I hadn't thought of this until @Bodshi mentioned it, but she's right. Dried forage, ie grass and haylage, has very low levels of vit E so even fed ad lib she may well be short of that unless she's getting sufficient levels from something like a balancer or well fortified hard feed fed at the recommended amount.
Fleur is on her way home
- Thread starter diplomaticandtactful
- Start date
I hadn't thought of this until @Bodshi mentioned it, but she's right. Dried forage, ie grass and haylage, has very low levels of vit E so even fed ad lib she may well be short of that unless she's getting sufficient levels from something like a balancer or well fortified hard feed fed at the recommended amount.
Check the balancer to be sure it has at least the RDA in the amount you're feeding, a friend who has a hors with a specific health issue has been advised by her vet that she needs to add more vit E than her balancer supplies until she can get him out on plentiful spring grass. A scoop of HH or S&S twice a day isn't going to provide much of anything to a horse her size.
But a substantial type, and a scoop of something like HH weighs very little.
A quick look at their website- hard to view on this device - says if being fed to a 500kg horse in light work as a compound feed replacement it should get 6 Stubbs scoops a day alongside ad lib forage. Given you aren't feeding close to that you can't rely on it for vits and mins so need to use a balancer at full rate and check the vita E that provides.
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she is not in work and that is what she has been fed all her life and been criticised for being overweight. She is not underweight, you cannot see or feel a rib. Buddy doesn't get anything like that amount of hard feed - he is 574kg up from 5378kg, can't feel or see a rib, he gets veteran vitality which is soaked and gets one full scoop and one scoop of S&S twice a day with balancer - ditto Sapphire, with adlib forage 24.7. they get an extra feed if they are ridden.
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@diplomaticandtactful all I was saying was that at the rate you feed you can't rely on the HH to make a useful contribution to her vit and min intake, particularly if she may be deficient in something. I wasn't accusing you of under feeding her so I don't see why you're getting so stroppy.
Love micrnised linseed for weight gain. Use it on my oldies when coming up a bit thin In bad weather. Works very quickly too.
also highly recommend Rowen and Barbary ready mash extra.
also highly recommend Rowen and Barbary ready mash extra.
I wasn't aware that explaining her situation was being stroppy. I have returned her to what she was on before she left, and when she left she was in great condition physically and mentally. The vet made the comment that if they had worked her to lose weight and get her fit, and now she was turned out she was a bit like a racehorse coming out of training and we should keep an eye on her and see how she looks in a few months. She didn't feel that testing her for anything at the moment would give us anything useful and would just be a waste of money - and this is a vet who has just been paid £2000 last month for 2 cats one of whom died. This is the same advice she has given me since the mare came home in september, when she did look much poorer, no neck, hips prominent, backbone prominent. She has filled out, gallops up the hill and bucks and plays, but to my eye of nearly 11 years, she isn't quite right. How much of it is trauma from whatever happened to her for her to become lame (no sign of that) and very unsettled, strong, bolshy and manic is hard to say and only time will tell. I just feel very sad looking at her and some of the fire has gone out. I see flashes of the old Fleur, but I also see a sad baby.
Fleur is now completely recovered from her rehoming. She has summered in a small paddock to keep her weight off. Reasonably successfully. Dreadful day today, utterly torrential and strong winds. Her paddock is too wet so took Suze over and put her in one of the small summer paddocks and led Fleur across to join her. First time she has been out of her field apart from on the yard during the day to give her a respite from wet ground and dry her hoofs off a bit. She walked across in a howling gale, didn't turn a hair or pull. Waited with perfect manners to have gates opened etc. She has had a bit of a bomb around and then settled down. Back to her old self.
I'm so pleased to read this, all she needed was time and love which you gave her plenty of.
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