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What should I feed my 5 year old Irish Cob?

Clare writes:

I have just bought a 5 year old Irish Cob who is perfect in every way but there's one problem, he's very fat. He lived out all last Winter with no rug and I am not sure what I shoud be feeding him now I am going to be doing a lot of work on him. He's not greedy with his food, he has 4 slices of hay a day and lives out at night but in the day the grass isn't of very good quality so I am not sure. Please help me work out a suitable diet.

Mmany thanks Clare.

Isabel Stewart, Technical Assistant at Spillers gives Clare some advice.

Dear Clare Thankyou for your enquiry, as your horse is overweight at present it would be important to try and reduce his weight before you start to feed any hard feed. There are two ways in which you can help him to lose some weight firstly with exercise and secondly by close dietary management.

Dietary management can include feeding a forage only diet fed on a basis of 1.5% bodyweight. I estimate that your horse may weigh around 550kg which would mean that you would need to be feeding about 8kg of forage each day. At present you are feeding 4 slices of hay which as each slice of hay weighs approximately 2 kg is roughly the correct amount of forage for your horse.

If you do find that he still is not loosing weight you may like to add some good quality straw to his ration instead of hay to provide an adequate level of fibre but with less calories. When just feeding forage it is important to include a vitamin and mineral supplement such as Equivite Supplement to ensure your horse receives the correct amount of vitamins and minerals each day.

Once you have reduced his weight you may wish to feed a hard feed to support any additional work he may be doing. I would presume he is a good doer it is therefore important to feed him a low calorie diet such as Spillers High Fibre Cubes, these are a low calorie feed perfect for good doers.

You would probably need to feed less then the recommended amount of the feed and it will therefore be important to add a vitamin and mineral supplement such as Equivite Supplement to ensure he gets his correct amounts of vitamins and minerals each day. If you require any further information on putting together a ration for him please do not hesitate to contact our helpline on 01908 226626.

Isabel Stewart (BSc) Technical Assistant Spillers Feeds

www.spillers-feeds.com