what do you make of my feeding 'routine'?

[notpoodle]

just wondering about what your thoughts are on what i feed the little horror.

primarily she is out on grass in the summer, but the field is a tad overgrazed so i have kept up the winter's feeding routine. she gets her feed once a day (cant do moe often).

big handful of alfalfa

small handful of highfibre ponynuts (ie no oats or anything fizzy in them. they fall into no/low energy nuts)

handful of garlic granules

a couple of carrots or apples on top.

she is ridden about 4-5 times a week for roughly an hour, but its not very strenuos work (3 laps of canter in one go is the most exertion we ever do).

am i doing this okay?

she certainly looks fine to me

julia
x

[Bay Mare]

If she looks fine and works well then I wouldn't worry. I WOULD, however, add in ad-lib hay for when she's not on the grass.

It's a good idea to know how much weight you're feeding so that if you do need to change it you have some figures to work with. You don't need to measure each feed but should have an idea of how much a scoopful of each feed weighs :)

Just as an aside ... I saw something recently (and of course haven't been able to find it again) that there isn't any evidence that garlic repels flys and that it 'could' be toxic for horses with long term use. If I remember rightly there is something in it that builds up over time so that the effect is cumulative. Has anyone else heard anything about this?

[Funky MeerKAT]

A couple of handfuls is very little for a horse, if you want to feed her some supliments then keep giving her the feed, but other wise its probably not doing much. If she is looking fine I would just give her a biscuit of hay each day while there is not much grass so that she is getting some roughage.

[happy herman]

Just as an aside ... I saw something recently (and of course haven't been able to find it again) that there isn't any evidence that garlic repels flys and that it 'could' be toxic for horses with long term use. If I remember rightly there is something in it that builds up over time so that the effect is cumulative. Has anyone else heard anything about this?

i read that about people. seems some people are having severe reaction to the long term garlic.

[Bebe]

I'm not sure there's much point in giving the nuts, if you're only feeding a handful then she's probably not getting anything out of them other than the taste. I'd personally switch those out for a pelleted balancer (you can get vitamin & mineral supplements in pellet form from Equimins too) and feed that instead. It bulks out the feed in the same way nuts do but supplies guaranteed levels of vitamins and minerals.

Echo Bay Mare on the hay whilst she's not on grass too.

Otherwise it sounds fine. I'm not personally a huge fan of garlic for longterm use (though they can help as a general pick me up for horses that are under the weather if you give it short term) and prefer cider vinegar for it's fly repelling properties (does seem to work) but that's more a matter of personal prefence. Apart from that you're feed routine is very similar to mine and my girl is doing 90 mins of work a day 6 days per week and looks well on it.

[notpoodle]

she is on grass 24/7 in the summer. when she comes in at night etc. in the winter she will, of course, get ad lib hay. she also has access to hay when i stick her in the stable while i sort out tack and things.

should i increase the amounts a little you think? i was just worried about giving her too much seeing its only one 'meal' per day and i didnt want to push her tummy yoo much.

julia
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[hackedoff]

what about linseed instead of pony nuts? :confused:

[Bebe]

As long as it's fibre you don't have to worry about how big the feed is, it takes longer to eat anyway and very little digestion is done in the stomach itself so you don't need to worry about it the same way as you do cereals. I give Bebe a huge tub trug full of soaked alfalfa pellets (only 4 mugs but it swells up to about 4 times the dry size if you soak it) and chaff and she's always fine.

If she's holding weight, has enough energy for what you want to do and you're happy with how she looks in general then I don't think you need to worry too much.

[Yann]

You could add a general vitamin supplement, or swap to a feed balancer as Bebe suggests. Echo regarding the size too, the alfalfa is just a very good quality hay equivalent, so no real need to worry there.

[notpoodle]

she's getting the equivite vitamin biscuits as well, but i think ill get a supplement to add to the feed as the biscuit things are fed by hand and i dont want to end up with a nippy pony :rolleyes:

julia
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[Yann]

Does she show signs of being nippy? We treat ours (horse and pony) for doing various things and sometimes just for being generally cute and loveable and neither of them ever nip. It's not automatic:)

[notpoodle]

nah, she's not nippy, but im worried she will be one day (esp. after reading something about horses seeing you as a minion if they're allowed to take food directly from you! that really made me thing!). she doesnt get treats willy-nilly though, but usually after riding or when she is being good when i mount.

julia
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