 16.2. When I bought him I thought he might get close to 16 hands if he grew well :D
 
ycbm said:
Hold hard on the 'little', he's heading for 16.1 and looks likely to make 16.2. When I bought him I thought he might get close to 16 hands if he grew well :D
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He sounds about the right height for me.....*hint hint* :D Seriously though your not-so-little spotty boy really is awesome; which evil person downvoted it? :confused:
 
It's interesting to see the difference the change of food and bit has made. Can't believe he's taken so much in his stride in just a short time.
 
Good news on finding a bit he's happy with to keep him ticking over while he continues to mature. Have fun hacking him :)
 
mule said:
It's interesting to see the difference the change of food and bit has made. Can't believe he's taken so much in his stride in just a short time.
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No, neither can I. He is just a naturally calm, interested, brave boy. When he's not on cereals or legumes :)

The improvement with a change to a plastic bit is startling. I'm wondering whether stainless steel tastes terrible to him, or something?
 
ycbm said:
No, neither can I. He is just a naturally calm, interested, brave boy. When he's not on cereals or legumes :)

The improvement with a change to a plastic bit is startling. I'm wondering whether stainless steel tastes terrible to him, or something?
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Mabey, I can't imagine it does taste nice. Sweet iron bits are big sellers too.
 
Weather put a hold on things for a while there! We've had a month's rain in four days, with gale force winds.

I rode him today for the first time in a week and he was no different from normal even though he was twitchy in the stable. Bad weather does upset him, that's clear, even though he is rugged and no-one else here is.

There's not a mark on the plastic bit, so he definitely isn't biting it like he was metal ones.

Nothing exciting going on, just steady, pleasing progress :)
 
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