Bailey's No 4

[pinkpolo]

Does anyone feed this soaked? And what do you feed it with?

I'm feeding it with Alfa oil but was wondering whether to add a balancer. Pony is a very poor doer 😕 She gets plenty of haylage, the fields have hardly any grass.

I was using it. You don't need to soak the nuts and it's a complete feed so you don't need balancer. I originally mixed it with speedibeet and alfa-a oil chaff but soon cut out the speedibeet. I've just switched from #4 to Spillers slow release energy cubes as my horse was getting a bit excitable and #4 has high starch content. Also added a mug of micronised linseed per feed and the weight is finally improving.

I switched to Top Spec Comprehensive Balancer plus their cool condition cubes, plus linseed, as horse went a bit stupid on no 4. He's holding his weight pretty well plus is very shiny and calm!

the only downside is that it is very ££££

Thanks for the replies, some really useful info!

I'm worried now about no 4 fizzing her up. She's sensitive enough already 😂

My physio doesn't believe in 'fizzing up'. She says that's the horses natural way of going but if they weren't fizzy before they weren't getting enough food!

however my horse went absolutely loopy when we gave him alfa a oil chaff so he now only has grass based chaff!

We fed Top Spec Cool Conditioning Cubes which seem to do the job for our Native workers (which are in work but not ridden every day).

We mix with Alfa Oil and a little water to mix in. They get this twice a day - in the evening feed we add a good portion of (soaked) speedibeet.

If the pony is a ‘poor doer’, have you considered ulcers? Not saying she does have them but struggling to keep weight on is one of the many signs. We now feed forage-based feed only with a balancer called ‘Equinox’ (online only and contains yeast (not brewers’ yeast)). No soya, wheat, barley and low sugar. I do feed micronised linseed. The chaff we use is Agrobs (mash and/or musli) and we also feed Speedibeet (low sugar). She also gets salt and a little added pure magnesium. I don’t feed haylage, just ad-lib hay.
The mare has maintained her weight on 2 feeds a day, is in full work and we have no fizziness issues. (This mare was diagnosed with Grade 2-3 ulcers last summer after being scoped).

I hadn't thought of this, thanks for the advice!

Pony is a rescue and came to us in a sorry state. We got her sorted last year and she's now up to date with all jabs/worming/feet/back etc. However she was living out over Christmas and dropped so much weight. I actually suspect the person I was paying to feed her actually wasn't 😡 She's now back on a livery yard.

I'm open to any suggestions re feed for weight gain without heating her up!

Will definitely look into scoping for ulcers.

I think the cost is around £300. Ulcers are far more common than first thought - something like 40-60% of leisure horses have them.

Also, just a thought, have you done a tapeworm test?

It will do the pony no harm to come off any cereal based feed though and just have low sugar forage. I really do recommend Equinox - they do a weight gain one too. One 5kg container has lasted me 5 months. But you might find that once the grass comes through the pony will put weight on a bit. The first year you have them it’s usually a bit of trial and error before you find a regime that suits. Wishing you all the best and glad the pony has found someone like you!