What feed have you got your youngsters on?

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LuandLu24

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I have a 17 month old gypsy cob yearling. She is currently on youngster mix, chaff and speedi-beet with supplements etc. A friend reccomended I add conditioning cubes to her feeds for protein (obviously for growing). What are yours on? What do you recommend? Thanks.
 
LuandLu24 said:
I have a 17 month old gypsy cob yearling. She is currently on youngster mix, chaff and speedi-beet with supplements etc. A friend reccomended I add conditioning cubes to her feeds for protein (obviously for growing). What are yours on? What do you recommend? Thanks.
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Sadly your friend is giving you poor advice. Assuming your yearling is in good health, she will need nothing more than adlib good quality forage, plenty of freedom and appropriate worming. If you need to bucket feed her I would advise Dodson and Horrell Suregrow fed at the manufacturers recommended levels for bodyweight.

She will grow as nature intended, please don't be tempted to force her growth with feed, it will create problems for the filly and you in the longer term.
 
Yeah I wasn't too fussed on the idea either. She's been on youngster mix since I've had her and she's grown a lot so I'm confident she's going to be fine. thanks for your advice :)
 
In the nicest possible way, it sounds as if you're feeding a young sports horse, even before adding conditioning cubes to the equation. She's a rugged little cob - they are designed to live on what they can forage for. What supplements is she on, and why?
 
My 2yr old Quarter Horse is living out 24/7 and gets two feeds a day consisting of:

Soaked grass nuts
Grass chop
Micronised linseed
Copra/Coolstance (tiny amount)
Pro balance + from progressive earth

If you look at the album on my profile you'll see he arrived in emaciated condition direct from the stud that bred him. You could see his spinal process, neck vertebrae and every other bone in his body. I prefer to feed as "cleanly" as possible but given his condition I did give him commercial feeds initially on the same way I'd probably give a starving person mars bars over vegetables initially.

At that point he was feed Spillers youngstock balancer (grow n win I think), alfabeet, linseed and unmolassed hi-Fi. He put on condition slowly and steadily but I noticed a change once I changed to a "cleaner" feeding regime.

If your youngster I has a healthy body condition score and is growing at a steady rate I'd definitely change/cut all that you are feeding. Do they live out or come in?

Personally I'd ensure fibre available 24/7 be it grass or hay and only feed something like soaked grass nuts (small amount) as a carrier of a balancer like Pro Balance (no fillers in this).

Over feeding can be very detrimental to youngsters
 
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The day he arrived straight off the lorry 12/06/14 and the bottom pic was taken 14/12/14
 
My WB yearling (wo year old this time), is looking great on D&H suregrow, fed at the advised rate. He's a greedy lump, so we fill his feeds out a little with a handful of Molichaff calmer and he gets ad lib hay and haylage. The balancer seems to have him growing at a lovely, even rate. I fed my last two Mare and Youngstock, but I prefer the balancer on his results.
 
LuandLu24 said:
I have a 17 month old gypsy cob yearling. She is currently on youngster mix, chaff and speedi-beet with supplements etc. A friend reccomended I add conditioning cubes to her feeds for protein (obviously for growing). What are yours on? What do you recommend? Thanks.
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Sadly I think you're going to end up with a very very fat young cob, potentially with joint issues.

She's a native designed to live on nothing! All my cobs (inc the current one of the same age as yours) is only adlib haylege and nothing else. They've all been healthy and well grown without being fat. If they've looked poor then they've beem given a small amount of Sure Grow or.if they've been restricted then they get a general balancer in some chaff.

My very large ISH didn't even get fed what you're giving your little cob!
 
Hiya. PLEASE PLEASE never feed a young horse too much protein, they don't need as much as you think and it's actually bad for their joints. I'm still studying equine nutrition at Uni, and have only recently found this out.
I am glad as planning on putting my mare into foal in the summer!
Prep mixes, young stock mixes etc are actually not that great, there formulated for racehorses- even though it's not stated. And that's what lose research is done.

I would suggest (for any breed) grass grass grass supplemented with hay! And also a stud balancer- not youngstock- one for mares too. That's it!!
they should easily manage condition on that regardless of breed- with enough forage.
If a bucket feed is really needed, then I would only feed dried grass such as graze on.

My nutrition lecturer will not even feed alfalfa to her youngsters which shows something!!
 
Grass, ad lib hay and pro balance in a handful of speedi beet. I don't know why but she licks the bucket. I did a lot of research before deciding on pro balance, it makes up for the lack of copper in our grazing without unwanted fillers. Its also great value, even after shipping to Ireland.

My filly is huge and is by no means underweight so I don't like to imagine what she'd be like if I fed her a mix. Or even a balancer.
 
I bred 3 fillies, all of which were out 24/7 in summer, and then barn kept in winter with ad lib hay, they never had any hard feed until they were 4 and in work.

I bought a 6 month old Welsh D colt who again was just out 24/7, with hay in winter and not fed until about 8 months ago when he was 22 months old and that was only because he was being prepared for grading. He was fed, and still is fed, Graze On, Topspec All-In-One (balancer) and Sugarbeet. I also have another colt who is the same age on the same.

I would definitely feed a balancer if you're going to feed, have heard fab things about D&H Suregrow :)
 
My 3yr old (turns 4 in March) been backed coming 8weeks gets around 12kg of haylage, 3scoops Alfaa, 1 scoop Releve, 1 mug of linseed split over 2 feeds, plus turnout, although not much grass at the moment.
 
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