To feed or not

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flirtygerty

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I'm not sure what to do about my 4yr old cob, weight wise he's fine, my dilemma is, since he still goes bum high, he is still growing, do I feed for growth and if so what feed, he's BF and gets nothing but grass and a haynet, he's my first youngster and I.m feeling my way, if he was 20yrs old I would know what I was doing, any suggestions welcome
 
I would add in a vitamin supplement , that way he's getting anything he can't get elsewhere. Even in a small token feed of low calorie chaff would be enough.

I'm wary of people feeding for growth. My youngster got vitamin supplement, chaff and hay when he was younger and it done him fine. I know of a lady feeding all sorts of young stock feeds and the like for this yearling she bought as she beleive it would make her grow taller ! The result is that she now has a very obese 3 year old.
 
OP, although we refer to horses this age as youngsters and although as you indicate, he is still growing, your horses requirements are now that of an adult. Feed him fiber, fiber and fiber, plus a balancer or a small handful of chaff with a vitamin and mineral supplement. feed the balancer or supplement at the recommended daily amount for an adult horse, once a horse hits two years of age its requirements (regardless of growth) are that of an adult not a youngster.
 
I would use a suitable balancer to give him access to some high quality protein which can be lacking in hay based winter diets or feed a good general vitamin and mineral supplement and a 150 grammes of micronised linseed .
 
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