A What Feed Question

[follydora]

:)I know we have a few months before the dreaded winter months but iam planning ahead and looking at what will be the best to feed my herd on,can anyone advice please what do you Owners of Native Ponies feed through the winter? thank you.I have got
A rising 5 Welsh Sec B x
14yr old Welsh Sec B
Yearling Welsh Sec C
Yearling Welsh Sec A
17yr old Fell
20yr old New/F x TB

[Twiggy]

simple system, suits everything! I've kept condition on my veteran, or bulked up my youngster, chilled out nutty mares and given some energy to sleepy natives!

They are very helpful, so give them a ring

www.simplesystemhorsefeeds.co.uk/

[follydora]

:)Thank you Twiggy.

[hs]

grass, hay and dengie good doer chaff, allen and page slim and healthy mix.

I guess what you need will depend on if they are good doers and how much grass you have access to.

[sammyceeee]

if you have limited grass or grass with no goodness in, i found redigrass fab!

[follydora]

:)Thank you they are good doers,except my NF/TB and i am not sure about the Yearling sec c and a because i have only just had them,they are both rescues.

[network]

I wouldnt make any recommendations without knowing what kind of work these ponies/horses will or wont be doing you say they are good doers so shouldnt need feeding any hard feed just ad lib hay or haylage. I have a 20 year old welsh section D who is exercised all year round, she is fed on haylage in the winter, our grass is poor (which I like ) so all year round she gets two mugs a day of Baileys Lo Cal to ensure that she gets all the vits that she needs, she also has a scoop of hi fi senior a day, if she starts dropping weight I increase her haylage rather than resorting to hard feed

[sarahp]

Mine are out 24/7 or hay or haylage and I don't bucket feed in the field so that they don't scrum.

I find yearlings do need either good grass keep over the winter (some of mine go away to winter grazing), or some supplementary feed - I'd bring them in to feed and use a balancer, I like Top Spec, and some choice of unmolassed sugarbeet, alfa oil or TS conditioning cubes, all cereal grain and molasses free.

The others I'd just keep an eye on for condition, and add hard feed as for the yearlings if they drop off - although I do like mine (all breeding or non-working stock, not in work) to loose weight over the winter to start the spring with scope to put some on when the grass comes without getting too fat.

[sbloom]

Just keep everything really low starch - you often have to call the makers to find out the levels, below 10% combined starch and sugar is a good low level - and then concentrate on forage based feeds for all, add something high oil like linseed for any doing poorly, and use a supplement or balancer to ensure adequate vitamins and minerals. Good doers will only need a balancer and this means you dont' have to feed anything else, and it keeps the feeds small and quick to eat for ponies out 24/7. Make sure the balancer is a low energy one like Lo-Cal

[gilly]

another vote for simple system

[nici]

When ours need feeding they are fed a balancer, alfalfa (either alfa oil or alfa lite depending on their requirements) , linseed lozenges and speedibeet (which is unmolassed). Fibre, protein, oil. No sugar, no cereals.

In winter anything not working normally lives on hay/haylage alone, working ponies get a feed based on the above if they need it.However the past few winters we've had a long period when the most any pony did was the occasional rug ride around the field, so we didn't bother with bucket feeds.

This winter we will have our yearling C, so he will be fed through the winter, based on the ingredients above, depending on his requirements. We won't be fattening him up, but as a growing youngster our hay (we have a good supply of 2yo hay, which is ideal for our little natives) probably won't be enough for him on its own.

All ours live out, but we generally run out of grass before the end of October and don't have anything worth mentioning again til April.

[maisie23]

i have a 25 yr old exracer and a 2yr old section D
we use surgrow - it provides all the vitamins and minerals for anything and everything, have really kept the condition on the old lady with out making the D fat. its basically just a balancer that is pretty cheap along with a chaff of some type (personal choice really)