What should I be feeding my cob?

[Crazycob06]

I am having completely different opinions thrown my way at my livery yard and with tink being my first horse I am not sure what to do.

When I got her 6 months ago she was crazy obese! She is now looking great, lost a lot of weight and is much fitter too!

ATM she is out for 8 hours max per day and only has 9lbs of hay per night. I was ok with this until recently, now we are doing a lot more work and my YO has decided to drop her to 8lb of hay per night and I am worried this will not be enough for her.

I have given her safe and sound before to get some suppliments into her but unfortunately she was very difficult to handle then! Now she is doing a lot more work she might be better??

One of the my friends thinks she should be on some kind of hard feed and more hay where as the YO thinks she should have absolutely nothing other than this 8lb of hay per night.

I need opinions!

She is a 15hh welsh cob, nearly 7 and we are hacking most week days and doing an hours hard schooling both days at the weekends. She is still dropping her weight (her girth has gone up another hole or two again) and building muscle. What do you think she should be on??

 

[Slightly Foxed]

Does she still need to lose weight or do you want to maintain the weight she's at?

For the work you 're doing a forage only diet should be fine but it needs to be 2% dry weight of her body weight and it's hard to tell how much she's eating out at grass. If she's still losing weight you'll need to up her intake of hay at night and feed a forage balancer, you may need to supplement her diet with some hard feed but enough decent forage should be fine.

 

[AmyMay]

Why ia your yo dictating how much hay? 8lbs ia not enough imo. Id want hwr on at leaat 10lbs.

 

[AmyMay]

Sorry for typos. ...

 

[Serenity087]

I don't do pounds. I do "Enough until she only just finishes it overnight".

Generally speaking, cobs don't need feed. Ever. Anyone who thinks a cob should be on hard feed has never fed a cob before!

But you can never feed a cob too much hay. If nothing else, it sates the cobs need to feel like it's eating 25 hours day

If you want to feed suppliments and keep a routine, keep with a bowl of chaff. Seriously.

I've had cobs eventing on that!

 

[Crazycob06]

I think she is pretty much spot on now and I now need to maintain. I will just up her hay for the time being then and not worry too much about hard feed yet.
She is on full livery which includes hay and the YO does as he thinks is appropriate unless requested by me. I will ask him to up her hay straight away.

 

[Serenity087]

I mean, in honesty, never hurts a horse to get a bit lean because you can put weight on dead easy!

So if she does start looking thin, then a small amount of mix will help.

End of the day, with a new horse who is changing weight, it's trial and error! Dorey started off on a scoop of mix, a scoop of beet and 2 scoops of chaff cos she was so thin! Then spent the next 8 years trying to keep her trim! LOL!

 

[ridefast]

Don't worry about hard feed ever. Just forage. My cob gets more energy the fitter she is, and she's never been on hard feed

 

[AmyMay]

It's a falicy that cobs don't need hardfeed. If the situation dictates.

I would be most unhappy with anything less than 10lbs. Especially with the weather as it is.

 

[Slightly Foxed]

It's a falicy that cobs don't need hardfeed. If the situation dictates.
.

This. All horses are individuals. See how she fares.

 

[Crazycob06]

Thanks everyone! Hay all the way then! And plenty of it!

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Dunno if this helps, but I've got two cobs and this is what they have:

Cob 1: 15hh traddie boy, good doer. Has sweet itch so has Brewers Yeast and Linseed in his feed, one scoop per feed.

Cob 2: Welsh D mare. Good'ish doer, typical Welsh D in that she's forward going so works off any excess.

Both horses are out during day (9am - 6pm); stabled during night.

Both have same feed: either Speedibeet (soaked for 10 mins) OR A&P Fast Fibre: with a chaff mixture, either Dengie Hi Fi Mollasses free OR Honeychop Herbal, mixed in. They have this feed morning and evening.

During the night they have a haynet with mixed Timothy Grass haylage and hay in it; 6lbs per horse.

They are just right on this. Both horses look well but without any excess weight (confirmed by vet!).

Hope this helps.

Re. feeding haylage - you have to be mega careful with cobs with this; some haylages seem to either go straight through them like a volcanic eruption OR make them really fizzy (or both!). So best not to have a huge quantity until you're sure of the effect its having on them, try a bale or two first is best.

 

[Crazycob06]

I won't be feeding her haylage! she is very hot for a cob anyway!

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Well, my two are OK with the Timothy Grass haylage (made locally). But what I do is bulk mine up with the chaffy stuff like Dengie and/or Honeychop (or Fast Fibre) which basically makes them full up so they don't gobble away at their haynets. With cobs you need to avoid like the plague any concentrates; mine are absolutely evil on cubes, even the so-called high-fibre ones.

Also, sorry forgot to mention: what I do to slow them down more is to double or even triple-net their haynets. I've got an Elimanet (OK but hasn't worn very well) and double-net that with a haylage net on top, OR triple-net with ordinary haylage nets even. That way their hay lasts out better through the night. Its a fiddle until you get used to it, but worth the extra bit of work.

