Dinner time!

[ZoomZoom]

Hey, i was just wondering what peoples opinions were on feeding the 5/6 year old horse?
Right now my Zeta has just been moved off of safe and sound and ulimate balancer to Alafa A Lite, dash of oil and a spoonful of herbal vits and minerals. Does this sound alright? She is out 24/7 on grass and is coming into work hopefully will be ridden twice a week and lunged around 3-4 times a week.
thanks!

[puzzles]

Your horse's new diet sounds fine for ehr workload. However keep an eye on her weight and body condition by weight taping her weekly, to make sure that she maintains a desirable weight. The diet suggested is balanced and should provide enough energy (though this depends on how much you feed). However you may find that grass alone is enough, if your horse is a good doer and being in light work.
Also, although it may be irrelevant to the post 3-4 lunge sessions a week for any horse, never mind a young horse, is very strenuous on an immature, developing body structure. :-/

Good luck

x

[ZoomZoom]

Thanks! Will keep all that in mind. Yeah I am going to be cutting lunging sessions down, due to bad weather at the moment and a very busy workload as my exams are in 4 weeks time!
She's happy playing the field with the shetland, so she shouldn't miss lunging too much.

x

[mogadoga]

Hey, im just backing up what puzzles said, id also cut the lunging down if possible, do some long reining or something though, just not spending as long on those circles especially at that age :)

[ZoomZoom]

will do. Just rode her today in her new saddle, she was fine y'day when we were trying the saddle on walked nicely alert but not bad. However i tried her in the field today and she wasn't keen on straight lines at all! everytime i asked her to walk forward she would put her head high in the air then straight down between her legs preparing for a bucking session. She didn't buck at all just played up everytime...eventually i hopped off and ended the short session with a good walk around the fied (tacked up) and she calmed down okay.

Any one got advice about training the youngster under the saddle? Or just any explainations for her behaviour?


thanks

[Joyscarer]

My attitude to feeding is to start with making sure that they has all the vits mins and suppliments in their diet that they need and then consider what extra they might need for wookload. As little as posible is my attitude.

I have a good doer who has put weight back on again just before spring as she was nicking her field mates food which was alpha a oil and then ready grass and barley rings.

I make sure she has the fibre she needs and then she doesn't need anymore than that normally in spring summer.

So I stick to just enough hi fi lite to stick her suppliments in with a touch of water to mix.

In winter I cange the chaff to alpha a lite and bung in a few hi fibre nuts. She doesn't need any more than that but I would up the amounts she was getting if she did and then go onto adding speedibeet if necesary.