Feed Gurus I Need Your Help!! Ration balancers, grain, and air plant ponies ....

[Libby416]

I have a 10 yr old, 16.1 h Hanoverian mare who has always been a bit on the hefty side. I’ve been pretty good at maintaining her weight and keeping it consistent thus far, but I’m super nervous about her being too big. She’s a hunter, and is big boned by nature, but I worry about her joints and hooves and everything else really when it comes to her weight.

She’s currently on ¼ of a scoop AM and PM of Seminole Wellness Perform Safe, has free choice Timothy hay all day (in a slow feeder haynet), and is on grass at night.

Now I know the grain isn’t per her weight, so I was thinking of adding a ration balancer, Seminoles Equilizer, as a top dressing.

I guess my question is, is this a good plan of action? Is there a better quality, lower protein ration balancer out there that I should also look at?

What have you guys done for your air plant ponies that are in moderate work?

[walkers]

You are over feeding this horse. Stop before she founders, get some advice from your vet,

[Palm_Beach]

OP, I agree that big horses who are in work do have an increased soundness risk. Any idea of the volume or weight of the 1/4 scoop of concentrate she is presently getting? If you are feeding way less than the instructions on the bag, there is a possibility that she is not getting the minimum RDAs of some nutrients. Has the hay been tested? Any ideas of how the soil is in your area?

I like how she has access to forage all the time. My fatties get slow feed nets and muzzles if necessary, but have something in front of them all the time. About 18 months ago I switched from Triple Crown 30% ration balancer to Triple Crown Lite. The products are similar in that you feed small amounts, but the Lite is much lower in protein. My fatties were just too beefy on the TC30. I honestly really like the Lite much better for easy keepers - they look fabulous with nice rich velvety looking coats right now despite shedding and being kind of “in between” summer and winter coats.

[stb]

I would definitely stop with the feed and switch to a ration balancer or TC Lite. Seminole’s Equalizer is nice. Don’t worry about the high protein because you are only going to feed a pound to a pound and a half a day (depending on size of horse).

[stb]

If you really need to cut back calories you can do what I do with my wanna-be-fat boy. He gets a couple of cups of soaked beet pulp with High Point Grass balancer for vitamins and minerals.

[tazycat]

Doesn’t need grain or RB. Put out loose mineral thats all a fat horse needs. If he’s fat in moderate work he needs nothing for hard feed.

RBs make horses fat also if an easy keeper.

[Texarkana]

My fatty WB does really well on High Point Grass vit/min supplement + nutramino (for amino acids) mixed into some soaked hay cubes or pellets.

Less convenient than a ration balancer, but it allows me more control over excess calories while maintaining nutrition. She tends to stay too fat on even 1lb of ration balancer.

[Laurierace]

Progressive Nutrition makes a product called Pro Ad that would be ideal in your situation.

[Libby416]

@Palm Beach

OP, I agree that big horses who are in work do have an increased soundness risk. Any idea of the volume or weight of the 1/4 scoop of concentrate she is presently getting? If you are feeding way less than the instructions on the bag, there is a possibility that she is not getting the minimum RDAs of some nutrients. Has the hay been tested? Any ideas of how the soil is in your area?

I like how she has access to forage all the time. My fatties get slow feed nets and muzzles if necessary, but have something in front of them all the time. About 18 months ago I switched from Triple Crown 30% ration balancer to Triple Crown Lite. The products are similar in that you feed small amounts, but the Lite is much lower in protein. My fatties were just too beefy on the TC30. I honestly really like the Lite much better for easy keepers - they look fabulous with nice rich velvety looking coats right now despite shedding and being kind of “in between” summer and winter coats.

Should have included it in my original post, her grain measures up to barely 2 lbs a day. The soil here, south Florida, is pretty sandy, with no real nutrients. Hay has not been tested.

While she is hefty, I should have been more specific, she doesn’t have fat pockets or a super cresty neck. My vet always comments on how good she looks, this is purely because I am nervous about her gaining any more weight or not having the correct vitamins/minerals per her weight since I don’t feed her per her weight on the feed bag.

Im nervous going to a straight ration balancer because of the high protein (32% compared to the 12% in her current feed) but I was thinking a top dressing of it would be best?

[Libby416]

@Laurierace

Progressive Nutrition makes a product called Pro Ad that would be ideal in your situation.

Thanks! I’ll definitely look into that!

[Libby416]

@Texarkana

My fatty WB does really well on High Point Grass vit/min supplement + nutramino (for amino acids) mixed into some soaked hay cubes or pellets.

Less convenient than a ration balancer, but it allows me more control over excess calories while maintaining nutrition. She tends to stay too fat on even 1lb of ration balancer.

Something to think about for sure.

[Jersey_Fresh]

@Libby416

Should have included it in my original post, her grain measures up to barely 2 lbs a day. The soil here, south Florida, is pretty sandy, with no real nutrients. Hay has not been tested.

While she is hefty, I should have been more specific, she doesn’t have fat pockets or a super cresty neck. My vet always comments on how good she looks, this is purely because I am nervous about her gaining any more weight or not having the correct vitamins/minerals per her weight since I don’t feed her per her weight on the feed bag.

Im nervous going to a straight ration balancer because of the high protein (32% compared to the 12% in her current feed) but I was thinking a top dressing of it would be best?

You can’t do a direct comparison of protein percentages because a ration balancer is designed to be fed at a much lower weight than a concentrate like your current feed.

For instance, if your RB Is 30% CP and you feed 0.45 kg (1 lb), your horse is getting 135g of CP. If you are feeding 0.91 kg (2 lbs) of your concentrate at 12% CP, then your horse is getting 110g CP. Not that different.

If you are worried about too much CP, I would just swap her current feed out for a RB as its essentially a treat or snack and not providing much in the way of meeting her requirements. A feed only provides enough if feed at the correct rate, at at 2lbs/d you are well below what they recommend (guessing as I have not looked at the feed tag).

[fordtraktor]

I agree I would totally ditch what you are using now and just use 1-2 lb Ration Balancer, or something like the Pro-Add. NOT a top dressing! she doesn’t need more calories. My easy keeper WB is on 2 lb of a Ration Balancer/day (I lb morning and night) and she’s in great weight.

You could also use 2 lb TC Lite which will reduce the amount of protein but still keep the nutritional profile.

[Scribbler]

Or you can just go to a vitamin/mineral supplement mixed in a cup of beet pulp or even soaked alfalfa cubes.

IME, too much good quality hay will make a horse put on weight. I know the best advice these days is for 24/7 access to forage, but it doesn’t necessarily work for all easy keepers.

[JB]

If she’s overweight, then I’d go with something like the HighPoint Grass, or Uckele’s Sporthorse Grass, and a handful of alfalfa pellets or beet pulp.

But if her weight is good, then use any ration balancer, and drop the feed you’re using now. You’ll get more nutrition, with fewer calories (not a huge amount less, but enough). She only needs 1lb, maybe 1.5.

Any ration balancer you can reliably get will be fine. Progressive is one of the most $$ ones in most areas. Triple Crown is better than Purina or Nutrena, IMHO, but truly, whatever one you can get is good.