I have posted this in Horse Care as well, but I know that there are some super knowledgeable pony breeders in this forum whose opinions I respect so I thought I’d post here as well.
I know how to feed small ponies and I know how to feed sport horses, whether they be easy keeper WBs or hard keeper TBs. I also know how to feed easy keeper, large lesson ponies. However, I feel that I am not doing a good job feeding a large, easy keeper Pony Jumper pony.
Pony is built like a short TB but she’s an easy keeper. We bed with straw but she has to be bedded with shavings because she’ll eat the straw and get fat. Currently she gets almost free choice mostly orchard grass/some timothy hay and a generous handful of 11%, hi fat (10%) pellets to hide her supplements (pellets 2x per day). She could maintain good weight on just the hay but I feel like she needs to have more protein, fatty acids and vit/mins in order to do her job.
My choices are changing her grain or adding a supplement to top dress her grain that is high in protein and has fatty acids and vit/min. (She has been getting a supplement that is high in the omega fatty acids but her coat is still blah.) My vet is coming out on Fri and I will talk to her but I thought I’d get the input of the wise ones on COTH as well.
Thanks.
