Ignorant! But need some feed help!

[bexj]

First of all, sorry for sounding like a ignoramus!

What should I be feeding my new horse. Since we have had her, she seems to be happy living out 24/7 so she is stuffing her face full of grass (fairly long but I don't think its great quality). She is a 15.3hh cob type, and slightly overweight at the moment, and apparently is a very good doer. She is doing light work as she is being fittened, so by this I mean about 20 mins - 1/2 hour lunging or schooling per day during the week, plus about 2 x 1 hour hacks at the weekend. I was recomended some hacking mix by a feed merchant, but not really sure if she needs this at this time. She also gets about 10 carrots in this feed and odd treats.

Is she getting enough from the grass alone? Do we need to give her a small hard feed every day?

Help - since the days of having a pony, when you fed just grass or hay, plus bran or oats, the feed industry seems to have got very complicated!!!!

[Gemma16]

Hi, Well most of the horses on our yard are just on grass 24/7 now even the ones in medium work.

I think she would be fine just on grass but if you want to give her some thing why not use something like pasture mix that is very low in starch etc and is ment for horses in light or no work.

Hope this helps I'm not a very experianced feeding person but that seem about right.

I feed Taffy a hard feed but hes in medium to hard work so I think personally she would be fine with just grass or a feed of carrots.

**Gemma**

[Old but trying!]

Hi Bexj, as you know I am new to this game too. Seamus is out on grass 24/7 also and has nothing extra in the way of feed. His previous owner did give him two small feeds each day but the vet felt this was not necesssary as he is a good doer. So it is just grass for him at present (and the odd treat but we don't mention those).
There is so much to learn isn't there.

[Rakeli]

I would just leave it to the grass! Spring grass gives quite a lot of energy, and as she is being fittened and is overweight, should give her what she needs. If you are worried about vitamins etc, then you can buy supplements just for that, Spillers do one that you can feed by hand.

It does depend on how hard you are going to work her when she is fit. Light work I would give no extra to her, but harder maybe some forage based food? Hard to tell without knowing how hard she'll be working.

And as she is overweight watch out for laminitis. It's very nasty, so keep an eye on her. A weight tape might be worth buying.

[bexj]

Phew - sounds like I'm doing the right thing!!! Thanks everyone! Instinct tells me its OK, but you never know!

[Tybaz]

Hi, i too own a cob who is overweight although was in pristine condition til he got stolen,hes now kept at grass livery and i feed him 3 handfulls of haymix and 3 handfulls of dodson and horrell pasture mix,he is kept on short bare grass due to him having had laminitis,only been there 2 days now but i think hes going to be fine.

[Bebe]

My mare isn't a cob but she is overweight. She's currently doing an hour of work per day (hacking) and I'll be increasing that to 90 mins soon with the odd longer hack at weekends. She's out on grass 24/7.

She is fed a handful of sliced carrots and 50g of a pelleted vitamin and mineral supplement.

She has plenty of energy, sometimes too much.

Don't feed just because you feel that you ought to, or because the other horses are getting fed. Bebe paws the ground for her carrots, she doesn't seem to think she's missing out by not getting chop or a mix (even in winter she doesn't get mix). As long as something arrives in a bucket, she's happy.

[AJB]

Hi, I agree with the others, leave it to grass alone!!-my horse is now out 24/7 and is just on grass, worked normally every other day for hour, sometimes each day when work allows and is just about not too fat!!!-he has a few carrots after work but nothing else, sometimes its as hard to have a good doer as a skinny one-you have to be hard and not feed until absolutley required, in my horses case this will be end of September/early October if last year was anything to go by and then its hifi lite and pasture nuts!!! keep doing what you are and you will be fine Im sure

[liz--y]

leave her on grass keep an eye on her wieght if she starts to drop, start feeding again