ugly duckling transformation & what to feed?

NiceNeverNaughty

NiceNeverNaughty

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so here is my highland youngster the week i got her home; rising 3, had not been handled. I bought her unseen, I knew the breeding... but still, I got a bit of a shock. I knew she would never be a heavy/chunky stamp of the breed, I wanted a lighter, sportier type.

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and now, rising 6

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she has never been easy to keep weight on, other than in August/Sep when she does better and blooms a bit. I am fairly happy with her weight at the moment but I feel she could just be a fraction better covered. She is out through the day on an 8 acre field that still has plenty of grass, plus there is hay out. At night she has as much hay as she can eat and a feed of dampened topspec comprehensive balancer with rapeseed oil added. Im thinking of adding something else to give her calories but Im not sure what. She is currently ridden usually 4 days a week and is reasonably fit and is a forward going pony, although sensible she is a spooky girl so Id prefer to avoid anything that might make that worse. Any thoughts? :D Thanks!
 
She's very pretty. I don't know if that picture is representative of how she usually looks now but if it is I would say that her condition looks perfect to me. Tbh, if you're managing to easily keep a Highland on the lighter side of healthy then keep doing what you're doing, and certainly don't risk changing anything
 
I think she looks fine but maybe add some micronised linseed it's fairly cheap to feed with good results and at least you can alter it according to how she looks which is what's I really like about it.
 
thank you, she’s not your usual good dooer highland though, that’s the issue - i feel she has never really ‘thrived’ and Ive always struggled to get weight on her, other than when Dr Green is at it’s best.
 
Cortez said:
She looks absolutely fine, in both pictures: certainly much better than the enormous hippos that most highlands become!
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Very much agreed. I have one that runs lighter, naturally, than his [non-]brother did at the same age, but he was fed the same throughout his life. Now at 8 he looks more highlandy - mostly due to the topline from the nature of work he's been doing, hill turnout and a quiet winter.
 
She looks great,I wouldn't change a thing.there is next to nothing in the grass this time of year. So when the spring comes, she should start to do again
We have Connemara,s some are good doers and others like your highland, seems once they stop growing they put on the weight easier
 
thanks all, I think seeing her the flesh is either different or we have differing ideas.

Has anyone got any feed suggestions that will help to give her that bit of a bloom Im looking for?
 
My welsh cob used to lose a lot of weight over the winter, and one year his ribs showed through his unclipped coat. He lost his 'sparkle' too. He's usually a very forward ride, so like you I didn't want to give him anything with too much energy in. A couple of handfuls of topline conditioning cubes a day gave him his spring back and added that tiny bit of weight back on, and he was never fizzy on them. Once he got to about 7/8 years old though he became typical welsh and piled on the weight, so start with small amounts!
 
There is nothing wrong with her weight!
But if you are going to add something then I’d suggest replacing the rapeseed oil with omega rice
 
It may help if people know what you want the 'bloom' for...?
Aesthetically for the show ring or because you don't feel she is fit and healthy enough to do the work required?
 
horsemadelsie said:
My welsh cob used to lose a lot of weight over the winter, and one year his ribs showed through his unclipped coat. He lost his 'sparkle' too. He's usually a very forward ride, so like you I didn't want to give him anything with too much energy in. A couple of handfuls of topline conditioning cubes a day gave him his spring back and added that tiny bit of weight back on, and he was never fizzy on them. Once he got to about 7/8 years old though he became typical welsh and piled on the weight, so start with small amounts!
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thank you very much horsemadelsie :) Yes Im really hoping at 7 / 8 she does the same. She really didn't have the best of starts unforunately and certainly so far spring grass has made no difference and her work will pick up more this year as well.

DabDab for no other reason than I feel she is still slightly lacking and I love my pony and want her to thrive! As I said, Im fairly happy with her weight.
 
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Takes highland ponies a long long time to look like the finished product mine was about 10 I think Yours looks fine for her type and will muscle up with work. In my experience a good low sugar low carb high oil high fibre and high protein diet gives them the building blocks to mature properly. Mine are fed the same they have a little alfalfa, a lot of oat straw, a little linseed and soaked grass nuts to damp it all down, one scoop soaked, feeds five native type ponies from 14.2 to 12hh. They're on restricted grazing so are fed every day little or no hay as they are out 24/7 on long but small amounts of grass about 2 square meters each per day
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Well it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job with her, so I really wouldn't worry. The horses that ran a little leaner as youngsters I've found to be the healthier ones as adults. As long as their mineral needs are met and they're getting plenty of forage then there shouldn't be any cause for concern. Omega rice has been suggested above and you also can't go far wrong with a small amount of linseed
 
thank you wind&rain yours are gorgeous, and thank you dabdab. I will look omega rice and actually, Id forgotten about grass nuts too :) She isn’t my first Highland, Ive had a few, including youngsters, of varying levels of good dooers, but none really like her.
 
If you want a little "extra" for bloom I would look at adding a small amount of micronised Linseed or Copra to a high fibre, low sugar diet.
 
for anyone that’s interested... ive found a small cup of topspec cool condition cubes has done exactly what I wanted and hasn’t had any affect on her behaviour at all :) .
 
She looks poor probably because most other natives are hippos...but she looks OK from that pic?
Micronised linseed is really good though. Makes their coats so shiny too xD
 
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