What do you feed your 4/5 year olds?

[ace87]

Hi all,

Don't often post here.. I have a 4 (rising 5) year old French Trotter gelding who was backed at 3 left for 9 months and has been in proper work since December (was introduced back into work in November)..

My Question, what do you feed yours that are similar?

Quitus is in good condition, nicely covered and is building up muscle nicely. He is in at night from 5pm - 7am with adlib hay. He is turned out on okay grass for the rest of the time.

He is ridden 5 times a week possibly 6 or 7 weather depending - 30-45mins of schooling and at weekends upto an hours hack as well.

Schooling = walk-trot-walk-halt-trot transitions, bending and balancing exercises, big figure of eights and big circles etc. No canter work at the moment.

He is one of those that burns energy standing still on most hard feeds and needs fibre fibre fibre to keep the weight on. But on Fibremix and Alfa A Oil with Speedi beet he has been doing great, just concerned there wasn't enough energy in it for a working horse.

At the moment I have just - following feed merchants advice - started him on Winergy Equilibrium Medium Energy.

This feed confuses me as it's a 15kg bag which states a 16.2hh horse in medium work should be fed 4-6kg of it a day?!

I'm feeding him just under 2 of the big round scoops twice a day with a handful of alfa a oil twice a day (trying to use it up) and a half round scoop of speedi beet twice a day.

To me this seems odd, anyone else have any views on it?


P.S Anyone know Sarah H who has Rusty & Sam's user name??

 

[martlin]

1. 15.3hh 4 yo warmblood filly with a lot of TB in (3/4 bred), needs a bit more condition in daily light work:
am: 1/2 scoop of Hoss Nosh (alfa-a free chaff), 1 scoop spillers slow release cubes, 3/4 scoop sugar beet
pm: 1 scoop Hoss Nosh, 3/4 scoop Spillers, 1/4 rolled oats, 1/2 scoop sugar beet, Biotine.

2. 16.2hh 5yo warmblood gelding also high in TB, in good shape, still growing in daily light to medium work
am: 2 scoops of alfa a, 1/4 spillers slow release, 1 scoop of sugar beet, NAF Thrive
pm: 1 scoop alfa a, 1 scoop Hoss Nosh, 1/4 scoop spillers, 1/4 scoop oats, oil, biotine, NAf Thrive

All my horses get as much haylage as they can eat.
Hope that helps
Sorry, no idea about the Winergy.

 

[Damnation]

My mare is 5.
She is a 15.2 ex racehorse. She is worked about 5 times a week, lunged, schooled or hacked, we do walk trot and quite a bit of canter.
She gets one feed a day, 1 scoop of molichop herbie and a scoop of alfa beet.
She is in on ad lib hayledge everynight and is out 4 days a week on next to no grass. On the 3 days that she is in she gets ad lib hayledge.
This is what she looks like at the moment

Izzi

 

[Taffster]

My rising 4yr old, is fed on alpha a oil full scoop - top spec conditioning flakes .5 scoop and .5 scoop of quiet mix twice a day she is worked for 20-30mins 5times a week. She also has garlic and has the most amazing winter coat!!

 

[Noodlejaffa]

My 4 year olds get Hi-Fi original (full round scoop), Top Spec and Kwikbeet and are looking great on it. Get same for breakfast and dinner, plus good quality haylage throughout the day.

 

[jinxy]

When my boy was just turning 5 and I aquired him i fed him nothing. He was on good grass, and in winter he was on hay and a vitamin and mineral supplement with olive oil to make them stick to chopped up carrots and apples.

 

[TGM]

[ QUOTE ]
But on Fibremix and Alfa A Oil with Speedi beet he has been doing great, just concerned there wasn't enough energy in it for a working horse.

[/ QUOTE ] Did you actually notice that he didn't have enough energy? Oil and beet are both quite high in calories (which is what supplies energy), so unless he actually felt lethargic on it, you needn't have been concerned.

As regards the Winergy, have you weighed how much is in a scoop? If you are relying on it to give your horse his RDA of vitamins and minerals then you need to feed an amount near what the manufacturer recommends. Won't make a huge difference if you feed 3kg rather than 4kg, but if you feed only 1kg then you are only feeding 25% of the vit/mins. If that is a concern, then you can top up with broad spectrum vit/min supplement.