14.2 cob no hard food

shadowfax1967

New Member
Aug 29, 2008
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south wales
i have a 14.2 mare that is really quite spooky to ride but safe, she is a good doer and only looks at food and puts weight on, i normally feed her just chaff and pony cubes but lately i have cut out all hard food she is obviously having hay so i have given her more hay and no concentrates.

the vet says as she is only ridden once twice a week depending on the weather and that for only about 2 hours max she doesnt need hard feed hay is plenty for her.........but i feel so mean, i have to say cos she isnt having hard food she is defo less spooky.

what do you all feed your horses or ponies depending on work load.....do you think im a meanie:nerd:
 
IMO the vast majority of leisure horses don't need hard feed at all. And I would definitely say this is the case for your mare - if she is a good doer why on earth would she need feeding up - at this time of year I would be stuffing her full of hay and that's all.
 
thanks thats made me feel alot better......i know i am doing the right thing its just that everyone on my yard thinks im being mean to her, but if i must say so myself all their horses are fat:redface:
 
Hay is plenty, especially for native fatties!

My pone only gets ridden for a few hours a week in winter, I am def a fair weather rider. Our yard has a builders rubble sack of carrots delivered every week and I'm looked at as the weirdest ever because I don't have any carrots!
 
I'm another one with a native fatty ( haffypotomus :giggle:) and there is no way she ever gets hard food unless she is in and sees everyone else with food then I give her the tiniest handful to keep her happy.
If you ever get to the point where you can actually see ribs on a native then maybe you can think about it but until then hay will be plenty and don't feel guilty at all. Winter is the one time when those of us with fatties can try and get a bit of weight off, usually by just hay and light or no so that they are right for when the spring grass comes in. You are actually taking steps to prevent lami and other metabolic nasties. Xx
 
I don't feed Joy anything other than a bit of good doer chaff for her pink powder. She's on plenty of grass (too much but i cant restrict in winter as much as i would like as I'm on clay) and I don't feed hay.

The little man was the same but he's elderly and not holding condition do he now has a senior mix.

My attitude is to stick to grass and hay and a general vit/min powder. If that's not enough allow more grass and hay. If that's not enough then look to feed something else but I don't feed in anticipation of them dropping condition I only increase what they have once they are losing it.
 
I have a 16hh ex-racehorse that looked like this in 2009:
DSC00898.jpg


He now looks like this:
Henstrot.jpg


So as you can imagine I stuff him full of food, yes a small handfull of chaff twice a day really fills him out! He gets hay instead of haylage (I'd prefer to feed him haylage as it's less dusty but he gets too fat and frisky!).

Work wise he does an hour twice a week in winter and over summer 5-6 days of varying intensity but probably not more than medium work.

At my yard I feed more forage than anyone else and less hard feed than anyone else and my horse does very well on it, it may not be the 'normal' way to keep a tb but he winters fantastically well now so no need to change it!:biggrin:
 
My 16hh shire x TB is ridden for about 30 to 45 minutes everyday and I am gradually increasing his workload along with his fitness. He is out at grass for 18 hours per day and comes in for feed and hay. He gets 1/2 scoop of fibremix (yard own feed) and a handful of cubes plus a big pile of hay. This does him just fine.
 
As the proud owner of one fatty and two potential fatties I can safely say that hay is plenty!!!

My girls are on grass (were muzzled up until about 3 weeks ago) a balancer and hay, that's it. The 5yr old gets a little work most days, the 18yr old is being brought back in to work and won't need any more feed than this, the 18month old is on a stud balancer and was very poor a few months ago but is looking much better now.
 
I have a 17.1hh WB who is a very good doer - she gets ad-lib hay and 1/2 scoop of Hi-Fi with Apple, a small scoop of Baileys All-Round Endurance Mix and a spoon full of soaked Dengie Alfa-Beet twice a day - she doesn't need this for condition, I feed it purely for energy........ she didn't used to get any hard-feed at all, but lacked energy when ridden.

If you do want to give her a 'token' feed, then I suggest Dengie Hi-Fi with Apple - it's basically chaff with teeny, tiny little nuts in it.

Forgot to add that Lexi is ridden 5-6 days a week for approx. 1hr per day when I'm at work, and 2-3hrs a day when I'm not working.
 
This is the first winter mine have had feeds :D

I feed a vit supp as they have restricted grazing but only mixed with a handful of speedibeet. Silver has a little more now because of her skin, but would only feed if condition dropped or vitamin sups were required:D
 
Mine is a fatty - he's a 15.2 hw cob. He gets nothing other than a handful of fatty chaff only as a carrier for the pink powder. Other than that he has hay in the field and grass.
 
I ride currently around 4 times a week for an hour at least, Rosie lives out, has no hay and IS STILL MUZZZLED 24/7 and will be straight through. She gets one small handful of happy hoof to add a supplement to but thats it. So far this winter she has lost... wait for it... about 10kgs!!!! Def no hard feed required :tongue:
 
Two of my cobs wouldn't be getting any hard feed if i wasn't giving them joint supplements.

Moët is different, she's still ever so slightly underweight in my opinion, she's getting a proper feed every day. I take her out of the field and give her a full portion, the other two just get a token amount of good doer chaff with the joint supplement in.
 
Ziggy (14.1 heavy built Connie) gets a small handful of chaff twice a day (winter) and once a day (summer) to bulk out his half scoop of herb mix a bit. He gets the herbs because his grazing is very plain, without natural species, and he hasn't much hedgerow.

He lives out naked, hacks twice a week in the winter and four or five times a week in the summer, does the odd lesson, gallops around the field bucking and farting, and is fat, fat, fat!

Good doer native types scorn hard feed.
 
My good doer gets a tiny bit (a small handful) of Dengie Good Doer & a half scoop vitamin/mineral supplement so I know she's getting nutrients. She's out 24/7 on grass with only ad lib hay when she's tied up & I'm making her dinner.

What people are too naive to realise is that feeding their horses hard feed which makes them fizzy & fat is a lot meaner than feeding your horse nothing.
 
Stella gets her balancer (spillers lite) and a handful of readigrass and some water to stop her bolting the balancer and thats it :)

She also gets two small haynets of hay and is out 24/7 and is rather portly at the minute as I have stopped riding her. She is only turned 5 and a bit bumhigh which is shy she is still getting her balancer but shes another one that looks at food and is fat :rolleyes:

She will be coming back into work in a few weeks so will slim down again :) But if she was older (IE not still growing) i probably would be giving her anything but the two small haynets of hay :)
 
My 3 get nothing but hay! Even my Trakehner is very healthy and happy on that. If I feed him hard feed he goes mad even on low energy stuff. He has oozles of energy all year and needs nothing else. He even lives out in winter.

As long as getting good quality hay or haylage you are not being mean!!
 
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