when to start feeding and advice pls??

[speedygonzalez]

I have my own land with 2 stables, and my horses jet an 8 yr old friesian oreo an 11 yr old newfie and bonnie a 5 yr old welshie are all living out with only jet on decent grazing as the others are chunks (well jet is well covered but can loose quite a lot of weight over winter. i have about 2/3 of an acre left of decent grazing that i am strip grazing into but after that (in about 3 weeks i wont have any. Last year being a novice to horses living out, i over rugged jet and in turn she lost a lot of muscle and weight, and maybe i fed her the wrong feed. I fed her 1 scoop chaff 1 scoop sugar beet and 1/2 scoop topline cubes with veggies. I also fed adlib haylege. Basically they are all at a condtion score of 6. - 1 being near death, 10 being about to explode from obesity!! they have been fed nothing since 1st may just grass, so now when should i start feeding/ rugging / haying / etc. i am starting to give them chopped veggies in a bucket but thats it. They are ridden about 4 times a week and in light/med work. In the winter they have access to a cozy field shelter. pls advise me. (i want them to get fluffy so i dont have to have hefty rugs on them)

Thanks, speedy. x x x

 

[Kit]

ok, straightforward enough, don't rug them, they will grow winter coats.
Feeding wise only start feeding if they start to drop weight, let them have either half or all of the full field and when there really is no grass left/they start to be very interested in you (A sign they're hungry!) etc. then give them hay, and unless they start dropping weight I wouldn't feed anymore than that.