Ozzie is very lively at the moment and his responses tend to be fairly dramatic & energetic! He is a 5 year old Forester (14.2 hh) who is still growing - out all day and in at night. He's ridden fairly gently about 4 times a week.

Question: What would you you feed him?

Mx

Does he really need much Mandy? Personally, I use a unmolasssed chaff, cool/country mix/nuts and some soya oil.

What's he having at the moment?

Same as you suggest Claire (but without the oil). He gets hay at night as well. In fact, he lives on very little to be honest!

Maybe his energy is just the spring grass coming through? (It's about 14 years ago that my old pony was the same age so I can't remember what he was like at 5.)

Mx

At this time of year especially, I'd just stick to hay and chaff/alfa with oil added.........would drop any cubes or mixes altogether, especially if he is in good conition anyway Would perhaps consder adding a feed balancer like blue chip or similar to his feed too!

I have only ever fed a youngstock mix when young - then when over 2, hi-fi lite with a bit of grated interest (carrot or apple) through it to give taste (fussy peanuts) and oil/supplements/garlic in thes spring/summer.

The great thing about natives is they can truly live on fresh air.

I did consider lo-cal balancer, i looked up on it and it's fed in small quantities and has vit/mins needed. Baileys i think it is.

The feed companies are great for advice if you feel you need it.

Do you lunge/long reign Oz at all? Maybe it's worth considering that to get the spring out of his step so to speak?

Hugs, Jane and the boys.

Jane...........it is a bit of a sweeping statement to say that natives can live on fresh air...........it is quite often the case and i think some people are misguided in thinking that they can get a forester and not ever bother to feed it and just stick it in a field!!
Having 5 natives, I can assure you that some of mine do eat a large quantity of hard feed over winter and do in fact still have hard feed in the summer too!
I think it is important to understand that they are not all the same, in fact, some people struggle to maintain weight on their natives and of course, some are in a heavier workload than others as well!!

Sorry, it is a bug bear of mine that people make such generalisations as sometimes it is to the detriment of the ponies when people think they just dont need to bother with them as they are hardy little souls!!!!

Of course, i am not saying that you dont bother with yours at all, it is obvious that you do, but you may be influencing other, less knowlegeable people, to buy a forester as it doesnt need to be fed!

Yup, I agree with Cheryl. Tally (dartmoor) gets a huge amount of feed each day. OK, he's in his twenties now, but I've always had to feed him, he's never been a good doer. When I was showing him he got even more feed to keep him in show condition And one of my dartmoor mares was the same. My 15.2 PBA used to get less feed than Tally!

Although Tibby and Luna have gone through the whole winter without being fed (they had hay), I'm actually giving them small feeds now because Luna has dropped off in the last month with this funny weather

Mandy, why not try Ozzie on Happy Hoof? He shouldn't need any extra supplements with that. If you find it's not enough for the work he's doing, then you can add a handful of the mix/nuts you're giving him now.

if your worried his feed might be making him excitable i would cut out the hard feed and bulk him up with lots of hay, and if he needs more weight then feed balancer and oil.

i think jane is right generally, but i think new forests dont seem as good a doers as other natives. but i know what you mean about some natives, ive only had tb's before my nf foal and i thought he wouldnt need much food, so i put him out at grass with a tiny amount of feed balancer per day, but he started to lose weight, so now he has about 1/4 bale per day, grass all day too and about 1kg suregrow per day (recommended amount)and oil,.

remember you can feed lots of oil if you need to for weight and due to the way its broken down it cant make them excitable.

Sorry, i suppose it is a sweeping statement. In general they can live on grass perm, but if we work them then we compensate for that.

Peanuts and Thunder are certainly very different though thunder is still young.

Peanuts could literally lives on thin air! lol any feed and he bulks up. When stabled he had to be on shavings as he ate his bed. I did of course give hay, but he had hi-fi and supplements as said above, literally enough to make him feel like he'd had a feed or else we were in trouble. In the summer we were always working against his weight and i expect the same this year, though he is working harder now of course. so it may be slightly different.

Thunder, as you know is only 2, so growing. He bulked up on hard feed last year, but needed to - there was a fine line between him being nicely covered and looking a little plump to be honest. He hasn't struggled over winter and it's only the last couple of months that they've looked like they're at a right weight. Although as said on another thread i've allowed Thunder to be a little leaner this spring as he won't be 'worked' though will do a little walking in hand.

I currently use suregrow with thunder, but feel that's too high in calories etc for Dom and Peanuts. And am easing it off a little at the moment due to spring grass coming through so he'll be on less.

Dom's owner instructed he shouldn't have hard feed at all, so that is what i do, he has a handful of hi-fi lite when he's been ridden, just to say thank you (as with all of mine they get a treat over the fence once turned out nicely too).

