What do you Feed?

[Rosiejazzandpia]

With winter approaching I'm researching feed.
I have a fairly average doing rising 5 year old cob who lives out 24/7 all year around. Shes a good weight, although I've had a few snide comments that she is too thin; although vets have said she is fine and we are so used to seeing obese horses.

Just under a year ago she was in a horrible state so has been on spillers daily balancer and top spec zero chaff, protexin gut balancerand salt. She's now backed and ridden away, hacking 4 times a week and soon to begin schooling at a local hired school over winter.

She gets as much good quality hay as she can eat in winter and only had a small feed to keep her busy as all horses come in from 8am to 10am for breakfast. Her grazing is good and she looks lovely, I'm just wondering whether she needs a balancer this winter or whether I'd be better off with a powdered balancer or none at all.

Feed companies have been rather unhelpful, they seem to reccomend the feed with the most crap in it.
So just to be nosey what does everyone feed and why? Are balancers a waste of money? Does anyone feed the old fashioned straits and does anyone just give a handful of chaff? Enlighten me on the modern ways of feeding

 

[only_me]

She doesn’t sound like she needs a balancer. Sounds like you’re on the ball with her weight as well

Mine is 17h 12yo ISH in v low work (joys of uni) who lives out, he gets half a scoop of releve in the evening, which he’s been on since he was 4 lol. That’s year round. Although if grass is good it’s more like 1/3 scoop!

I’ve recently added chaff, so I’m having great fun trying all the different types, i currently have a bag of garlic chaff (i pick whatever is the cheapest with least molasses each time) so he gets a handful of that as it slows him down and allows the alpacas time to eat their mix!
In winter he also lives out but I put a big round bale Haylage in field which lasts him and the donks about 3 weeks.

I’m very lucky in that he lives out all year and never really gets overly fat, plus he doesn’t gorge either
It’s more than he needs but is simple enough that if YO or I are away someone can do night feeds without any hassle. It also means that all animals in field come up for evening checks which is very handy!

 

[JJS]

Mary, Flower, and Tudor all do fine on ad-lib hay in winter. Sixpence gets as much hard feed as we can entice him to eat, but he's a very old boy who struggles to hold weight due to PPID, so he's the exception rather than the rule.

 

[windand rain]

grass chaff soaked grass nuts and linseed in varying amount due to different weights, I do add soaked speedibeet in the really cold months they live out 24/7 on strip grazed standing foggage and dont get hay until that is gone usually February or March although due to the drought we will likely be feeding hay sooner this year as we still havent had appreciable rain since April

 

[rachk89]

I would just keep feeding what you are feeding. It's working, so no point in adding to it.

Mine gets spillers daily fibre and currently conditioning cubes by baileys to just try and bulk him up a bit for winter. He got really skinny after his surgery from stress, and the grass hasn't been able to grow well this year because of the weather. He's looking much better now though. I won't mention how many supplements he gets, but honestly he does need all of them. They would be pointless for your horse though.

 

[Leo Walker]

I'd swap her to Pink Mash. It already has protexin in it and is incredibly low calorie. Spillers is actually one of the better balancers and if shes doing well then I'd leave that be. If she starts to gain weight you can then look to swap her onto a powdered balancer.

 

[Cortez]

Hay. Mine get hay, and grazing of course. If they were losing weight or otherwise looking or feeling ropey they would get something in addition, but I haven't fed anything but hay for many, many years now.

 

[Ambers Echo]

Mine are all on Pink Mash, a forage based balancer & salt. Pink Mash has linseed, Protexin, fibre beet and beetroot. It's very high fibre, less than 2% sugar and very low starch. And has no other additives so you can add a balancer to it without overdosing/getting the proportions wrong.

The balancer is based on the assumption that typical UK pasture lacks the biodiversity necessary for all the vits and mins. I feed it in powdered form.

And I add a bit of unmollassed chop to give them something to chew but I probably don't need it.

If Amber is working particularly hard I add extra micronised linseed to her feed and sometimes oil.

They have been looking good on Pink Mash for ages but I have only recently started the balancer and salt so can't give you a view on how they are on it but the logic of adding a balancer makes sense to me.

Before I had Amber I never fed anything - but Amber and Ginny were both underweight when they came to me so I started feeding them and have never stopped. . Jenny gets as little of the mash and chop as I can get away with just to carry the balancer & salt.

 

[milliepops]

I would just keep feeding what you are feeding. It's working, so no point in adding to it.

this was my first thought too! if she's doing well, looks good, is doing her work happily and you're happy then it's probably all fine

I feed grass nuts, oats, salt and a balancer to my welsh who is in fairly hard work for a pony, she drops off quite easily and needs the extra oomph of the oats to perform her best, the balancer helps even out the vits and mins from the oats. my WB just gets a handful of grass nuts... and they both get hay and plenty of it. That's the most important thing for them IMO

Mine won't eat pink mash, neither of them liked it which is weird because they are both good eaters normally.

 

[Pinkvboots]

mine get a very light haylage its just really hay without the dust rather than sticky really haylage stuff, they get 2 to 3 large nets of it everyday, at the moment they have half a stubbs scoop of graze on chaff which is just chopped grass, 50g micronized linseed salt and water, in the winter I up the linseed and often add unmolassed sugar beet if they need it, they are ridden between 3 and 6 times a week hacking and schooling and they both are a good weight.

