She’s sharing but does get more becayse she bullies him out. But I’ll increase her hay as well. I can’t split the dry lot but she defintely gets the majority. They get 50lbs plus a day between the two, 25 a feeding.
I currently feed my mare LMF Super G (about 1.5 lbs) and LMF Senior Low Carb-Low Sugar (about 4 lbs currently - this will vary depending on how well she’s maintaining weight and her work load). She always slims down in fall heading into winter, regardless of work schedule, hay fed, etc. I’m on the eastern side of the state, so winters can be very cold and windy (last winter was brutal). She did fabulous on this and I really liked the combo. She’s also fed grass hay, all 4 cuttings, 3 to 4 times a day.
I’ll keep that in mind, we’re trying out the Enrich Plus, she’s getting 2lbs a day and added grazing in the evenings. I’m going to measure her out again and take a good look at her this weekend after a week on this and see if we need more or if she’s headed the right way. Eastern Wa is where she’s from, central actually but the hay there is better and cheaper. Getting that hay here is a pocket book breaker for me.
How much does/should the other one weigh?
FWIW, I feed about an average of 30lb/horse/day when hay is the majority of their forage, just Winter grass nibbles, and my heaviest is not quite 1500lb.
The 1500lb+ horse should be getting at least 30lb/day
Oh wow, you’re right though, 2% of her size is at least 30lbs. I was reading most suggested as 15 to 20 lbs average horse size and adding a bit for her extra size but not enough. She likely gets a bit more than 25 as she’s the boss lady and I dont spread it out mucg in hopes of her getting more and him getting less The gelding weighs around 1300 right now but havent measured him in a minute so I’m guessing. He should be about 1200, maybe even 1100. I may eventually have to split them up. Thinking about letting her get more, or even full time pasture again since the grass is up, or doing 12hrs pasture together, the gelding with a grazing muzzle.
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Might just be easier to get an x-large hay feeder and just keep it full.
Unfortunately the gelding doesnt need that much and no way to keep a laege hay feeder dry in western washington. I have a round bale feeder but no cover big enough for it and roundbales get so wet we lose a lot of it to waste. I’ll increase their hay too. Right now theyre not wasting any but are eating most of the time.
Thanks for all the suggestions. Just figuring out how to feed 2 horses with different needs, have only had the one for so long and he’s so easy I hadnt thought adding one who was an “easy keeper” too would be hard. She’s not as easy as expected but we’ll work it out.
They do make round bale feeders with a top that will cover part of the horse too ( i have seen them), But they might be homemade though.
Easiest thing I have found to do with a hard keeper in with the easy keepers is have a separate place to feed overnight. I made a large paddock off my foaling stall and that solved the problem for me. Kept feed dry and allowed her to be out when she wanted and plenty of hay when she wanted.
You will figure something out.
Yeah, it’s currently raining sideways and the ground is soaked. I have considered those but dont see how they’d stay dry in our weather. Everything is wet. We’ll figure something out. I’m going to see how she looks this weekend, when the weather calms down so I can take blankets off, and see if she’s gained with the changes we’ve made already.
Hello again, So after all this time Jitterbug has been on a few different feeding programs.
First I upped her hay to free choice and Enrich plus for her size. Still not gaining.
I then switched hay providers to a higher quality nice green grass hay (not analyzed but it is top notch hay for the area I’m in, very soft, blue green and they eat it up like crazy and affordable) still free choice and continued the Enrich Plus.
After not seeing the gains I’d like I switched her from Enrich to Haystack Special Blend starting at the maintenance and working up now to 9lbs a day over a couple months, split them into their own pens, still free choice grass hay, and Horsegaurd vitamin/mineral supplement and she is finally looking pretty good, still a little lighter than I’d like.
Unfortunately my farrier was out today, he comes out every 6 weeks, and said she had a bit of a bloody white line, not bad, not painful, not full out founder but a bit of separation and blood. He recommended decreasing her Haystack and switching to something with a lower NSC. She’s on timothy at the moment, literally since yesterday, because I ran out and couldn’t get to my normal hay provider he said that’s no good too and recommended having my hay analyzed, or seeing if they do, and a few other suggestions such as Chaffehaye (out of my budget), Vetch hay, (also out), reducing her Haystack and adding Supper Supplement (possibility). I started by reducing her Haystack today, she is finally looking pretty good and maybe she’ll maintain on a lesser amount.The problem is I thought Haystack had a low NSC, she’s getting a lot yes but less than/the low end for weight gain for her size. I wonder if it’s the feed at al and is rather just her feet getting to a different angle (they were in terrible shape when I got her) and being in the wet environment (her pen is 1/3 mud and 2/3 not mud and they both stand in the wet areas of their pens). Or a week or two ago they both got into a bag of Enrich Plus and ate between them far too much, about 15lbs, though I think he got more. Neither has shown any issue since that event but maybe it caused some inflammation/separation in her feet. I’m really not sure what to do. Guess I’m going to decrease her feed and see if she maintains. Another month or 2 and she’ll be on grass again and has never had an issue with that.
Any suggestions?
How long after starting the HSB did the farrier see these thing?
HSB is starch + sugar = 12%, and even if you add in fructans it’s 14.5%, so not high.
HSB is fine for what it is, but it’s not very well fortified, nothing at all like any ration balancer, so you lost a lot of nutrients in that switch.
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He saw her Dec 11th and she’s been on it since something like November and didn’t see anything then she’s since been increased again slowly though and he saw her today. She’s on Horsegaurd vitamin/mineral too so should be getting all her traces and vitamins. I just wasnt seeing any benefit in the ration balancer alone. I still have my gelding in it but he doesn’t really seem any different than every other year he’s been on just hay.
Would the horses getting into the bag of Enrich Plus possibly cause this?
That’s what I thought but he seemed to think it was more over time
She does look better.
Have you consulted your vet about them getting into the Enrich and asked if that could have affected the feet at all?
I don’t know for sure if it is suitable , but have you looked at Purina StrategyGX? It has higher protein and it says controlled low sugar/ starch although it doesn’t say what the total is.
I do know I used this feed ( at my vets recommendation) to rehab a severely underweight 21 year old TB broodmare I adopted years ago and she did real well. If you have a Purina dealer close it might be worth getting more info.
No I just watched them. Laminitis is always a possibility but I monitored closely and they had no outward issues, no heat, no pulse issues, no lameness, no stance changes etc. I really am not sure she even got much, my gelding is the cow lol he’s been fine too. He likely got most if not all of it. About 15lbs was my guess, some on the ground still so +/-.
I don’t know anything about nsc, done a little research but her feeds seem pretty low really. I used to feed strategy g to other horses but it was the hay content and fats I liked about the Haystack. She’s never foundered before, been overweight on high quality timothy and very good grass her whole life. It’s so weird it would be from the feed I think.
Well, she didn’t founder. I contacted my friend who is the tech for my equine vet the night before I freaked out and called them because Bug was dead lame. Explained everything, showed her a video and said I was going to call in the morning but wanted to gives her Banamine to get through the night. My friend said she thought she had an abscess. Duh, she’s done this before last summer and I’d have thought the same had my farrier not said something. A few epsom salt soaks and she blew an abscess out the same area as last summer. (Was top of a crack blown at the cornary band then, now top of that same crack which is half way grown down her hoof.) A week off and she’s completely sound today. Still not sure about the blood, i think it’s just bruising from her hooves being so bad when we got her and growing out now.
