Do you supplement your weanlings?

[JB]

@goodpony;5986361

This is going to sound like overkill but I feed a ration balancer, flax meal, brewers yeast as well as loose salt.

Not overkill at all, very different products with different goals, all of which can be very valid in a given situation (and probably a LOT of situations :))

When you have easy keeping ponies it is part rocket science to find a middle road—to provide what is necessary and required, without adding excess weight. I have also found that my Native Ponies have a very high natural requirement for vitamins/minerals—but very modest-low requirement for energy–even with the working ponies.[/QUOTE]

LOL, try it with a very large 17h “pony” LOL

[JB]

[QUOTE=camohn;5986634]
In case anyone is interested in Se…
http://tin.er.usgs.gov/geochem/doc/averages/se/usa.html

here where I live selinium levels are high.[/QUOTE]
Yep, but even then, for Se, you MUST test the horse, not the soil, not the hay, not the grass - the horse. I’m in a deficient area too, but my horses all test in the middle of the normal range

[Perfect_Pony]

@JB;5987367

Not overkill at all, very different products with different goals, all of which can be very valid in a given situation (and probably a LOT of situations :))

I feed nearly the same thing, I suspect that us on the west coast all work with the same nutritionist (who sometimes visits the COTH)

I am at a boarding barn so I cannot control the hay. I feed 2lbs of timothy pellets at lunch for consistency, 1lb of LMF super supplement , and add in Omega 3s, 2000IU natural vitamin e, loose salt, and tractguard (electrolytes, yeast, and calcium carbonate). The tractguard is the only thing I have found that helps regulate stools with the ever changing hay. I would love to add in alfalfa but every time I do she blows up like a balloon. Plus she eats the grass hay slowly, but devours the alfalfa.

We are very lucky to have Claire out here in California, she has helped so many horses and educated so many people

[goodpony]

This is actually the diet I had put together before meeting with Claire (who I have known personally for the last ten or so years :)) Still its great to have her on board–and answer all my niggling questions. My two weanlings have been raised on this diet—though both are coming two and I expect them to both slow down considerably in the vertical growth direction by the end of next season–which is very typical/normal for my breed. At that point Im thinking of switching them to a different product entirely (solid all around vitamin/mineral supplement) until they are ready to become working ponies–then we will address the diet again at that point. I will continue to add alfalfa pellets as a protein/CA source (at a rate of 2.5 kg/800 kg bodyweight) this currently works out to around 3lbs/day alfalfa per pony. This is only a tiny amount—and I have not found it to cause bloating. I have seen something like bloating with the LMF and other Soy Based Feeds (including Progressive Ultimate)–its not really bloating but more like water retention/lack of lean muscle development (among other things)—if that makes any since at all. I use LMF Super only on my open mares, and idle mature ponies—but not on my growing/working or in foal mares.

[Dutch]

I did test my horses for Se, and that is when I started supplementing.