to feed or not to feed

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madeleine1

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i brought a new horse recently and she had problems with her seasons and was on regumate. i put her on herbs instead and it has sorted out some of her issues.

she is on 24/7 turn out and i had to feed her some hard feed so that i could give her her herbs. now she no longer needs her herbs and she is slightly over weight from all the grass. i was wondering if i should carry on feeding her or just leave her to the grass.
 
If she is overweight I'd suggest upping her exercise, restricting her grazing if you can and then feeding her a low calorie balancer to ensure she is getting all her vitamins and minerals. That would be the limit of her feed if she was mine.

Hope this helps.
 
shes only a time bit over weight and shes 14 and does an hour a day 6 days a week so i can really do any more exercise with her. the grass has loads of differant stuff in it so cant see vitamins and minerals being a problem. do horses have to have a hard feed
 
they don't ahve to have a hard feed, but unless you test your soil and grazing reguarly you won't know if she's missing anything until she shows up with symptoms. even a handful of balancer orr equi-bites would do the trick.

plus it helps to keep them sweet about coming in!
 
As jenhunt says, horses don't have to have hard feed.

I tend to think that in the summer they should be OK on grass and that a couple of months without vits & mins is not going to harm them.

Although she is exercised for an hour a day you could maybe up the intensity of her workload eg. more trotting and cantering. Also make sure that she really walks out and doesn't slop along.
 
my horse is a bit overweight to and is ridden 6 days a week,

when he is stabled at night (november-may) he is fed hay and and a fe twice a day on hi-fi, balancer and spedibeet

then june-july he is not fed as sping grass is lush

then august-october he is fed a balancer as there is less vits and mins in the grass

i feed bailys lo-cal
 
if shes turned out 25/7 maybe put her in a different field with less grass and maybe give her some hay everyday in a haynet and tie it to the gate. or maybe go to a expierenced adult with horses and ask them ? :)

hope this helpss. :)
 
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