So.. you are right they do vary and with all horses workload is a big part of it. I do feel that i've had great advice from feed companies (dengie and baileys) so that's why i recommended calling them. With both peanuts and thunder i've managed to feed them correctly from the start, which was an issue with peanuts being SO thin. They were impartial and helpful in that i was feeding two when it came to thunder. They even sent weight charts, measuring tapes, cups etc to help me keep track of their progress.

Hugs, Jane and the boys.

jane did they send you that stuff for free? was that baileys?

Merlin, my two mini shetlands little bee and jo-jo and sky the boulonnais all live out all year round without rugs but have access to 3 stables and a shelter.

I feed them all the same but obviously different quantities,in the winter they have happy hoof, cider vinegar, garlic and speedy beet with plenty of hay i also add some natural remedies such has dried nettle and rosehip tea.

In the summer i move fields and they all have grass.

Sammy, yes, I explained with both boys they were young, under weight. With Thunder i already had peanuts on hi-fi lite, and they advised normal hi-fi, when i said i was using hi-fi lite for another pony they re-jigged the advice around the hi-fi lite as the base of the feed.

As said got a weigh tape, a chart, a measuring cup etc and was told I could ring back when up to weight and if needed advice on the way.

I must admit after a while i went with what i wanted, but it was nice to know the different feed and what was 'safe' for Thunder.

Initially with peanuts i followed it to the T as he was SO bad, he didn't gain for a few weeks but vet said this was due to the switch over in his body from not getting anything to getting all he needed. It basically came out the other end for the first few weeks.

Neither of them got hot feet or any bruising etc as monitored them closely.

Hugs, Jane and the boys.

as you have seen my boys and i'm assuming you thought they looked well..?...

i feed them Safe and Sound, soya oil and in the winter, ie from the 3rd week in october to the last week in march..Fibre Beet.

and thats it...

be they 6 months from the sales or 4 yr olds...

I forgot about that one Faye. I had both my "porkers" on safe and sound. It's a good general feed for the fatties.

Porker! Porker!!! Poor Lady, she'll cry when I tell her that tomorrow...

Mandy, what I feed my lot in winter, who are good doers - 1/2 stubbs round scoop of chaff (D&H Fibergy, lowest sugar one I could find), 1/4 (same scoop) of Spillers High Fibre cubes. 1 cup of Blue Chip Lami Light. Once a day. Plus 4kg hay. This feed evolved due to Cavalier's intolerance to sugar/molasses and these were the feeds that he could tolerate without going loopy. As low sugar can't really be bad for them, I've stuck with it ever since. It turned out the Happy Hoof was what was really sending him round the bend.

What the tubbies are getting now is absolutely minimal, (those who saw them at the show yesterday know that neither are very slimline at the moment) is a 1/4 scoop of fibergy, 2 handfuls of nuts and the cup of Blue Chip Lami light. Oh and 3kg of hay each per night. They are also on restricted grazing whilst they are out during the day. Feed will need to be cut down further the way they are doing...

The problem with Lady was that when she was in foal, I couldn't tell how much condition she was carrying was foal or fat. Turned out to be fat!!

I bet she's already getting the bits of grass under the fencing.

Oh Yes! (that reminds me the battery's nearly flat, I must bring it home for charging)

Thanks for all your ideas ladies.

Ozzie is currently on Spillars pony nuts (non-heating) and Dengi Hi-Fi Good-Doer and carrots. So nothing really to fizz him up there, but we have reduced the rations considerably.

Also, he's going out 24/7 next week so that should take the sparkle out of his feet! Although I'm going to have to watch his grass intake as it's pretty good at our yard.

I've been in touch with several of the feed companies with Ozzie's details and asked for recommendations from them - so it'll be interesting to see what they come back with.

Mx

Sounds like you have it all in hand and as you say being out will take some sparkle away

Hope you are healing well ((hugs))

Hugs, Jane and the boys.

My 5 yr old forester has now got a spring in his step - completely transformed from being laid back to sparkley -it is quite cute - he lives out 24/7 all year -just cut down his hard feed from 1/2 to 1/4 scoop of bailey meadowsweet so he can have his supplements.

Spillers have e-mailed me to recommend for Ozzie a feed called "WINERGY Equilibrium® Low energy" which is a complete feed based on fibres and oils for over-fizzy ponies and may reduce the risk of food based laminitis too. (That's interesting because I thought they would have suggested Happy Hoof which is also one of their products). They gave quite a lot of info about the feed and the reason for their recommendation which was easy to understand (a very good reply).

I'm waiting for replies from Baileys and Dodson & Horrell and will let you know what they say in due course.

Mx

Dodson & Horrell came back to me today to say that what I was feeding Ozzie was in their opinion correct (ie high fibre & oil based) but that they would suggest a change from Spillers high fibre nuts to their own. No surprises there then!

Mx