Regarding my my 9 month old who is a very big weanling, bigged boned, tall (14.2), butt high and fast growing and having some stifle issues in back leg. I was told to not feed alfalfa or grass alfalfa hay being he will choose to eat all the alfalfa first so he will just be essential on alfalfa hay. I just started him on purina enrich plus ration balancer. I just put out a grass round bale. But I feel it’s not that great of quality. It isn’t moldy it’s somewhat green but I feel it’s not the best, seems course but I could be wrong. Will the balancer that he is started on replace the lower quality hay that I believe he got? I can’t take the bale out now bc the net wrap is off and it would just make a complete mess. Wondering if he will be fine being he is getting a ration balancer or if I should add alfalfa grass once a day along with the 32% ration balancer!? I don’t want to over do it bc he is fast growing. Thanks!
He’ll be fine on the ration balancer and grass hay, but I would add some alfalfa to breakfast and dinner if possible. No, even my super picky pony cleans up his Alfalfa/Orchard mix. Maybe a flake in the AM and a flake in the PM and see where he is weight wise. You don’t want him getting heavy and slightly ribby is preferred to fat. Stresses the joints too much before they are ready to carry the weight.
How much ration balancer are you feeding him? You can also get great advice on the breeding subforum of coth with some very knowledgeable breeders.
He only gets fed once a day. The ration balancer is only 2 lbs a day. But I can add some alfalfa pellets to it. I just don’t want to add much bc the ration balancer is 32% protein designed to feed with grass hay or grass pasture.
How a given horse chooses to eat a mixed hay is up to him. Up to about 20% alfalfa in a mix, or fed as 2 separate hays, is a great blend. If you have a quality 20%-ish alfalfa-grass mix hay available, give it a try. If not, straight grass hay is fine.
I just started him on purina enrich plus ration balancer. I just put out a grass round bale. But I feel it’s not that great of quality. It isn’t moldy it’s somewhat green but I feel it’s not the best, seems course but I could be wrong.
Unless it’s obviously overly-mature (and it sounds like you might not know what that looks like), then you need to test to know it’s nutrient content, and it’s digestibility and palatability. You can’t tell by looking at a given hay what those are.
Will the balancer that he is started on replace the lower quality hay that I believe he got?
It all depends on the quality of the hay, The 2-3lb of the balancer that’s appropriate for his age may or may not be enough to make up for the hay. Unless the hay is really just poor quality, it likely is fine.
I can’t take the bale out now bc the net wrap is off and it would just make a complete mess. Wondering if he will be fine being he is getting a ration balancer or if I should add alfalfa grass once a day along with the 32% ration balancer!? I don’t want to over do it bc he is fast growing. Thanks!
If you keep his weight on the lean side - feel a few ribs easily, even see them a little bit, then his weight is fine, and he won’t be consuming enough energy/calories to grow too fast.
One of the worst mistakes people make sacrificing nutrition for the sake of keeping calories low. Growing horses MUST have high nutrition to develop properly. That can be done while keeping them lean.
The alfalfa grass mix is about 70-30 alfalfa. Tested at 23%
IMHO 70% alfalfa is too high for a horse that young.
Yes which is why I opted to feed the grass bale instead. But didn’t know if quality would be a huge factor being he is getting a ration balancer. I tested the hay from the field last year but I can’t find the results. I called heblady that got rested it for me and I’m eating to see if she can find hay test and email me it again. But I wouldn’t say it is horrible quality but didn’t know for an fast growing weanling if needs to be better or more fine etc.
For sure, without knowing the analysis, you don’t know. But most likely, with 2-3lb of the RB, he’s covered. If it’s really poor quality, he’s likely to be reluctant to eat a lot of it, so if he’s eating it well, it’s probably quite good enough 
