What Do You Feed Your Good-Doer?

[Showjumper]

Am having feed worries about Dolly at the moment and am going to the feed shop this weekend to buy her a new feed but would like input as to what you all feed as the feed companies write such great stuff about all their products.

A little history first.

Dolly is a rising 7 year old 13.2hh New Forest and she is barefoot. I ride her up to 5 times a week ranging from 20 minute schooling sessions to 5 hour hacks. She can put on weight just from the smell of grass and tends to get cresty if she gets access to too much but has not had laminitis and the farrier says she has excellent feet. She's currently in a very small paddock with two other ponies and we move the fence out a little each day to give them some more grass so it doesn't get too stressed - a grazing muzzle isn't an option as otherwise she gets bullied and this is the only herd she's happy with.

From when I got her (4 years ago) to a few weeks ago I've fed Dolly Happy Hoof. I took her off it recently as I was told it contained worrying amounts of mollasses and swapped her onto Marksway Hoofkind after reading some great blurbs about it. Found out a few days ago that this is also mollasses coated! She also gets a tablespoon of MagOx powder every day and I mix in some speedibeet to hide the MagOx - I'd like to keep feeding both of these but alone they don't provide the right minerals/vitamins (I don't think...)

I've emailed all the feed companies out there who have all recommended something slightly different so now I'm after personal opinions.

What do you feed/what would you feed a very good doer to provide all the necessary vitamins and minerals and to provide enough energy to cope with the workload demand?

Thanks a lot :)

[eventerbabe]

First off, i think your grazing method is excellent :) you are doing the right thing there.

A chaff such as dengie good doer or dengie hi-fi lite is low in sugar. I use hi-fi lite combined with a fibremix for my good doing cob. Or you could try something like the honey chop oat straw. Unmolassed and ideal for good doers. Should you find this doesn't provide her with enough energy, you can always add in a fibremix (there are different grades but i used the 'easy' mix) or step up to alfa-a lite, also ok for good doers, just provides that extra sparkle :)

[fatponee]

I've fed my Welsh A good doer on Spillers Happy Dieter for about 3 years. It has vitamins already in it and he seems to really like it. The energy content is only 7% - the lowest I could find!

[MelanieD]

I feed a tiny bit of speedibeet, MgO, Bailey's LoCal and a little bit of Safe and Sound to make them think they've had proper food. It does have some mollasses in but not too much and seemed to be one of the better low calorie fat pony type feed when I was first looking for something to feed them. The Safe and Sound does need some kind of vitamin supplement with it though because I think I'm feeding my 14.3hh coblet about the amount they'd recommend for a minature sh*tland :D

[Showjumper]

Thanks guys! I have to say the email from the Bailey's rep was the most comprehensive and helpful (recommending Bailey's Lo Cal) of the ones I've had so far.

My current thoughts are:

Bailey's Lo Cal with speedi beet and MagOx. Maybe also a handful of unmollassed chaff to bulk it out a bit and to boost up the fibre intake. What do you think?

[Bronya]

Sounds good. When my girl's well, I tend to look for the cheapest option :o to tend to go with something like applechaff and the NAF vit and min supplement. Have used Baileys Lo-cal though and it's v good.

Best option ever was no feed - just the pasture nut things from equivite - vits and mins in treat shaped chunks! When there was lots of grass she wasn't ever interested in chaff anyway! Sadly they are very hard to find so gave up after a while..

[Skye94]

Skye is just on Hi-Fi Lite at the moment to get the painkillers into her.. i was going to make jam sandwiches and hide bute in them but i thought, Leah she might have The BIG L ... sugar is not wise :)

[Showjumper]

Can't really have Dolly on no feed although that would be the easiest - she wouldn't have the energy for the work we do. Coolio, feed shop here I come...again :rolleyes:

[Bebe]

At the minute I'm feeding half a mug (dry weight - it's about 100g before soaking) of unmolassed sugar beet, half dose of Baileys Lo-Cal (which I really rate, works better than TopSpec products for my mare) MgOx, Cortaflex and salt.

If I go back to feed CalMag, which has less volume per dose I'll remove the sugarbeet and will just feed the Lo-Cal alone. If you damp the pellets just before feeding powdered supplements do stick to them.

In winter I add a bit of Graze-On or JustGrass but it's not necessary at this time of year.

[Mossy]

I feed my Highland, who seems to be doing the same level of work as your ned, low protein haylage, just farmer's bog standard, to appetite. He also gets Good Doer, CLOP, and Badminton Working Mix. It is a high energy feed but he gets small quantities, varied as to work, so he gets the oomph without the calories.

