Posted 2008-05-05 4:01 PM (#83198) Subject: feed: too little, enough, too much?
Member
Posts: 25 Location: Southern Illinois
Even being the newbie that I am, I feel pretty confident that we're not too far off with how we're feeding our yearling. Especially when you consider how sociable and cooperative (mostly) and playful she is. However, I'd rather be proven wrong than do her a disservice. In that spirit, here's how we're feeding and working her:
Sassy‘s probably a bit over 700lbs. Her stable is on a half-acre. (We knew we'd likely be feeding her grain/hay year-round and we're good with that.) The grazing is only fair, but improving with the bluegrass we seeded this spring. She also has a pretty rich ¼ acre lot in front of our house: we rotate her there in the evenings for a few hours to try to give her “paddock” a little break. From time to time my wife ties her out elsewhere, wherever there happens to be some good grass. Sometimes we put her on the (kindly and helpful) neighbor's 5-acre pasture for the evening just for a change of pace. That’s her forage situation. Every morning and evening she gets 2.5 pounds of a half and half mix of youth feed and sweet feed. Right now she is taking maybe one flake of alfalfa during the day and one overnight, but she never empties the feeder, and some nights she hardly touches it. This particular batch of alfalfa is pretty stemmy stuff and not all that great, frankly. Finally, my wife gives her the occasional handful of alfalfa cubes, but not every day. She gets worked for at least an hour every other evening during the week; more than that on Saturdays and Sundays.
If we are over-feeding her or under-feeding her or should change the mix somehow, I'd value your suggestions. Thanks!
Posted 2008-05-05 5:46 PM (#83205 - in reply to #83198) Subject: RE: feed: too little, enough, too much?
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 378 Location: Nebraska
IMHO you should buy a weight tape and measure your horse once a week for a weight check, you'll be +/- 25# but you'll be close enough. Go out and buy a feed brand ( Purina, Nutrena, Country Supply or some other feed company brand) and follow their feeding instructions for your class of horse. Find out what the quailty of your hay is and you should be ok. As your horse grows it will need more feed (ie this month you may be feeding 1#. if your horse puts on 1.5#/day you may have to feed 1.25# of feed next month) until your horse gets out of the growing class. Feeding young growing horses can be complicated and not really for a beginner. good luck
feed: too little, enough, too much?
