Winter Feeding of an Overweight Pony

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crbecky10

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My Fell Pony is currently living out all the time in a rough pasture that is quite high up, and not getting rugged or fed apart from the odd apple because she is very overweight. Now we have some snow on the ground, would I be being mean still not giving her any hay, and just letting her get what she can pull?
 
easy answer is no let her scrub around for bits but if you do feel the need a feed of oat straw chaff will keep her gut going without too many calories I use Ossichaff cool hoof which is palatable has lower than 5% sugar lower than 1% starch so ideal for my fat natives
 
It does depend on how much snow is on the ground - if it is a sprinkling and she can get to grass easily then I probably wouldn't worry too much, but obviously would be keeping a very close eye on her. If the snow is much thicker then I think I would want to give some additional hay.
 
if snow is thick on the ground maybe throw some hay out rather than feed if she is fat, if she can still access the grass and you just feel mean because it's colder out then... well... I'm in no position to say don't because I have caved myself with my fatties today and gave them a bucket of readi grass and linseed damped down... does readi grass/chop type things really count as "feed" though? you could maybe get try mollases free chop or fast fibre if you can't put hay in your field
 
My two fells are in a similar situation, they have grass, hedges and reeds available, they don't get fed anything and thrive on it - last year we had several inches of snow but they just used their noses to sweep large areas clear in no time and the reeds are always above snow anyway!! If they eat the reeds down then there is grass hiding in between.
Just keep an eye on him, but if she's anything like mine she won't need anything extra as long as there is enough land for her to forage over and possibly plants other than grass.
Many of the hill ponies don't come to eat the hay put out for them, so they are perfectly capable of surviving without as long as there is enough hiding under the snow or other plants available such as reeds.
 
I don't start to feed mine until they start to drop weight. It's quite simple: if they are too fat, don't feed. If they are too thin, feed. if they are just right, continue whatever you are doing.
 
We count poos more than 6 in 24 hours each no food less than 6 feed them some fibre. I do check to make sure they are soft and normal too
 
If she was raised on the fells she probably knows how to dig through snow to find the grass, if not it's time she learnt.
 
Yes 6kg of soaked hay if the poo rate dropped too low below 4 I would either up it to 10kg or add in oat straw or oat chaff as it is easier to get hold of. mine wont eat wet hay so I feed oat straw chaff as standard
 
If her head is down and she's eating, you can assume she's getting her daily intake :) horses dig through the snow to get at the grass underneath.

Edit: if she seems to be spending a lot of time standing around or loitering at the gate, you might want to try monitor how much she's getting and maybe add hay. It's difficult to know without watching a bit to see what they're up to.
 
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