[puzzles]

first things first - well done for what you've done so far. your routine evidently works very well and your horse seems to be happy and healthy, so good for you!

i recommend feeding one of the Dengie Fibre feeds as - depending on the individual feed - they tend to be either very low in molasses or mollasses-free. suitable examples include Hi-Fi Lite, Good Do-er and Alfa-A Lite.
however, whatever chaff you feed, you will need to balance your pony's ration with either a broad-spectrum vitamin and mineral suplement (such as Global Herbs Globalvite, NAF Pink Powder or Feelgood 30 Vits & Mis) or a feed balancer (i.e. Baileys Lo-Cal, Blue Chip Original/Lami-Light (fab) or Topspec Balancer).
this will ensure your little horse gets all she needs without a deficiency, yet keeping her diet low in calories (as these are fed in such small amounts).

good luck and keep up the fab work!

:-)
em

[Showjumper]

Thanks guys! I'm so glad that so many of you rate Bailey's Lo Cal. I think that is definitely what I will go for. And Bebe, I'm going to be copying you apart from the salt and Cortaflex!

[puzzles]

...except you will need to fed the full recommended amounts of the Lo-Cal for a balanced diet, or there'll be no point in feeding the balancer! :-)

[amandal]

I've used Baileys LoCal before and Ziz loved it, she's id/conn but is a very good doer, especially in the summer. I then moved to Simple Systems feed and now I've stopped that I've gone onto Dengie Alfa A, totally unmolassed and as I fed SS I know she's ok on alfalfa. Currently still using up the last of the SS Total Eclipse but will probably go back to Baileys LoCal once it's all finished.

[Showjumper]

The Bailey's rep said 1lb (2 coffee mug fulls) of Lo Cal would provide her with everything she needs and that doesn't sound like too much :)

Thanks so much for all your help everyone! :)

[CurlyWurlyRach]

my good do-er TBxWB (its unnatural for a half Tb to get as porky as she does lol), has a level scoop of hifi lite and a big handful of Alfa A with salt, everyday vit and min supplement, hormonal mare supplement (so quite alot of powder hidden in a small amount of feed - 4 scoops and a teaspoon all together), one apple and about 5 carrots - once a day, out 24/7 on average grass with just a rainsheet on at night and im still going to have to buy a muzzle on saturday!!

[Bebe]

...except you will need to fed the full recommended amounts of the Lo-Cal for a balanced diet, or there'll be no point in feeding the balancer! :-)]

Only if you don't feed anything else at all! People seem to forget that grass and hay do contain things. Balancers are intended to provide a full spectrum of vits and mins. Whilst it's obviously safe to feed full rations alongside forage any other feed can, and should, also be taken into account.

I see no difference at all in my mare wellbeing, overall condition and energy levels when I feed half rations vs full. I feed full in winter but half in summer when the grass is as its best.

[Showjumper]

Thanks Bebe :) I think I'll start her off on full rations (2 mug fulls) and see how she goes. If she starts gaining weight I'll reduce the amount she gets. She's working quite hard 5 times a week so hopefully once she's receiving a balanced diet she'll look and feel great :)

[puzzles]

that's just it; the horse looks great and all but, sadly, it is true that grass and hay do not provide all a horse needs; not even half of it - ask any nutritionist. i know that, if amounts have been upped for hard work, etc, they can be reduced slightly if the horse is not in work, etc, but i'd be very wary of doing this. plus many soils are deficient in essential minerals - in the NF area, for example, there is a magnesium (i think that's it) deficiency and it really does affect grazing animals, including horses.

xx
better safe than sorry.
x

[Bebe]

Puzzles, the same can be true in reverse though. Most of the UK is deficient in Mg but there are areas where copper, manganese, iron, etc are very high and by feeding full rations of a balancer you can overdose on these nutrients. No-one seems to worry about better safe than sorry in those cases, which can actually be far more detrimental to a horses health than many realise.

In another thread you mentioned not feeding commercial feeds such as safe and sound as it will unbalance a diet if a balancer or supplement is already being fed, yet in this post you recommend Hi-Fi Lite or Good Doer be fed alongside a balancer or supplement. All of Dengie's fibre feed range are designed to be fed in the same way as a compound feed and so have vits and mins added to them, so the same applies with regards to balancing the diet based on this. It's much safer to reduce balancer quantities to take into account the fact that someone may be feeding half rations of Dengie Good Doer than it is to feed that and then add a full ration of balancer on top. The same goes even for sugarbeet, which is high in phosphorous and low in calcium.

The absolute best way to balance a horses diet is to have grazing and hay analysed and have a bespoke supplement made up to match what the horse is already eating. This is what I'll be doing this year as soon as my yard owner has produced this years crop of hay. We're lucky in that our hay comes off the same land as the horses graze so I'll only have to have one batch of hay tested and this should last for most of the winter.

I'm obviously not against supplementation but believe that many, many people oversupplement without realising it.