What do you feed your Appy Yearling?

[Jealoushe]

I have a just turned yearling reg’d Appaloosa gelding. He is about 14.2 now (pretty big), with a big ol’ Appy bum. I have just been giving him a handful of roughage chunks AM/PM. I have had Appies all my life but we had 2 (brother and sister) that foundered severely when they were both 6/7. One recovered and the other never has.

I want to make sure my guy is getting enough of what he needs but am worried about over feeding.

He is on pasture and gets about 2 big flakes of Timothy at night. He isn’t fat but he definitely isn’t thin and I can’t decide if he is eating too much or that is just his Appy size.

What do you think?

[AliCat518]

Might want to put this into the Horse Care forum instead of Western

[SuckerForHorses]

IMO, too many people OVER-feed. I like to keep it as simple and “natural” as possible.

If he is on good pasture, I might consider a ration balancer if you are in an area where specific vitamins or minerals are not prevalent. I am in VT and we are Vit E and Selenium deficient here. I feed Poulin MVP to both horses. They are on full grass pasture as soon as I can get them on it in the spring, and they stay on it all summer long. We have enough land that we never run out of grass.

In the winter, the gelding is a stocky cutting bred QH. He gets the ration balancer and (almost) unlimited timothy/grass hay. My 20 y.o. Arabian mare gets Triple Crown Senior, and alfalfa cube mash, and also (almost) unlimited timothy/grass hay.

If he is getting enough vitamins and minerals, and protein (whcih the ration balancer should help with), I would stick to basics. It may change once he is getting into training, but I would cross that bridge when you get there.

They alll go through those gangly, look-too-thin stages, but if you know he is getting adequate feed of good quality, there really is nothing you can do but let him keep growing on his own!

[SuckerForHorses]

Also, is he on pasture where he has grass all the time? If so, why feed additional hay?

[Jealoushe]

He is turned out from 6 am - 6 pm, then comes in at night with my other two horses.

He looks really good, as do my other two horses (one is a very hard keeper) and they are just on pasture, hay, and roughage chunks/fat n fibre. I have only ever had yearlings boarded at my parents for weaning and what not but they were all Thoroughbred crosses.

I think their pasture is pretty healthy but since I just moved I will have to wait it out a bit more into the summer to see if they need any additional vitamins etc.

[candyappy]

I am not familiar with your " roughage chunks". If they are getting pasture and hay and look good I would leave it at that. Hay and grass are roughage so feeding extra seems wasteful to me. Salt and a mineral block are good to offer at all times. If summer comes and they need extra then I would feed good hay and not grain- if possible .

[Jealoushe]

Here they are;

http://www.agripurina.ca/Screens/RChunks.aspx

Specs;

http://www.agripurina.ca/Documents/Equine/Fact%20Sheets/Roughage%20Chunks.pdf

He gets a handful AM/PM.