What would you feed these two?

[Tinkle]

Hello all,

Just after a few (unbiased) opinions about what I should feed my two this winter. Think I've pretty much decided what to feed the older one but what do you reckon? Both will be out during the day and in at night, with haylage.

Firstly, Bianca - 18yr old TB x Hanoverian. Tends to drop weight in winter but this year won't be clipped. She wasn't clipped a couple of winters ago and did very well on (I think) Alfa A Oil, pony nuts and Ride and Relax. Last year she was on Alfa A Oil and Alfabeet (with Top Spec Balancer) and maintained her weight despite being clipped. Ideally I'd like to have her on something similar but she'll be unclipped/unrugged this year and not in work.

Secondly, Rocco - 5yr old TB x Quarter Horse. As far as I know he's a good-doer but he's never been clipped so not sure how he'll respond. He will be well rugged so shouldn't be too cold! Don't want anything that will make him loopy but having said that he's laid-back to the point of being horizontal at times. At the moment he's just getting a couple of mugfuls of Top Spec Balancer at the moment and I'd like to keep him on this. Otherwise I'm open to ideas.

Thanks all.

x

 

[tabithakat64]

Ad-lib good quality hay/hayledge. A feed balancer with speedibeet and Alfa A Oil or Happy Hoof if maintaining weight. This is what I'll be feeding mine anyway (along with a tablespoon of salt and a mug of black sunflower seeds)

What you are feeding now seems appropriate.

 

[jendance]

I would strongly recommend trying the Simple System feeds... I have had mine on this now for the best part of a year and suits all of them (a laminitic pony, 27 year old cob x middleweight good doer and 11 year old thoroughbred poor doer). They look fantastic on it, and it is totally stripped of any cereals and molasses etc, purely forage based and very good for them. I wouldn't feed anything else now...

Might be worth a look... www.simplesystem.co.uk

 

[TGM]

Make sure the mare is getting adlib haylage (ie enough so that there is a little left every morning), then I would suggest giving her AlfaBeet plus the balancer to start. As she is not working you will probably find this is enough without giving her the Alfa A Oil as well, but if you weigh tape her regularly you will spot if she is starting to lose weight, when you can add an oil source of some form (ie Alfa A Oil, Outshine, Equijewel or plain old veg oil).

With the youngster I would suggest you keep him on the balancer and just add some AlfaBeet if you find him starting to drop weight. The AlfaBeet is non-molassed and non-cereal based, so not likely to fizz him up, and you have the advantage that you are already feeding it to the mare.

As you are feeding haylage and AlfaBeet, you may not actually need the protein levels of the balancer, so you if you wanted to save a few pennies you could consider swapping to a broad spectrum vit/min supplement like TopSpec Comprehensive, Equivite or Benevit.