Unsure on what to feed?

[Bri]

Hi,
I'm hoping someone will be able to give me a bit of advice with regards to what I can feed my mare?
She's 16.2hh ISH who's recently turned 5. She's in light to moderate work, being hacked schooled or jumped about 3-4 times a week, although she's had a few weeks off recently due to a injury. When she comes back into work I'll be looking to get her much fitter for hunting.
At the moment she is out for about 10 hours a day and fed on hay and 2 scoops of balanced grass mix.
She is a very good doer and only dropped off a little bit last winter so she definitely doesnt need any thing that's going to encourage weight gain. However she completely lacks any energy and although she is reasonably fit she seems to tire very quickly.
Think I should possibly be feeding her some sort of balancer or vitamin supplement so any suggestions for that would be great?
Thanks very much!

 

[angiebaby]

Baileys low-cal is very good, I feed my pony this and Dengie Hi-fi lite, with a small amount of speedi-beet.
On the days I ride for more than 1 and 1/2 hours or if I'm having an hours lesson I give him a couple of handfulls of Spillers Instant Response. Gives him that bit extra ooomph!

 

[hellybelly6]

I was given the advice of feed for what the horse has done, not what he is going to do.

I would contact a feed company.

 

[angiebaby]

The Instant Response is designed to be fed before riding. It is a fast release energy feed; the calories are used on the work which is going to be done. Thats why I only feed it if I know he is going to have a good two/three hour hack with lots of hill work or an hours lesson.
He's actually lost weight while on it!

Spillers advise using it for laid back horses/ponies, if fed under the reccommended daily amount

 

[Bri]

Thanks hellybelly, I was considering that but thought I'd ask on here first as I'm not totally sure which feed company to contact? Obviously whoever I speak to is going to recommend their brand of feed, so dont know if one manufacturer is necessarily better then another if that makes sense?

 

[sachak]

i would deffo recommend contacting spillers fo feed advice - i do have a contact should you wish ... they advised me re feeding my 17hh warmblood for condition as he holds weight well but needed somethingw hich is going to promote condition and also i was very pleased that she also recommended a dengie product (alfa a in my case) so are aware that their products combined with that of others can be very beneficial.

 

[Bri]

Oh excellent thank you! will give spillers a call then! Im assuming there will be contact details on the website? Otherwise that would be great if you could pass yours on. Thanks very much

 

[sachak]

i have pm'd you

best of luck

xx

 

[Governor]

She sounds quite similar to my horse.

Gov was starting to drop off and he's relatively fit but tended to go 'flat' 20 minutes into a schooling session. Instant response cubes weren't an option though, I want energy we can use not just whizz off in the first 5 minutes with utter stupidity.

I've put him back on Spillers Slow Release Competition cubes. He gets 1 1/2 scoops per day (split between 2 feeds) along with a scoop of soya oil sprayed chaff. He gets as much haylage as I can shove down his throat and is out around 8hrs per day.

He'll get some sort of fibre slop in the next 4 weeks or so when the grass starts to disappear. Allen and Page have a new one, Quick Fibre or somthing, which has a bit of linseed in it too which I like the sound of.

 

[sachak]

ooh just read re balancer/ vit supplement

top spec feed balancer is fab or i feed dengie vits and mins performance supplement (red tub)

 

[angiebaby]

Each horse is different re how they react to feeds,
Governor; my pony is amazing on the fast releasing mix, never spooks, walks past tractors motorbikes etc no problem. It just makes him much more forward going

Its a very puzzling world of feed out there!

 

[hellybelly6]

Start with spillers and go from there.

Also, my horse is on the spillers site as a case study!