 

[WelshD]

I think it sounds like you don't need to change what you are doing personally.

I am a quite unashamed 'feeder' so in order to not translate my need to feed in to weight gain for the ponies I feed lots of fibre. One of mine is in daily work and gets Dengie Healthy Tummy and lots of extra plain alfalfa and the other works less and gets as much Agrobs Wieseflakes as he will shovel down

I do like the Wiesenflakes for the second pony and he is hugely reactive to most things, they smell nice and encourage him to eat without sending him scatty or itchy, I switch him to Copra most winters and that regime has kept him in the best condition overall - its cheap and nice and simple

 

[Charlie31]

this was my first thought too! if she's doing well, looks good, is doing her work happily and you're happy then it's probably all fine

I feed grass nuts, oats, salt and a balancer to my welsh who is in fairly hard work for a pony, she drops off quite easily and needs the extra oomph of the oats to perform her best, the balancer helps even out the vits and mins from the oats. my WB just gets a handful of grass nuts... and they both get hay and plenty of it. That's the most important thing for them IMO

Mine won't eat pink mash, neither of them liked it which is weird because they are both good eaters normally.

Do you mind me asking what brand of grass nuts you feed? Mine is on Alfa-A at the moment but I've been thinking of swapping. Haven't fed grass nuts before though so don't know if there's any particular brand that's good.

 

[vam]

Grass nuts, grass chaff and micronized linseed. She also get Protexin gut balancer and salt as well as ad lib haylage. She is a big mare and is fed very little bucket feed at the moment but I do increase it when needed and she did last winter on it really well.
I did add some Re-leve to her feed when she was starting to feel a bit flat in the dry weather and the haylage wasn’t as good as normal as it was the tail end of lasts years cut, I did a few stay away shows and lots of training and I don’t think she was quite getting enough for the work and traveling. That said she then had a week of unplanned time off just as the grass started to come through and she went to this year’s cut haylage, she is now looking more porky than I would like but it will come off with work. I’ll keep her on the re-leve until they change to day turnout and then take her off it for the winter when her work decreases a bit.

 

[Leo Walker]

I'd swap her to Pink Mash. It already has protexin in it and is incredibly low calorie. Spillers is actually one of the better balancers and if shes doing well then I'd leave that be. If she starts to gain weight you can then look to swap her onto a powdered balancer.

I just realised I didnt say what I feed! Current fat pony is eating what was left over from the slimmer, very hard working pony. She gets a tiny handful of copra which at the rate we are going will see us into the next decade! and shes currently getting D&H Ulcer Sensitive balancer.

I got it as the previous pony was on Pink Mash for ages but needed more calories and the D&H balancer has vaguely similar ingredients and still low sugar and starch, and no added iron. It meant I could drop the pink mash and powder balancer for high fat stuff as sugar sent him loopy.

Its not what I would have initally bought for her, but I suspect I will keep her on it as she looks and feels very well on it and its so easy to chuck a few pellets in a bucket!

 

[Griffin]

Mine has Equimins Advance Complete pellets at the moment with a handful of grass chaff (usually Thunderbrooks) and hedgerow herbs. She's a good doer, so she tends to just have this with adlib hay/grass. In the winter, if she gets a bit thin, I add micronised linseed.

I find it quite hard to find pelleted balancers that don't contain a load of molasses or manganese.

 

[AFB]

I feel micronised linseed and the plainest chaff I can get my hands on (either chopped oat straw or plain grass chaff) plus salt. Quantity is inc/dec. as necessary during the year.

In summer he has 24/7 grazing, in winter he'll have about 10-12kg of hay overnight and is turned out in the day to pick at what's left in the field.

 

[Annagain]

Mine (both 22 and good doers in summer but one struggles in winter) get nothing but grass all summer (supplement with hay this year for the first time ever!). In winter, they're out on fairly decent grazing (until about January when it drops off) for 12 hours a day and have ad-lib haylage all night. They're both fed grass chaff, Fast Fibre, Saracen Releve and linseed in winter. The not so good doer gets twice as much Releve and linseed as the good doer but they get the same amounts of chaff and Fast Fibre. The not so good doer needs a very low sugar diet due to a sugar allergy so they both get the same as it's easier and it seems to work for both of them. I did try grass pellets but they were too high sugar and set M's rash off so be careful with them, they're not that great for a low sugar diet.

 

[scats]

In summer, just a lite balancer. They do far too well on the grass as it is.
In winter I will just add some micronised linseed. I can’t feed ad lib hay as they both just eat and eat and pile the weight on, so I have to weigh it and monitor their intake carefully.

 

[DabDab]

Linseed and speedibeet. Pony has just a smidge, poor doer big horse has a fair amount. Big horse also has Alcar for his muscles, only after work. The other two are a good weight and good spirit with bucket loads of energy without any supplements (one of whom is the same age and workload as yours, though tb type rather than cob)

 

[irishdraft]

My horses who are worked 6 days a week have no feed other than grass ,out 24/7 .Once into winter & hunting they get hay,nuts & speedibeet .