 

[Rhodders]

I don't feed any of mine a hard feed, all 4 of them just have hay and grass. The midgets have lost some weight over winter as has my welsh D, my haffy is still the size of an elephant. Although, I think, after a bit of prodding today I may well have found a rib for the first time ever

 

[TrasaM]

It's a falicy that cobs don't need hardfeed. If the situation dictates.

I would be most unhappy with anything less than 10lbs. Especially with the weather as it is.

I agree. This was the attitude which resulted in my share cob dropping a lot of weight (28kg) over the winter plus really poor hay quality. The YO kept insisting that cobs can cope without extra feed so gave him less than the others.

 

[Serenity087]

It's a falicy that cobs don't need hardfeed. If the situation dictates.

I'd say as a baseline, it's true, cobs don't need hard feed.

If they're not good dooers, are underweight, are working exceptionally hard (if you can make a cob work hard, have a medal! ) or for whatever reason you notice weight dropping off, then by all means, shop around for the right feed.

But it's easier to put weight on then get it off and far too many people over feed cobs assuming they need the same sort of rations as a warmblood!

TrasaM, I had a cob on loan lose over 33% of her body weight, and she wasn't being worked due to a mythical lameness that kept swapping legs! But I suspect it wasn't just her feed that was in short supply!

Seriously, start with nothing, if they start getting lean, bring it up a bit. Much better for their health in the long run!

 

[Myloubylou]

I have my welsh d on handful of chaff and mug of lite balancer twice a day plus good quality hay. Seems to do well on it.

 

[lauraandharvey]

When my boy is in hardwork he gets...

10lb of haylege

When he is in lightwork he gets ...

10lb of haylege

Hay makes him cough his guts up no matter how soaked it is...

Does she NEED the feed? if she drops weight you could put her on a simple "belly filler" like a bran mash/chaff. Just so she feels fuller and doesnt gorge her food as much.

You could also double her nets to slow her eating down, but I agree with others minimum 10lb hay over night. Horses are trickle feeders I think many people forget that..


My boy is 10yo HW traditional gleding, he is a true heavy weight and good doer, he literally would live of fresh air and grass if i let him
X

 

[AmyMay]

I'd say as a baseline, it's true, cobs don't need hard feed.!

As you say (and contrary to your first post) it does depend on what their doing.

My little cob mare always received hard feed through the winter - and when hunting couldn't have done the job without it.

She was neither a poor nor good doer. Just a cob that needed feeding when the situation dictated.

 

[Tasha xx]

My horse is a Welsh cob mare 14.1 still on a diet worked everyday with a day off she is on grass at the Moment but her paddock is now bear and I’m wordering weather to put her in her other summer paddock but that has long grass and a lot of it how much grass can a Welsh cob live on before it’s unhealthy never owned a Welsh cob so this breed is new to me I used to have a TB any help please feel free to tell me

 

[Gloi]

What is the grazing like when she is out?
Does the YO want to reduce the hay because there is more grass?

 

[Tasha xx]

What is the grazing like when she is out?
Does the YO want to reduce the hay because there is more grass?

She doesn’t have any hay in the field at all x

 

[Tasha xx]

I’m just worried she will eat loads of the grass and then gain weight again after I’ve worked so hard to get it off her .. he other summer paddock has hardly any grass on now xx

 

[SEL]

My variety of cob types get chaff soaked with either grass pellets (tiny amount) & a balancer. They're out 24:7 on a lean paddock / track with hay. I'd make sure yours has enough hay overnight and just watch the waistline.

All mine improve on a balancer.

 

[Tasha xx]

My variety of cob types get chaff soaked with either grass pellets (tiny amount) & a balancer. They're out 24:7 on a lean paddock / track with hay. I'd make sure yours has enough hay overnight and just watch the waistline.

All mine improve on a balancer.

Ok great thank you when you say lean paddock do you mean hardly any grass as that’s Ruby’s 1st paddock and her other is full of grass she is out 24/7 at the moment. Xx

 

[Horseysheepy]

On very short grass, I always like to offer a bit of hay both ends of the day.
Even for my retired fattie, it's good for their digestive system to have a bit of bulk to sweep out their system and keep it healthy.
You could soak the hay if you're concerned about calories. The grass in your spare paddock has probably gone over a bit now in terms of sugar levels, so is there the option to strip graze onto it, if you'd rather not hay?

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Could you swap her between the paddocks?

 

[mini-eventer]

if she is out 27-7 she wont need much hay at all. However if she is stabled over night 8lbs isn't enough

 

[Widgeon]

how much grass can a Welsh cob live on before it’s unhealthy

I have a (non-Welsh) cob and TBH, the best measure of how much grass is in the field is not too look at the grass, but to look at how much he's pooing. His paddock looks more or less bare, and I move the electric tape a little bit every day so he has something fresh to nibble, but he's still pooing plenty, and maintaining, rather than actively losing, weight. So there's clearly more grass in there than it looks to me! Good doers are hard.