Would anyone like to suggest a feeding regime for my TB please??

[fluffy_betty]

I'm trying to plan ahead for the winter and devise a feeding regime for my mare which will keep her weight on without sending her mad. I can only feed her once a day so I can't give her vast quantities of mix/nuts. Also when she is stabled at night I would like to provide a few different types of forage to keep her happy, would a big bucket of hi fi or alfa a be ok?

All cereals send her bonkers, I have used Baileys topline cubes in the past with good results but that was when she was at a different yard with limited hay - this year she will be having ad lib hay and is in good condition so I don't think she'll need quite so many calories.

What would everyone suggest?

[clydesdalelover]

so many questions!!

1) give her the best quality hay you can find, as if you have to soak it you lose nutrients and thats not what you want here!!
2) give her a normal sized feed with your usuall feed stuff in, and add slow realese energy/warming such as sugar beet. (dont give a big bucket as shes likly to wolf it down which is never good.

3) if she does lose weight very quickly double check that theres no way someone else cant throw anyother feed at her when your not down if you make it up and leave it in a suitable place.

4) make sure she has lots of turnout in the day, a happy horse is a hungry horse!! :rolleyes:

5) if she does struggle take her on gental hacks, nice long winter strolls dont burn her out till spring

6) make sure shes lovly and snug and not using up all her food to keep warm!!

thats about it, but the biggest one was the hay, horses can lose 10 percent of there body weight over winter, but your should be ok if you stick to the points. If she loses a lot of weight and you did everything above then there may be a medical condition...

so measure her now and set yourself a point that she cannot go under, say shes 500 kg which means in theory she can lose 50kg youd want to say right i will not let her go under 470kg . :D

[gordysgirl]

One feed I would consider is Allen & Page Calm & Condition - cannot believe how much difference it made to my TB. He came out of winter looking better than he went in!!
1 scoop C&C, 1 scoop Alfa A Oil, asmuch unmolassed sugar beet as possible!
NAF Pink Powder is great stuff - really helps them get the most out of their food.

[*Sez*]

One feed a day just wouldn't be enough for my TB over winter. Horses' stomachs are rigid and don't stretch like ours do, so if you feed more than around 2KG per feed, it goes straight through without being properly utilised. If you are able to break down her feed into two or three meals, then really that's the best way to keep her weight on. Since you say that's not really feasible, then please make sure she isn't getting too much in her bucket, otherwise you may find that no matter how much she is being fed, the weight isn't staying on, which is what happened to my lad the first winter I had him :o

In winter, I feed Calm & Condition (about 2.5KG per day) and Alfa A Oil (about 600g per day) with some NAF pink powder. I generally add bit of Speedibeet as well so split over two feeds a day, it comes to just under 2KG per feed.

Since you're limited by numbers of feed, have you thought about supplementing with Bailey's Outshine (http://www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk/whatproduct/supplements/outshine.htm) to help keep weight on her?